Josephine (Arjho) Caturan Latimban Cariño Turner

Josephine (Arjho) Caturan Latimban Cariño Turner is an immigrant from the Philippines who currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia, as a US citizen. Married and the mother of two young children, she is proud of her heritage belonging to the Blaan Indigenous Peoples group of south-central Mindanao.

Turner graduated with a BS in Agriculture majoring in Plant Pathology from the University of the Philippines at Los Baños (UPLB) and later earned her Master’s degree in Environment and Natural Resources Management from U.P. Open University (UPOU). Recently, she was awarded the Public Leadership Credential (PLC) by the Harvard Kennedy School.

Before immigrating to the USA in 2006, she worked in the Sarangani Province as the Luntiang Lumad Project Manager. Following that role, she worked as the Indigenous Peoples Development Program Manager. She co-authored scientific research publications on the subject of traditional upland rice varieties grown in the hinterlands of Sarangani Province as part of a partnership with researchers and professors of Mindanao State University in General Santos City. As a cultural advocate and co-founder of the KafyeBlaan Empowerment, Inc., she created and maintained cultural advocacy websites and Facebook pages highlighting cultural masters and their skills transfer specific to Indigenous Peoples cultures from her home Region. She is currently engaged by the Philippine Senate Committee on Cultural Communities as a member of the Technical Working Group for the Community Intellectual Rights of Indigenous Cultural Communities and the Indigenous Peoples Act and the Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Act. In addition to serving as a Member of the Board for three non-profit organizations, Turner is a business owner, Founder and CEO of ACT International Consulting, LLC, an educational consultancy providing online mentoring for leadership, program and project management and agile coaching. Currently, she is the Eduhubspot Program Manager for Southeast Asia Region.