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Macarena Gonzalez-Cabanellas merges logical systems with human-centered work by using economic consulting to financially build up businesses and communities. Whether through pro bono consulting, research or community service, her mission is to help others.
The 21-year-old UF economics and sociology senior, born in Miami to her Puerto Rican mother and Colombian father, said her upbringing around a tight-knit Latino family shaped her commitment to community.
During a visit to Colombia, she witnessed poverty firsthand. She remembers feeling helpless but also noticing small economic changes that could improve people’s lives. She said she wondered if there were any cooperatives that could help people. From then on, her passion and curiosity for community economic development rose.
At UF, Gonzalez-Cabanellas has worked with groups like Community Spring, a Gainesville nonprofit that helps formerly incarcerated people reenter society, and Rem on Campus, where she’s provided free consulting for small businesses since her freshman year.
With Community Spring, Gonzalez-Cabanellas provides just income for previously incarcerated people and advocates for their acceptance. The organization recently worked with the Florida legislature to pass an act allowing incarcerated people to get through the first round of job interviews or applications without being asked about their criminal status.
In her work with Rem on Campus, Gonzalez-Cabanellas does pro bono consulting for small businesses in Gainesville. After learning about the business and its leaders, she drafts an economic plan to help their business expand and thrive.
“It’s been extremely fulfilling on so many fronts,” she said. “Just understanding how to live through empathy, how to truly help people … and also learning from people despite their backgrounds or any biases you may hold.”
Her first client through Rem was DominiSoul, a Dominican empanada business. She assisted its owners in expanding into farmers markets, catering and social media.
She also mentors peers in their consulting endeavors. Sachin Mario, a 21-year-old UF finance junior, said Gonzalez-Cabanellas guided him through the process with humility and care.
“Seeing her selflessness when it came to providing not only for the people around her but for the community as a whole is something that really stood out to me,” he said.
Her passion extends to research. Under sociology adjunct lecturer Bhavna Sharma, Gonzalez-Cabanellas helped develop a Wise Leadership Scale and Wise Organization Index, which are tools to assess workplace decision-making and team practices. Sharma described Gonzalez-Cabanellas as hardworking, reflective and relational.
“She is not transactional,” Sharma said. “She should join an organization which is humane and caring.”
After graduating in December, Gonzalez-Cabanellas will spend time with family in Colombia before starting at the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in Atlanta. She hopes to pursue business school and community economic development, possibly abroad.
“To be able to give people the resources, autonomy and self-advocacy to be active within their communities is something I really care about,” she said.
Contact Angelique Rodriguez at arodriguez@alligator.org. Follow her on X @angeliquesrod.
Angelique is a first-year journalism major and the Fall 2025 graduate school reporter. In her free time, she'll probably be reading, writing, hanging out with her friends or looking through the newest fashion runway shows on Vogue.
