Malena Data Ernani is a first-generation Venezuelan-Argentinian immigrant whose career is anchored in community empowerment, educational equity, and advancing technology’s role in serving marginalized communities. She serves as Strategic Partnerships Manager at El Tímpano, where she leads initiatives that blend digital innovation with deep community knowledge to address information gaps for Spanish-speaking Latine and Indigenous Maya Mam-speaking immigrants in the Bay Area of Northern California.
At El Tímpano, Malena has helped scale a multilingual SMS platform that reaches thousands of community members with timely, culturally relevant information. She has built partnerships to counter misinformation, expand access to critical public resources, and strengthen the cultural competence of civic institutions. Her work is rooted in co-creating solutions with the communities she serves rather than imposing one-size-fits-all approaches.
Malena began her formal career as a kindergarten teacher in Oakland Unified School District, working with multilingual learners. She quickly saw that educational technology tools—often available only in English—were inaccessible to many of her students due to language barriers and limited exposure to tech skills. This experience sparked her dedication to pairing technology with intentional support and cultural relevance.
She went on to join Study Smart Tutors, where she played a key role in transitioning the organization’s academic support programs from in-person to fully digital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Malena worked closely with TRIO program partners to adapt tutoring and college access services for first-generation, low-income students—many facing challenges with tech access and asynchronous learning. She helped develop hybrid and virtual program models that prioritized adaptability, equity, and community engagement, sharing these best practices nationwide.
At Beloved Community, a racial and economic equity consulting nonprofit, Malena helped bring an equity audit tool to market that enables organizations to assess and transform their policies and structures through racial and economic equity frameworks. This work deepened her expertise in integrating technology, evaluation, and organizational change through a justice lens.
Malena holds a B.A. degree in Politics, a B.A degree in French Studies, and a minor in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies from Occidental College. A multilingual advocate, she is passionate about amplifying Latine and Mayan voices, especially for those who speak oral languages, have limited literacy, or experience digital exclusion.
Shaped by her upbringing in diverse Latine households, she approaches every role as a bridge-builder between cultures, languages, and systems. Whether in a classroom, nonprofit, or newsroom, she brings curiosity, humility, and a strategic eye for partnerships that drive systemic change.
Malena lives on the land of the Pomo and Coastal Miwok peoples, where she enjoys caring for her two cats, Blue and Beanie, nerding out with her life partner, Hunter, and curating themed movie marathons
