How Natalia Martinez-Kalinina is working to enrich Miami’s creative community
Natalia Martinez-Kalinina throws her head back and laughs when asked about holiday gift-giving. She has a secret, she says. Being ultra-organized — Martinez-Kalinina has a master’s degree in organizational psychology from Columbia University — she has an Excel spreadsheet on which all her friends and family are listed.
Columns are filled with each person’s favorite books, accessories and anything they may have admired or off-handedly mentioned in the past year. Nothing escapes her. It’s on the list.
No doubt, this skill set and her authentic passion for anything she commits to have contributed to the runaway success of Cambridge Innovation Center Miami, an 80,000-square-foot creative workspace near Wynwood that she manages. It’s occupied with entrepreneurs, startups and scientists who work in a communal environment.
Open for two years, and one of seven CICs worldwide, the building’s interior is arranged with open spaces designed to foster community and provide access to hands-on staff who help with ideas, funding and connections.
CIC also has the only shared wet-lab facility south of Orlando. It allows scientists to perform experiments in a co-working space, which significantly lowers the cost for researchers who come from academic settings to continue their work in various fields of study: environment, disease, longevity and more.
Natalia Martinez-Kalinina Strives for a Robust and Inclusive Community
Martinez-Kalinina, 32, who is of Russian-Cuban descent, takes pride in the fact that her work and the work being done inside the CIC shares a common thread of community betterment.
“Everything I do is related to giving back,” she said. “If our goal were to fill a building with interesting companies, this would not be the job for me. There is a larger mission, and it includes not only a more robust entrepreneurial ecosystem for Miami, but a more inclusive one.”
In the quest to give back, Martinez-Kalinina is the founder and a board member of the Awesome Foundation Miami, which provides monthly grants to individuals with innovative ideas. She’s also the founder of Global Shapers Miami, a young, entrepreneurial group committed to helping transform Miami, and she organizes an art exhibit called Love Lost Miami.
Connecting Businesses and Customers
An upcoming project she’s working on is called Immigrant Powered. Businesses can sign up to receive an “Immigrant Powered” sticker to place in their shop, indicating it’s immigrant-owned, staffed, patronized or any broad definition of the term.
“First, it’s for businesses to feel empowered about what that designation means,” Martinez-Kalinina said. “Second, it’s to tell the story of the very large impact that immigrants have in our country and our communities. Third, it’s to connect small-business owners to advocacy activities, to partner with businesses that choose to have a voice.”
An immigrant herself — she was born in Cuba and raised in Mexico — Martinez-Kalinina said she can think of no bigger joy than connecting communities. That helps explain why she keeps biscotti in her car to give to homeless people at stoplights — and why she keeps a spreadsheet of what everyone she knows may want for the holidays.
“I’m extremely passionate about my city,” she said of Miami. “That appears in many forms.”
More: Cheryl Tiu is a globetrotting influencer who knows how to find Miami’s hidden gems.
This story was originally published October 29, 2018 at 10:10 PM.