Mercedes de Guardiola is a New York-based marketing & communications consultant and historian. She currently advises early-stage health and technology companies on strategic communications and go-to-market planning.

De Guardiola began her professional career at Accion, a microfinance nonprofit that develops and scales responsible digital financial solutions for underserved people globally, so they can make informed decisions and improve their lives. She subsequently built marketing experience across broadcast journalism and cybersecurity before joining a boutique brand strategy consultancy, where she developed strategic marketing strategies for Fortune 100 technology and pharmaceutical companies and and leading educational institutions. As a Communications Manager at Luminary Labs, she led strategic planning and execution for transformative open innovation programs addressing critical societal challenges. Her work spanned initiatives to reduce Veteran suicide, transform workforce training opportunities with pre-apprenticeships, accelerate the development of Lyme disease diagnostics for active infection, advance the development of artificial kidneys, develop accessible tools for scientific discovery, and strengthen resilient infrastructure measuring Earth’s magnetic field for GPS.

Her work on the history of eugenics is currently focused on Vermont, including public policies of child health and welfare, mass institutionalization and later deinstitutionalization, sterilization, and family separation. A leading expert on the state’s eugenics movement, de Guardiola testified before the state legislature during hearings in the early 2020s on the 2021 apology and ongoing responses. Get in touch for speaker and press inquiries and order “Vermont for the Vermonters”: The History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State from the Vermont Historical Society and Amazon.

A member of the New York Junior League, a women-powered volunteer organization, de Guardiola is dedicated to improving the health and welfare of New York families. During her tenure, de Guardiola has served on the Strategic Planning Work Group, Development Work Group, Nominating Committee, and Management Council, where she oversaw the non-profit’s large-scale restoration and on-demand volunteer programs. She previously chaired the Grants Committee and the Playground Improvement Project, leading the restoration of St. Nicholas Park (2021) and Seward Park and surrounding green spaces (2022). The NYJL honored Mercedes as a 2020 Woman to Watch for exemplary service to the League and the New York City community.

De Guardiola earned her B.A. from Dartmouth College with a double major in History and Art History, receiving the Jones History Prize for best thesis on U.S. history and the Adelbert Ames Fine Arts Award for achievement in Art History.