With an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) and master’s degree in Communication and Semiotics from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP), Marcela was a marketing executive at large companies and an independent consultant for 20 years. Mother of two children, she was the founder of Coruja Educação and, since 2021, has lead the Márcio Thomaz Bastos Legacy Project, whose objective is to contribute to the defense and guarantee of fundamental human rights in Brazil. She has been a trustee of the ABCD Charitable Trust since 2018.