Mariel studied Theater and Anthropology at the University of Puerto Rico, where she started her theatrical lighting design career. She worked as a tech in theater and as a grip and set builder in film. In 2006 she joined the Glenn International team as a sales rep where she got her LC and with some friends re-started the San Juan IES Section, which led to her participation in Leadership Forum and her dedication to IES for the past 13 years. After a stint with her baby in the hospital, she became very invested in Healthcare Lighting and the experience of patients and their caretakers and worked on making it one of her specialties. After re-doing the lighting in her father’s office, she realized the importance of lighting for the Visually Impaired and joined the RP-28 Committee of which she was a member and contributing writer from 2013-2024.
In 2013 she moved to Portland, Oregon to work for a local rep and in 2023 joined the ALR OR team doing Specification Sales. She is currently the Chair of the IES DEIR Committee of which she was a founding member and is the Vice Chair of the IES25 Lighting Conference Committee. She is an educator and an organizer – herding cats is her specialty – and has pushed to diversify all the boards and organizations she work with from DBIA to her kids schools. Through her education work and focus on Healthcare and DEI she has worked on several Trauma Informed designs in the past year.