Mariana is a cultural insights researcher and strategist working across market research, UX research, and human-centered design. Her work focuses on understanding how cultural narratives shape identity and shared social realities, informing organizational strategy, brand strategy, and product design.

Her research spans foundational discovery through evaluation, with deep experience in qualitative methods including interviews, focus groups, and ethnographic research. As a bilingual (English–Spanish) moderator, she brings particular expertise in cross-cultural research and Latino/e populations, informed by extensive knowledge of Latin American culture. She has also worked in mixed-methods research, including large international survey studies, with experience evaluating survey design to ensure inclusive, accurate, and representative data.

Her approach to research is grounded in trauma-informed practice, emphasizing care and ethical responsibility throughout the research process. She is most at home navigating messy questions and muddy waters—in-between spaces and identities, cracks and nooks, cul-de-sacs, and knotty feelings—surfacing root causes rather than symptoms and connecting them to the broader strategic landscape.

Mariana holds a PhD from Yale University, specializing in Latin American Cultural Studies, cultural theory, and film and media studies. She is also a gentle culture fiend, from fancy pants films and books to kitschy TV and monster trucks.

She has worked with organizations including the U.S. Census Bureau, Pew Research Center, National Science Foundation, Meta, Google, Comcast, Ulta Beauty, Centene / HealthNet, Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation, on projects spanning healthcare, technology, consumer, civic, and media and telecommunications sectors.