Marcela Escobari joined the National Security Council as a top migration advisor to President Biden in March 2024. Escobari spearheads the Administration’s efforts to promote safe, orderly and humane migration and advance a collaborative, regional response to the historic displacement of nearly 10 million people across Latin America. Prior to taking on this national security priority, Escobari served as the Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean at USAID from 2021-2024, where she oversaw foreign assistance programs aimed at promoting inclusive growth and good governance across the region.

Escobari previously served in the Obama-Biden Administration as Assistant Administrator at USAID in 2016, during which time she reinforced U.S. support for Peace Colombia, mobilized humanitarian responses to the crisis in Haiti, and operationalized Congress’ doubling of funding to Central America. Prior to serving in government, Escobari was Executive Director at the Center for International Development at Harvard University, and she served as Senior Fellow at Brookings, where she created the Workforce of the Future initiative to map the industrial path of American cities and identify policies to help workers prosper in the face of evolving labor markets.

Her career has spanned the private sector, government and academia, with a common thread of producing growth that is inclusive and sustainable. She began her career as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan and worked across the globe on export competitiveness projects as a strategy consultant. The World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader in 2013. She co-authored the book “In the River They Swim: Essays from Around the World on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty.” She holds a B.A. in economics from Swarthmore College and an M.A. in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.