Maria is a Senior Impact Analyst on the Health Innovation team of the investment company Baillie Gifford, holding the role since 2021. Before joining Baillie Gifford, Maria worked in New York as a Project Manager at UNICEF and was focused on the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene and Health Sections of the Agency’s Programme Division. Maria also spent time as the Senior Biologist at the Brazilian branch of Engie-Tractebel Engineering, coordinating water quality, and sanitation work of building sites in the Brazilian Amazon Forest. Maria is a qualified Biologist and obtained MSc in Ecology, Conservation, and Management of Wildlife in 2005 from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil. For most of her career, Maria has focused on developing frameworks that better assess the social and ecological impact of human activity on the natural environment. There are many lessons nature teaches us about change in complex systems, but the ones Maria focuses on are: effecting and sustaining change, disrupting or building resilience (depending on one’s aims), and optimizing knowledge transfer. As she’s done in Baillie Gifford, where she has been facilitating improved engagement from companies with the wider healthcare ecosystem, thought leaders, NGOs, and government agencies globally, Maria feels it is important for her to leverage her previous experiences to contribute and implement the impact strategy of HIP.