Macarena worked first at CDRS as a field volunteer on sea turtle monitoring in 2006 and as assistant in the same project in 2007.

She later joined the vertebrate program and supported as a curator in the CDRS marine collections.

In 2009 she joined the institution as the head of the sea turtle program, coordinating the green turtle nesting monitoring for five years.

Currently, she works in the establishment and development of projects focused on the identification of threats and anthropogenic impacts for the green turtle within the Galapagos Marine Reserve with the aim of making an early detection of these threats and to be able to advise the management authorities on the creation of measures that ensure the protection and conservation of the species in the archipelago.