Daniela Ancira

Co-Founder and CEO of La Cana, Mexico

La Cana is a social enterprise that seeks to create fair employment and provide skills training for incarcerated women, enabling them to earn an income by creating handmade products. Through products like knitted dolls and baby clothes, La Cana allows these women to share their stories, reducing the social stigma associated with incarceration.

The team at La Cana envision a future where prisons are no longer places of punishment, but of opportunity, transforming detention into a time of learning and hope. La Cana offers solutions through job training, mental health programs, and advocating for promoting and protecting incarcerated women’s labor rights.

Daniela is an Ashoka Fellow, a member of the British Council, Future Leaders Connect, Women Leaders for the World, and the Global Good Fund. She was also a Vital Voices GROW Fellow in 2021 and a VV Global Ambassadors participant in 2022. Before her work with La Cana, she served as a lawyer for Idheas, Strategic Litigation on Human Rights and García Alcocer and Associates.

Additionally, she was named Citizen of the Year by Grupo Salinas in 2018 and received the Intercultural Innovation Award in 2021 by the United Nations Alliances of Civilizations. In 2022, she was named one of the 100 most powerful women by Forbes Mexico.