Celebrating Natalia Machuca - Recipient of the Conspiring Women Impact Award

We're thrilled to share that we've awarded the Conspiring Women Impact Award to Natalia Machuca! Through our programs, women develop deep peer coaching converstations and expand there networks.  Members of Conspiring Women were invited to nominate others in the network for the Impact Award.

Here's the award description:  So many of you are out there making a difference in the world, and yet we know that a lot of this work goes unrecognized. Through Conspire's programs, you've likely met someone whose work in the world is important and inspiring to you. This is your chance to elevate their work and their impact among members of our community and beyond.

Our awardee, Natalia, was nominated by her peer coach through the Conspiring Women Peer Coaching Co-Op, Colleen Kineen. Here's what Colleen wrote in  her nomination:

"When you are in Natalia's presence, you immediately sense the depth and power of her soul. To me, she epitomizes what it means to be a strong female leader. Authentic, soulful, adept at holding space and developing vision that motivates those around her and spurs them to action. Natalia innately serves as a lighthouse for those around her, using her own light to guide others to step into their full potential from a place of love and possibility. I believe that Natalia is deserving of the Impact Award (or a new award that I'd call the Soulful Leader award) for her courageous strength in showing up in her full light and in so doing, enabling others to do the same. This to me is the strength of a true leader but is a model of leadership that isn't often overtly recognized or valued. Keep your eyes on Natalia, she's just getting started and is sure to continue to create the most powerful of waves through her life's work and the ways she continually inspires others."

Thank you, Colleen, for this beautiful nomination.  In Nataila's honor, we've planted trees via TreeSisters to support women and indigenous led reforestation initiatives in critical forests.  We invite you to honor Natalia by contributing to this reforestation initiative as well.

We hope you'll take a few minutes to learn more about Natalia's inspirational work in public health - a field I know we all deeply appreciate more than ever.

Natalia Machuca

Natalia Machuca has 15 years of experience in public health, including 13 years in federal government service at the National Institutes of Health and the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID). Ms. Machuca joined USAID in 2010 as an Infectious Disease Advisor in the Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean supporting Malaria, Tuberculosis, Emerging Pandemic Threats, and Neglected Tropical Diseases in the Latin American and Caribbean region.  While in that role, she also worked on the response to Haiti’s Cholera outbreak and the regional response to Zika. In 2016, Ms. Machuca joined the Bureau for Global Health's Neglected Tropical Diseases Division, first as a Senior Operations Officer and later became the Deputy Division Chief.  Ms. Machuca has supported various Bureau for Global Health efforts, including the recent COVID-19 commodity shipments to India and Brazil.  Ms. Machuca recently joined the U.S. President Malaria Initiative as the USAID's Malaria Division's Deputy Division Chief.  

Prior to USAID, Ms. Machuca worked as an Infectious Disease Specialist at the Association of Public Health Laboratories where she supported the domestic response to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic.  Before attending graduate school, Ms. Machuca received an Intramural Research Training Award to work at National Institutes of Health for two years.

Ms. Machuca is deeply committed to public service, and strives to foster a healthy work culture.  She speaks fluent Spanish, is a long-distance runner and yogi, and holds a Master’s of Science in Public Health Microbiology and Emerging Infectious Diseases from George Washington University.

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