Ms. Ximena Lainfiesta
About me
Ximena Lainfiesta is a doctoral student in Interdisciplinary Media & Design at Northeastern University, researching the intersection of women's health, communication, and technology. She holds four master's degrees across three continents, including specializations in NeuroLearning, Cultural and Creative Industries, Digital Communication Leadership, and ICT4D. With over 14 years of experience as an audiovisual journalist and communicator for development, she has led impactful initiatives including Alma, COVID-19 health communication reaching 2 million Guatemalans, and Enciéndete, a STEM education project empowering youth to create community health solutions. Both projects received National Innovation Awards from Guatemala's SENACYT.
Ximena Lainfiesta is a doctoral student in Interdisciplinary Media & Design at Northeastern University, where she serves as a Research Assistant at the GhostLab exploring games as research and educational environments.
Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the intersection of women's health, women's rights, communication, development, and technology, examining the transformative power of digital solutions in healthcare.
Her unique academic journey spans four master's degrees in three continents: NeuroLearning from Universidad Rafael Landívar in Guatemala, Cultural and Creative Industries from Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan, Digital Communication Leadership from Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg in Austria, and International Development (ICT4D) from Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
Her award-winning thesis on TikTok's influence on PCOS self-management practices earned the 2024 Unilever Research Prize. Lainfiesta brings a distinctive perspective shaped by over 14 years of international experience as an audiovisual journalist and communicator for development.
Her extensive practical work includes serving as Creative Director of Fundegua during the pandemic, where she led both the Alma project—COVID-19 health communication initiatives that reached over 2 million Guatemalans—and project Enciéndete, a disruptive STEM education initiative that empowers young people to create technological solutions for community health and sustainability challenges aligned with the SDGs. Both projects earned National Innovation Awards from Guatemala's SENACYT.
Her other work includes contributing to the EU project VIPROM (Victim Protection in Medicine) developing domestic violence curricula for medical professionals, working at the Mayor's Office in Compton, California, supporting the Census 2020 outreach efforts to ensure the Latino community inclusion and representation, and co-founding Mielenaria, a social enterprise focused on fair economic growth in rural communities through biodiversity conservation.
She is part of the Next Generation Leaders think tank in the United States and the The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD).
