Leadership
Daniela Giardina
- Executive Director
- Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab
Daniela Giardina has nearly two decades of experience working with non-governmental organizations and research institutions on humanitarian and development projects. Her work has taken her to Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Central and Southeast Asia, where she has focused on water and food security projects. She has conducted technical trainings and assessments, and managed projects from design to implementation, including monitoring and evaluation.
Before MIT, Giardina worked at Oxfam America, where she directed disaster risk reduction and climate resilience initiatives, working on approaches to strengthen local leadership, community based disaster risk reduction, and anticipatory action. Her role at Oxfam required her to oversee multimillion-dollar initiatives, supervising international teams, managing complex donor portfolios, and ensuring rigorous monitoring across programs. She connected hands-on research with community-orientated implementation, for example, by partnering with MIT’s D-Lab to launch an innovation lab in rural El Salvador. Her experience will help guide J-WAFS as it pursues impactful research that will make a difference on the ground.
Beyond program delivery, Giardina has played a strategic leadership role in shaping Oxfam’s global disaster risk reduction strategy and representing the organization at high-level UN and academic forums. She is multilingual and adept at building partnerships across cultures, having worked with governments, funders, and community-based organizations to strengthen resilience and advance equitable access to water and food.
Giardina holds a PhD in sustainable development from the University of Brescia, Italy. She also holds a master’s degree in environmental engineering from the Politecnico of Milan, Italy and is a chartered engineer since 2005 (equivalent to a professional engineering license in the U.S.). She also serves as vice chair of the Boston Network for International Development (BNID), a nonprofit that connects and strengthens Boston’s global development community.