Gabriela is C40’s Head of Zero Emission Vehicles, leading regional efforts to accelerate the adoption of zero-emission transport across cities in Latin America. She led the Laneshift Initiative, in partnership with The Climate Pledge, focused on freight decarbonization, and supported the ZEBRA Partnership, to zero-emission buses adoption in major cities across the region. She joined C40 and served as the Senior Programme Manager for zero-emission freight, supporting six cities in the region by coordinating and overseeing programme implementation.
Before joining C40, she led the “TUMI E-Bus Mission” at the World Resources Institute (WRI), supporting cities in Mexico and Colombia to scale up e-bus adoption from an inclusive approach, focusing on the social and health benefits for women drivers, workers and users. She served as Research and Gender Policy Lead at the IMEPLAN (Metropolitan Planning Institute) in Guadalajara, where she integrated gender and social inclusion into metropolitan planning policies and programs. In 2014, she collaborated with Mexican artist Gilberto Aceves Navarro on the urban art exhibition “Las Bicicletas,” which promoted urban cycling and the development of healthy and safer cities in Mexico and the United States.
With over 14 years of experience, Gabriela has worked closely with local governments in Mexico and Latin America to shape sustainable mobility policies, metropolitan governance and promote sustainable transport systems, always with a strong emphasis on gender equality and social inclusion.
Gabriela holds a Master’s in Governance, Development and Public Policy from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, and a Bachelor’s in International Relations from ITESO University. She is also a fellow of the “Leadership, Urban Mobility and Gender” program for women leading change in Latin America. Her passion for literature written by women, music, and design inspires her vision of more resilient and equitable cities, where culture plays a central role in urban transformation.