Mariela is Director of programs at Newlab, where she is leading the Innovation Studios program expansion to the LATAM region. The Innovation Studios are focused on advancing innovation in partnership with government and corporate to scale the adoption of technologies for good. Mariela is an electronic and computer science engineer with over 13 years of work experience at the intersection of technology, public policy, social innovation and social entrepreneurship. She has worked in the private sector, public sector and academia.
Prior to her work at Newlab, Mariela was Senior Program Manager at ASME’s Engineering for Global Development & Engineering for Change working to support the social innovation space across all continents. Prior to that she worked as Technical Project Manager for Telefonica, an international telecoms company for over 5 years which gave her the much-needed corporate perspective and experience in high level program management having deployed more than 36 connectivity infrastructure projects. She's also engaged in the academic research community and serves as a guest lecturer and technical advisor for capstone projects on digital technology and social impact at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.