+ Advisory Board
The Advisory Board provides I+D with strategic guidance, supports its planning process and makes recommendations aimed at strengthening partnerships, engaging with stakeholders and consolidating external relations. Its members are highly regarded for their expertise and play a fundamental role in the preparation of I+D’s Annual Conference.
+ Members
María Juliana Ruiz Sandoval
Founding Member
Entrepreneur, social advocate and speaker. She has been acknowledged for her contributions to the design of policies and programs on nutrition, loving upbringing and youth empowerment. Besides leading numerous initiatives for I+D Foundation, she currently directs the Network of Social Advocates for Youth for One Young World, and is Ambassador on behalf of the World Jurist Association.
As First Lady of Colombia (2018 – 2022), she promoted legislative initiatives to advance the protection of children’s rights; she led the Great Nutrition Alliance; the National Alliance to fight violence against children and adolescents, and the SACÚDETE strategy, to detonate talent in young people and facilitate their access to opportunities. In Latin America, she cofounded the network of social advocates and fist ladies ALMA; in Colombia, she created LUNNA (Spanish acronym for Leaders united for children and adolescents). In response to the COVID 19 pandemic, she managed the most ambitious humanitarian campaign in the country’s history, “Helping does us good”.
In her past experience, she worked as Secretary General of the Shaio Fundation Clinic and made a brilliant career at the Organization of American States.
María Juliana is a lawyer at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, and holds a Masters Degree in International Law at American University. She is married to Iván Duque and a mother of three.