Mariana Velez, Alliances Coordinator at The Nature Conservancy and Business Sustainability Professor at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. She focuses on promoting leadership and improving collaboration within key multi-stakeholder forest and marine alliances in the Yucatan Peninsula. She has worked as an independent consultant in community-based sustainability processes, in the United Nations Development Program Mexico City office as part of the Sustainable Development team, and in Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission where she co-wrote the Special Report on Air Quality and Human Rights in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area.
Mariana has a Bachelor’s in International Relations from Universidad Iberoamericana with a specialization on Society, Development and Environment. As a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholar, she completed her Master’s in Science in Natural Resources & Environment in the University of Michigan, with a focus on Environmental Policy. Mariana has passionate interest for the cultural and biological diversity that defines Mexico, and strongly believes and is committed to improving human and ecological well-being through trustful working relationships, heart-felt collaboration and collective envisioning and action.