© El Murcy
Paula Moreno
Paula Moreno Zapata made history in Colombia as the youngest and first Black woman appointed to a ministerial position, marking a watershed moment in the nation’s political life. Internationally, she became the youngest and first Afro-Latina member of the Board of Trustees of the Ford Foundation, where she also served as Chair of the Program Committee. She is founder and president of Corporación Manos Visibles, a pioneering organization advancing racial equity across the Americas, and she has received many accolades for her leadership, such as the United Nations’ MIPAD recognition, the Unita Blackwell Award from the National Conference of Black Mayors (USA) and the UK Black Excellence Award. She is also an industrial engineer who holds an MPhil in Management Studies from the University of Cambridge, and advanced studies in urban planning and leadership at MIT and Yale University.
Beyond public service and philanthropy, Moreno is an accomplished writer and cultural producer. For more than fifteen years, she has been a columnist for El Tiempo. She is the author of The Power of the Invisible (El Poder de lo Invisible, 2018) and Dreaming the Impossible (Soñar lo Imposible, 2022), whose opening chapter inspired the Netflix series Defying Destiny (“María la Caprichosa”).
Across disciplines and borders, Moreno has developed a singular reflection on power—its silences, its structures, and its possibilities—which she shares as a guiding force for emerging leaders, women, and ethnic communities throughout the Americas and beyond.
