(from Women In Media and News, www.wimnonline.org)

María Suárez Toro is a feminist, journalist and human rights activist in local, national, regional and international arenas through her work as co-director of FIRE: Feminist International Radio Endeavour. She also worked as a human rights activist and literacy teacher at the grassroots level in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras in the 1970s and 1980s.

As co-director of FIRE, she has covered women’s perspectives on global issues, including UN Conferences since 1992 and numerous other local, national and international conferences and events. She is editor and writer of Voices on FIRE, a bi-annual magazine published by FIRE since 2000. Her articles have appeared in international magazines such as People And The Planet, Women In Action of ISIS in The Philippines, Mujeres En Accion of ISIS in Chile, Mujer y Salud of the Health Network in Chile, Tamwa in Tanzania, Health Journal in South Africa, and Brecha in Central America.

She was professor of communications at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado (1998- 2002) and the Institute for Further Education of Journalists (FOJO) in Sweden (1995-2000).