Karen Padilla

What brought you to a career in technology at the United Nations?

Working at the United Nations provides an opportunity to use geographic data and analyze it through Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to identify unsafe territories for children, youth, women and the elderly and provide governments with tools to improve public safety to safeguard the physical integrity of all its inhabitants, using innovative technologies that focus on the prevention of antisocial behavior will provide a sustainable future.

What has been your favorite technology project or initiative at the United Nations and why? What was your contribution?

I participated in the Local Safety Audit project that was implemented in the municipality of Queretaro, through UNODC Mexico. A geographic analysis was carried out through Geographic Information Systems (GIS), identifying the geographic location and diversity of consumption of toxic substances (solvents) in young people. The team I worked with made a series of recommendations that were integrated into the municipal prevention program of Querétaro. This helps to prevent and act in the municipality against the consumption of toxic substances, favoring vulnerable populations such as women, girls and boys.

What advice would you give women interested in pursuing a field in technology?

Geography is not an easy discipline; it requires perseverance, commitment and frustration tolerance. However, focusing on and studying various qualitative or quantitative geographic tools will provide a broad territorial knowledge that will allow us to continue developing lines of research to provide spaces and territories free of gender violence.