About Mariana

Mariana is the Director of Conservation Design at Conservation International, where she leads the creation of CI’s future innovation center and oversees the integration of human-centered design and creative confidence across the organization. She was awarded the prestigious Lui-Walton Innovators Fellowship in 2023.

Before joining Conservation International, Mariana Prieto founded Design for Wildlife, a collective dedicated to creating large-scale, economically sustainable solutions for wildlife-related challenges using human-centered design processes.

Mariana was part of the founding team of The International Rescue Committee’s innovation center, Airbel Impact Lab, where she led teams working on the ebola crisis and refugee resettlement across the United States.

She has been recognized as an IDEO.org Fellow and a TED Resident, with her work on scarcity exhibited at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Throughout her career, she has led teams in collaboration with IDEO, WildAid, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Alight, General Electric, and many others.

Mariana has served as an Adjunct Professor at the Art Center College of Design and the USC Marshall School of Business, and has been a guest lecturer at various institutions, including Berkeley Haas School of Business, Stanford University, Microsoft, and IDEO. She has also presented her work at The North American Congress for Conservation Biology.

Originally from Colombia, Mariana now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son, and numerous foster animals that pass through their home.