Daniela García Santibáñez Godoy

Daniela García Santibáñez Godoy is a second-year student in the Masters of Public Policy program at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. She has worked for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, where she authored a UN working paper on trade integration in Southeast Asia. Daniela additionally authored a report on the Asian economy at the United Nations in Bangkok, Thailand. She is the co-author of Debt and Society, a major report on the financialization of higher education in the United States. She began her research career in microcredit finance at the Ministry of the Economy (Department of the Treasury) of the Federal Government of Mexico.

Daniela has also worked as a management consultant at Contorno, an economic and political consultancy, where she worked on high-level political strategy for key governmental campaigns for the Federal Government of Mexico. Her clients included a large conglomerate with interests in telecom, media, and financial services. Outside of Contorno, Daniela has consulted for the United Nations Development Program to refine its flagship Human Development Index (HDI) for Mexico, and for the Federal Government of Mexico to evaluate its universal healthcare programs. She has published articles regularly in 24 Horas, a national circulation newspaper in Mexico.

In 2014 she volunteered for an educational nonprofit in partnership with Khan Academy to develop the information and communication technology (ICT) strategy for schools in Narok, Kenya. A lifelong stutterer, Daniela remains active in the National Stuttering Association in the United States and acts as its liaison in Mexico.

Daniela is the holder of the Marian B. and Jacob K. Javits Fellowship in the United States, as well as the Conacyt-Funed Fellowship in Mexico. She holds a special visa from the Government of Mexico enabling unrestricted work across the US, Canada, and Mexico without sponsorship. She graduated salutatorian with highest honors and national exam recognition from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, Mexico with a degree in economics and specialization in advanced econometrics and finance.

Daniela speaks fluent English and Spanish, is conversational in French, and is learning Chinese. In her spare time, she is practicing for the cho dan black belt in Taekwondo.