Marta Urquilla
President

Marta Urquilla is the founding president of Centri Tech Foundation. She brings over twenty-five years of experience leading solutions to strengthen the lives of low-income people and communities of color. Previously, she was chief program officer at Education Design Lab, directing new models to connect education to the future of work. As deputy director at the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University, she co-led the center’s establishment as a vehicle for driving impact at scale. Marta served in the administration of President Barack Obama as Senior Policy Advisor in the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation and as Senior Advisor for Innovation at AmeriCorps. She launched the first Social Innovation Fund in the U.S. government, a model adopted across federal agencies, as well as initiatives on Pay for Success and Opportunity Youth.
 

An Echoing Green Fellow, Marta is a social entrepreneur who has worked nationally and locally to design human-centered solutions. She created One Economy’s Digital Connectors, a national program to connect low-income youth and communities to the digital economy, and founded Sister to Sister/Hermana a Hermana, an organization to build the leadership capacity of girls and young women of color in Washington, DC. Other community development models have focused on improving public health outcomes through community organizing and policy change, facilitating youth-led solutions to neighborhood safety, and advocating for equity in housing and education on behalf of children, youth and families. She serves on the board of Urban Alliance and is a founding member of nFormation, a professional membership community created by women of color for women of color.