Marcela Angel Lalinde
Marcela Angel (MCP ’18) is a researcher and urban planner specializing in environmental policy, planning, and international development. She is Co-founder of the MIT Environmental Research and Action Labs (MIT ERA), housed within the Department of Architecture, and serves as the Director of ERA’s Nature- and Community-based Environmental Research+Action (NACERA) Lab. In this role, Marcela leads interdisciplinary projects that bridge science, technology, policy, and community engagement to bolster resilience in the world’s most biodiverse regions. NACERA’s action-oriented research focuses on uncovering viable strategies for climate adaptation, biodiversity conservation, and bio-economic growth, ensuring that nature-based solutions are integrated into national policies, local development models, and global conservation efforts across Latin America, particularly within the Amazon and Chocó biogeographic regions.
Prior to establishing ERA, Marcela was the Research Program Director at the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, where she leveraged technology and community-based planning to advance natural climate solutions. Her portfolio of applied research includes mobilizing drones and AI for participatory climate risk monitoring in the Amazon piedmont, a research model centering local priorities and bridging technology development, capacity building and local knowledge; and generating evidence and informing policy to strengthen the role of Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local communities (IPALC) as stewards of environmental resources through assessments of equity and governance deficits in Colombia’s voluntary carbon market and the contributions of Afro-descendant lands to biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation in South America. Furthermore, her work explores the role of cities in the conservation of strategic ecosystems as global commons, evidenced by her contributions to the monograph Cities in Amazonia: People and Nature in Harmony, a policy brief for the Science Panel for the Amazon, and her coordination of the Technical Secretariat of the Alliance of Cities for the Biogeographic Choco.
Marcela’s leadership extends to global forums, where she has served as the alternate Head of the MIT Delegation at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) and as a delegate for both Colombia and MIT at multiple UN Climate Change Conferences (COP25 through COP28). She is an active member of prestigious international circles, including as a 2024 Big Climate Bets Fellow and Bellagio alumna of the Rockefeller Foundation, and a BMW Foundation Responsible Leader. Marcela has also contributed her expertise as a judge for the MIT SOLVE Climate Challenge (2021, 2022, and 2025), and serves on the advisory board of the inNature Lab and the CEIBA Council of NaturaTech LAC. Additionally, she maintains active memberships in the "Cities for Life in Amazonia" and "Knowledges in Terra" (KiT) research networks.
Marcela has a Master’s in City Planning (MCP´18) from MIT and a Summa Cum Laude B.A in Architecture from Los Andes University in Bogotá, Colombia.
