Arianna is a grants officer in Ford’s office in the Andean Region. She has a long history of supporting the development of grant portfolios across governance, civic participation and environmental sustainability.
Arianna has more than 10 years of experience in project management, capacity-building and public policymaking at the national and local levels in Colombia. Having grown up in Sincelejo, the capital of the department of Sucre, she experienced firsthand the effects of inequality, power dynamics, and corruption in society, and it moved her to dedicate her career to building a more equitable world.
Before joining Ford, Arianna worked extensively in the public sector. At the Colombian Congress, she led policy dialogue about land management and national budget allocation, and, as the Head of International Cooperation for the National Registry Office, she managed several projects on good governance, identity and gender inclusion. She also worked as deputy director of Fundación Colombia 2050, an organization that promotes transparency.
She worked in policymaking at the National Fund for Disaster Risk Management, where she oversaw the socioeconomic recovery from Colombia’s 50 years of armed conflict and the devastating 2010 flood. She also worked for Fondo Adaptacion, helping to support the resettlement of inhabitants following a climate change disaster in Gramalote. In addition, at iMMAP, she conducted research on collective victimization and she had also participated in the world of entrepreneurship.
She holds a master’s degree in social policy and development from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. While there, she was awarded the Chevening scholarship and the Loch Exhibition Prize for her dissertation on climate change and citizenship. She also has a B.A. in government and international relations from Colombia and was awarded a scholarship to complete her undergraduate studies at the Institut d'Études Politiques of Paris. Most recently, she was granted the Geneva Challenge prize and is a fellow with the Institute for Canadian Citizenship.
