Blanca Catalina has almost 20 years of experience as an educator for equity, an ecosystem builder, a program leader, and an innovation champion serving emerging leaders, focused on underrepresented and minoritized communities both nationally and internationally. She is known for her ability to implement specialized and sustainable learning and mentorship programs to support the success of diverse communities across divides.

For the last 15 years, Blanca has been building and leading innovative programs and initiatives to support underserved emerging leaders and innovators, such as Black, Indigenous and People of the Global Majority, folks from the LGBTQIA2S+ community, folks with disabilities, with a focus on women and non-binary people. She recently was supporting Eckerd College’s goals for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, serving as Assistant Director for Inclusive Excellence and the Associate Director for Diverse and Inclusive Admissions during her tenure. Blanca is an entrepreneurship educator, coach, and ecosystem builder, as well as an expert instructional designer. Prior to her work at Eckerd, she was embedded in this endeavor in the Greater Atlanta Area. After leading the award-winning BIG Incubator in Atlanta for Black and Latina women-led tech companies at digitalundivided, she designed and led programs for emerging entrepreneurs across the Southeast, including Goodie Nation and Walker’s Legacy PROSPECTUS. Blanca also served as the MBDA@ATDC Startup Catalysts at the Advanced Technology Development Center at Georgia Institute of Technology before moving to Florida. Blanca has been an instructor, public speaker, and mentor for social justice, innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership at organizations across the Southeast, including CARE USA, Women Entrepreneurs Inc, Techstars, Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, and Morehouse College. She recently presented, along with the Eckerd College Inclusive Excellence team, at NCORE 2024 on building change agents for equity in higher education.

Blanca Catalina lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, with her husband and two daughters. She is a first generation immigrant from Chile. Her husband is from Cuba and they are both actively involved in equity work.  Outside of her work, Blanca Catalina continues to run her business BCG Innovation LLC, which focuses on creating educational programs for underrepresented entrepreneurs and leaders. She is also completing her graduate work towards a doctorate in Educational Leadership. She is actively involved in the community and believes that our most marginalized innovators and creators hold the solutions we need to respond to our rapidly changing world.