Marcella Ohira

Marcella Ohira is the Deputy Executive Director and Director for Capacity Building at the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI), where she is responsible for proposing strategies, programs, and activities to promote global change research, capacity building and the uptake of science to support decision-making.

As part of her work, she has designed and launched innovative capacity building programs at the science-policy interface, based on scientific advice and diplomacy, transdisciplinary research training, and developed multinational networks, such as the Science, Technology and Policy (STeP) Fellowship Program and the Inter/Transdisciplinary Training and the Seed Grant Program for IAI’s 19 member countries. She has also led and organized over 50 IAI training events on global environmental change issues of policy relevance, and has managed a number of IAI initiatives and grants from the MacArthur Foundation, the US National Science Foundation, and other organizations. Finally, she also conducts negotiations and develops partnerships with national and international authorities and institutions.

Marcella previously worked in international technical cooperation at the Brazilian Cooperation Agency, the Division of Technical and Technological Cooperation of Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the US NOAA's Office of Global Programs (OGP) in support of regional global change organizations.

She has an MA in International Relations, International Economics, and Science, Technology, and the Environment from The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), of Johns Hopkins University.