Angie Mertens

Strategic Advisor

Angie Mertens joined the Nia team as a strategic advisor in 2021. She currently leads ONE WORLD Training, a for-profit public benefit corporation based in Palo Alto. Since its founding in 2015, ONE WORLD has provided training programs to over 3,500+ professionals including early stage social entrepreneurs, impact investors, and leaders in large enterprises across all industries. Her expertise is in program design and implementation, training early stage companies, investors and corporate executives to scale their social impact, and ecosystem building.

Angie is the Co-Founder & Festival Director of the Reel Impact Festival (RIF). Since 2016 RIF brings local social enterprise leaders, investors, marketing professionals, storytellers and filmmakers together to celebrate innovative social impact video storytelling through various screening sessions, panel discussions and hands-on workshops.

Angie serves on the board of Slow Money Northern

California and is Co-Leader of FOOD FUNDED. She is an expert in building bridges among the private, public, and social sectors. Angie has produced numerous ecosystem events and enterprise showcases in collaboration with organizations such as Social Venture Circle, toniic, Spero Ventures, Nia Impact Capital, East Bay Community Foundation and others.

Before joining The Bay Area’s social impact field, Angie worked in the private sector with Tesla Motors, where she was a key member of the sales and marketing team and held responsibility for European based VIPs visiting the company’s headquarters. She co-lead high end events for Tesla, such as the prestigious Monterey Car Week and at the Napa Valley Film Festival.

Prior to moving to the US, Angie worked in philanthropy, with a focus on training, event programming, and research. Having worked, studied and carried out research in Germany, India, Nepal, Thailand, Argentina, Ukraine, Bolivia and Peru, Angie brings a unique perspective to the innovative solutions that are being implemented to address some of the most universal challenges facing our society.

Angie has deep expertise in working with different stakeholders ranging from volunteer groups (from 20-500 participants), NGOs (Rukmini Foundation, Cheetah Conservation Fund, Slow Money), INGOs (Save the children, UNESCO), public sector governments (Germany, Nepal, Peru and Ukraine), foundations (Nepal and Germany), and many for profit entrepreneurs, investors and businesses to build communities and sustainable ecosystems.

Angie holds a MA in Global Studies (dual Master in Social Sciences and Sociology) from the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg/Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Buenos Aires and a BA in Social Work and Education. She is also a Carlo-Schmid Fellow and a Cusanuswerk Alumni. She has won an award from the Wilhelm Oberle Foundation for her thesis: “Money Spinner?! Suggestions for allotment regarding financial resources”.