Maria Batlle

Background

About Maria Batlle

In 2013, I started an initiative that uses music and technology as tools to innovate education for Deaf students. Since then, and now as a partner and member of SubPac's Advisory Board, I explore the benefits of music in education annually at Harvard University together with the Silk Road Ensemble and acclaimed cellist and 15 Grammy Awards winner, Yo-Yo Ma. I’ve had the honor of being invited to share my work at institutions and companies such as: TESLA, Yale University, Columbia University, NYU, Teachers College, World Music Expo, TEDx, UNESCO Paris and the Forbes Redefining Power Summit. In 2017, I was invited to Richard Branson's private island Necker, where I met with co-founder of Google Maps Lars Rasmussen and Branson himself to discuss inclusion opportunities for people with disabilities. In 2016, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women appointed me spokeswoman in the Dominican Republic. Together with the Louvre museum of Paris, the Maria Batlle Foundation is working to make museums accessible in the Dominican Republic. The Foundation's work has been featured at The New York Times, Forbes Magazine, The Washington Post, Miami Herald, El País and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin. In 2018, our Foundation launched the first Sign Language platform in the Dominican Republic,@RDenSena, which provided daily capsules on national television and social media that teach One Sign Per Day. As a Harvard University's PZ 2018 Fellow and Georgetown University's 2019 Leadership Fellow, I continue to learn about how to innovate education through art and technology.