Mariana is a lawyer, coach, and facilitator with 25 years of experience at the intersection of law, social change, and civil society resilience. She has spent much of her career in the nonprofit sector, working on human rights, democratic reform, civil society development, and digital transformation.

Her work combines strategy and practice. Mariana designs and delivers training programs, supports strategy development and advocacy, and facilitates participatory processes. She also works with organizations on resilience building, including risk assessment and scenario planning. A core part of her approach is creating safe, inclusive learning spaces and supporting leaders through coaching as they navigate complexity and change.

She is also deeply engaged in the digital space, exploring how technology, storytelling, and emerging tools can strengthen rights-based work and democratic resilience.

Until 2024, Mariana worked at the Open Society Foundations, where she managed multi-million-dollar portfolios focused on rule of law, equality, and grassroots democracy in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. She co-led a rapid-response fund for war crimes accountability in Ukraine and developed initiatives supporting legal empowerment, social movement lawyering, and the rights of women, Roma, LGBTQI+, Afrodescendant, Indigenous, and disability communities.

Since 2024, her work has focused on the impact of digitalization and generative AI on human rights and democratic processes. She also designs services for nonprofit organizations on digital strategy and resilience.

Mariana holds an LL.M. in Comparative Constitutional Law and Human Rights, a diploma in Digitalization Strategy Design, and a Professional Coaching diploma.