Mariana Somma

Mariana Somma is a creativity consultant, facilitator, and executive coach who believes every leader and learner deserves the tools, space, and confidence to think differently and design a more human future.

She is a member of the professional faculty at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, where she teaches courses in design thinking, creativity, innovation, and leadership across undergraduate, MBA, and executive education programs. Both her Creativity Lab and Design Thinking & Innovation courses are highly rated, with average student evaluations of 6.3 out of 7. These courses invite students to explore creativity and human-centered design in the age of AI—integrating emerging tools while building critical thinking, collaboration, and ethical innovation skills.

Mariana helped launch the Berkeley Changemaker® program and developed the MBA course Adaptive Resilience for Executives. She is currently designing The Nature of Leadership, a new faculty-led study abroad course launching in Summer 2026.

She has designed and facilitated executive and graduate-level experiences at Haas, including Designing the Future Workplace and the MPAR Innovation Weekend for EWMBA students. Beyond Haas, she works with organizations and universities globally, bringing a human-centered approach to leadership development, team collaboration, and change strategy.

Mariana is the founder of Creative Thought Partners, a coaching and consulting practice that helps individuals and teams unlock creative confidence and lead with clarity, connection, and purpose. Prior to that, she co-founded Employera, an employee experience design firm where she spent eight years leading culture transformation and experience strategy for clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies.

With a background in architecture and design, her work is grounded in systems thinking, human-centered research, and experiential learning.