Mariana Prieto

Change Agent, Connector, Designer, Entrepreneur, Environmentalist, Explorer, World traveler

NOW: Mariana is the Founder and Director of Blue Horizons at Conservation International; the first design-led innovation studio embedded within an international conservation organization. The studio focuses on innovation, communications, and scale for global ocean conservation efforts, while overseeing the integration of human-centered design and creative confidence across the organization. Mariana currently serves on the Board of Trustees at ArtCenter College of Design and on the Steering Committee of the Innovation for Impact Network: a member-based group of innovation leaders from across the world’s largest NGOs and the United Nations. THEN: Beginning as an IDEO.org Global Fellow, Mariana has since led design and innovation teams with IDEO, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WildAid, and many others. She was a founding member of the IRC’s Airbel Impact Lab, where she led work on the Ebola crisis in West Africa and the redesign of refugee resettlement in the U.S. Before joining Conservation International, she founded Design for Wildlife, a creative collective applying human-centered design to wildlife conservation. Honors: ∙ Curious 100 honoree, Eames Institute (2026) ∙ ArtCenter College of Design Alumni Award (2021) ∙ TEDResident (2019 and 2018) ∙ Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum exhibition (2018) ∙ Core 77 Awards, Best Service Design (2016) ∙ The Tech Awards (2012) She and her husband, Danny Alexander (the toilet paper guy you may have also met at TED), have lived in five cities over ten years and have now settled down with their family in Los Angeles, California.

Bringing creatives (hello designers!) to solve large scale climate challenges.

Curiosity didn’t kill the cat. Certainty did.

AI for climate NGOs, climate, Conservation, Design Thinking, Human Centered Design, Innovation, Systems Design, Wildlife Conservation

Fixing broken things—from a broken chair to a chewed up dog toy asking for a second chance.