Marina likes to paraphrase Ariano Suassuna and define herself as a “hopeful realist”.
Raised in the western countryside of Brazil, Marina has a strong connection with the Araguaia River, which she used to explore as a child, and that is now threatened by deforestation. At the Black Jaguar Foundation, Marina fosters the NGO’s institutional relations in Brazil, whose mission is to restore more than 1 billion trees along the Araguaia Biodiversity Corridor.
She has a degree in Business Administration from FGV-SP and a post-graduate certificate in Social Innovation Management from Amani Institute. Marina has worked in Project Management, Marketing and Communication focused on social and environmental causes for private sector organizations, NGOs, start-ups and her own initiatives. She worked with a social start-up called Aorta Comunitaria which inspires more resilient community bonds through shared urban gardens in sidewalks. Here she especially enjoyed developing a game to help employees build and maintain vegetable gardens inside their workspace – gamifying change. She believes that reconnecting with nature is crucial to building a sustainable world - and that the right place to start that is through disruptive education.
