Dr. Aini Marina is an educational psychologist at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) specializing in cognitive psychology's role in effective teaching and learning. She was awarded Best Overall Graduate after completing her Bachelor's in TESL at UPM and pursued graduate studies, including postdoctoral work, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Cognitive Sciences of Teaching and Learning.

Dr. Marina's research focuses on cognitive performance, developing interventions to enhance executive functioning and socio-emotional learning skills, especially for neurodiverse students. She trains educators both locally and internationally in heutagogical tools for digital natives and has extensive experience in developing and managing online courses. Her innovative teaching earned her the Vice-Chancellor Fellowship Award from His Royal Highness Sultan of Selangor in 2018.

She is a research associate at the Institute for Research and Poverty Management (InsPeK) at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan and leads the Psych.Ed Lab at UPM, providing training and services in psychoeducational assessment and educational neuroscience. Additionally, she contributes to national higher education policy at the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, developing transdisciplinary academic programs and experiential learning. As an educational psychologist, she assists the Selangor State Education Department in screening children with learning difficulties for special needs programs.

Dr. Marina co-founded the Media Education For All (ME4A) movement, developing Malaysia's first media literacy curriculum to address information disorder. She consults for various agencies, including UNESCO-MGIEP, focusing on transforming education towards SDG 4.7 through programs that promote social and emotional learning, innovative digital pedagogies, and youth empowerment.

For the 2024/2025 academic year, she will join the Center for Research on Complex Thinking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a research fellow to deepen her expertise in quantitative ethnography on combating cyberbullying. She will also focus on expanding her work to integrate social and emotional learning (SEL) into equitable educational services.