Maria Marta Habich

I grew up in Peru and attended an international school in Lima, where I was exposed to a lot of inequities in social, health, and economic outcomes around me. That was pretty formative, and I volunteered with several organizations to help the community surrounding me. I came to the U.S. for undergraduate and got a Bachelor's of Art in Human Biology at Stanford, focusing specifically on global health. During my undergraduate degree, I was always doing different internships on the impact side - I did research work with Save the Children looking at water access, sanitation, and hygiene conditions in schools in rural Kyrgyzstan, work with Partners in Health on COVID vaccine distribution strategies, and an internship with UNDP on their Sustainable Development Goals Integration team. Between my undergrad and master's degree, I did a public service fellowship working at a collective impact nonprofit in the Bay Area and at a research center supporting children and immigrant families. Then I went back to Stanford for my Master's in Public Policy, also focused on global health and development. I always knew that I wanted to continue in the sector and get a breadth of exposure to different industries and different problems, always from the impact side, so I joined SSG to do that. I'm very proud of having supported and led a project called Companies Transforming Peru, which was close to home since I'm originally from Peru. This project supported companies in Peru that are trying to connect their business and social impact strategies through shared value, to both drive social impact and business return in a way that is sustainable and meaningful and deep. I helped lead that project, interviewed and reviewed applications of several Peruvian companies, coached them on how to strengthen their projects and programs, and then recognized them through a national recognition that was on the news and media in Peru. I was interviewed for it in Peru, which was pretty special.