Reverend, Evangelical Covenant Church

Reverend Martha Alejandra Ibarra Merito is an ordained pastor of the Evangelical Covenant Church in Mexico. As a church founder, theologian practitioner, and activist, she holds a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in critical gender studies and theology from the Comunidad Teológica de México. She is also the founder of the nonprofit Esperanza Migrante, which provides holistic accompaniment for migrants transiting through Mexico City. For the last 15 years she has worked for Merge, an organization of the Covenant Church of the United States that accompanies and subsidizes community development projects worldwide. Since 2021, Rev. Ibarra has been the director of strategic planning at Merge. She also serves on the board of the Mennonite Central Committee. She is passionate about human rights and gender justice and is currently working on the intersections of migration, religion, and gender. Her research focuses on the problem of sex trafficking of Central American migrant women in transit through Mexico. Rev. Ibarra, a bicultural Mexican-Chilean woman, has been married for 19 years and has two incredible children, Isabel and Caleb. She currently lives in Mexico City.