Mayra Santana Rios

Mayra Santana Rios was born and raised in Puerto Rico and holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Economics from Saint Joseph’s University in Pennsylvania.

Before joining the Global Human Development program at Georgetown University, Mayra served as a Community Economic Development Facilitator with the Peace Corps in Guatemala, working in economic and financial empowerment, organizational capacity strengthening, and basic business skill workshops. She extended her service for a third year as a Peace Corps in a Volunteer Leader role, working in cohort intercultural training, cross-cultural facilitation, volunteer professional development and administrative process automation

Mayra’s academic and professional interests are centered around international development, with a particular focus on humanitarian logistics, anticipatory action, and early warning systems in disaster risk reduction. During her time in the GHD program, she hopes to deepen her technical expertise and build the analytical tools needed to design more effective, community-centered development interventions.

Outside of her professional life, Mayra enjoys discovering new music, traveling to new places with friends, and trying and cooking new foods.