Marcela Escobari serves as the coordinator for the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection & Special Assistant to the President at the White House. Previously, she served as assistant administrator of the Latin American and Caribbean Bureau at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2022 to 2024. She was also a senior fellow in the Center for Universal Education at Brookings. In addition, Escobari served as assistant administrator of the USAID Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean in President Obama’s administration.

Escobari has served as executive director at the Center for International Development at Harvard University, a research center working to generate breakthrough ideas that bring stable, shared, and sustainable prosperity to developing countries. During her tenure, the center achieved tremendous impact, tripling in size with projects in 17 countries across five continents.

Escobari was an event speaker at the Dialogue.