Officers & Board Members
2025-2026 (as elected by UGAT Board Members on 13 December 2025)
Karminn Yañgot
Vice-President for Luzon
Karminn is a co-convenor of the Indigenous Studies Circle, a collective committed to rethinking dominant narratives of Indigeneity and forwarding accountable research with Indigenous communities in the Philippines today. Grounded in her standpoint as an Igorot woman, she works across anthropology and development studies to support Indigenous-led knowledge co-production. She occasionally shares public-facing content on learning with, by, and about Indigenous peoples via @indigena.ph. On the side, Karminn is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of the Philippines-Baguio.
Amiel Lopez
Vice-President for Mindanao
Amyel is a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at Ateneo de Davao University. For nearly a decade, he has been engaging with the Sama Dilaut/Bajaus in Davao City and across the Philippines, bridging research and praxis as the co-founder of DYESABEL Philippines. His research interests lie at the intersection of climate change, education, queerness, urbanity, maritime studies, and Sama-Bajau culture. Beyond academia, he enjoys singing and is learning the art of freediving— both in water and in life.
Doms Cordero
Secretary
Doms (she/they) is an aspiring gender scholar who finished their bachelor's degree in Anthropology at the University of the Philippines Diliman. She serves as National Convenor for PAMANA, a newly-founded network of Anthropology-based student organizations in the Philippines. Their current research projects are concerned with local notions of gender, sexuality, art, and reproductive health.
P.A. Echague
Treasurer
P.A. (she/her) is an early career researcher from Palawan who finished her Bachelor's degree in Anthropology at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Her research interests include studying notions and intersections of bodies, ecologies, and care. She works in multiple sites in her home province and Metro Manila, organizing community-based projects, and co-creating stories.
Gwyneth Vasquez
Board Member
Gwyneth Marie Vasquez is an Advanced Masters student in Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and an alumna of the Ateneo de Davao University’s BA Anthropology program. Her research focuses on the digital divide, ICTs, and development, with specific emphasis on Mindanao indigenous peoples’ encounters with commercial internet connectivity. Alongside her scholarly pursuits, she enjoys the company of nonhuman others—her cat, as well as the breathtaking ecologies of Mindanao and beyond.
Vincen Yu
Board Member
Vincen Gregory Yu is a PhD candidate of the Discipline of Anthropology, University of Sydney. He obtained his MD from University of the Philippines Manila in 2016 and MA (Research) in Anthropology from the University of Sydney in 2024. His MA thesis on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the Philippines has been awarded best thesis prizes by the Australian Anthropological Society (AAS) and the Association of Southeast Asian Studies (ASEAS). Presently he is also a research affiliate of the Department of Development Studies, Ateneo de Manila University.
Josef Adriel de Guzman
Board Member
Jad is a PhD student at the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include migration, food and culture, and archaeology. His current research focuses on the eating habits of Filipino Migrant Workers in Hong Kong with the goal of understanding how migration influences diet and eating cultures. He likes taking photos in his spare time and is always spoiling his three rescue cats - Sammy, Cutiepie, and Nori.
Janine Ochoa
Board Member
Janine is an archaeologist interested in past faunal communities and human ecology, specializing in zooarchaeology. She is an assistant professor at the Department of Anthropology at the University of the Philippines (Diliman). Janine is interested in investigating palaeoenvironments, biogeographic patterns, island evolution, and systems of indigenous ecological knowledge. She is currently studying fossil vertebrate assemblages from archaeological sites in Luzon and Palawan.
Yeoh Seng Guan
Board Member
Daniel SG Yeoh is Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at the School of Arts & Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia. He is an urban anthropologist who does fieldwork in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. His research focuses on the intersections between cities, religion, migration, and civil society in Southeast Asia. Daniel also makes ethnographic documentaries. He holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Kathryn Almira
Board Member
Kathryn Almira is a conservation worker whose experience spans Southeast Asia, including time as a journalist in Malaysia and as an eco-volunteer in Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary. Drawing on engaged anthropology and multispecies ethnography, she co-founded XALT Visual Ethnography Lab to design conservation and communication efforts that prioritize community needs and promote grassroots sustainable development.
Jessie Varquez
Ex-Oficio - Executive Director
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Jessie is a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of Manitoba in Canada. His research interests broadly fall within environmental anthropology, exploring the intersecting themes of livelihoods, food systems, and more-than-human relations. He currently conducts ethnographic fieldwork on Bantayan Island in central Philippines looking at human-dried fish relations. He has been active in UGAT, serving different roles, since 2009.
Christian Rosales
Board Member and
Ex-Oficio - Aghamtao Editor
Christian Rosales is the 2023 recipient of the PSSC Virginia A. Miralao Excellence in Research Award. He is the founder and president of Agricultural Training Providers, Inc (ATPROV), a multidisciplinary NGO dedicated to asserting traditional agricultural practices as viable methods of food production and sovereignty. He conducts fieldwork among Indigenous off-grid communities in Mindoro and writes on cosmopolitics, ontology, and anarchy.
Skilty Labastilla
Executive Committee Member
Skilty is Assistant Professor at Ateneo de Manila University’s Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Lecturer at the Sociology and Anthropology Department, and Research Associate at the Institute of Philippine Culture. Since 2001, he has been involved in policy research on governance, children and youth, gender and masculinities, and housing and informal settlements. His recent research deals with transdisciplinary collaboration in higher education.
Eli Guieb III
Executive Committee Member
Eli has research interests in political ecology, fisheries, marine protected areas, cultural studies, and the politics of representation. He teaches ethnography, development discourses, culture, identities, and qualitative research in the Department of Broadcast Communication and the Department of Graduate Studies of the College of Mass Communication in the U.P. Diliman.