Melania Guerra

Melania was the Director of Science Strategy at Planet, a company that operates a constellation of 200+ high-resolution satellites that photograph the Earth daily, with the goal of documenting global change, making impacts visible and providing transparency to the solutions.

Melania grew up dreaming of exploring extreme environments. She studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Costa Rica, and earned a Masters and Ph.D. in oceanography from the University of California San Diego (UCSD). She worked as a researcher at Cornell University and the University of Washington, performing extensive data collection fieldwork across the Arctic Ocean. Her research expeditions sparked a passion for science diplomacy of the global commons. During 2018 she served as a Nippon Fellow at the United Nations’ Division of Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea (UN DOALOS),
specializing in ocean governance. More recently she completed a Master’s in public policy at Princeton University, focusing in international relations and science policy. Between 2017- 2021 she was part of the Costa Rican diplomatic delegations in multilateral climate and ocean negotiations and is an Adjunct Professor of climate governance at the UN University for Peace (UPeace). In 2019, Melania represented Costa Rica in the Homeward Bound expedition to Antarctica, a global leadership initiative for women in science. With this multidisciplinary background Melania works as a science-policy consultant, providing broad systems-thinking and evidence-based advice for climate action and ocean conservation, providing translation of scientific research, supporting multistakeholder engagement and building strategic partnerships.