Dr. Iliana del Rocío Padilla Reyes is a lecturer at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), attached to the National School of Higher Studies, Juriquilla Campus. She also teaches on the Master's and Doctorate Program in Urban Planning at UNAM. She belongs to the National Network of Researchers, Level I. She obtained her doctorate in Regional Studies from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS). She has been a guest lecturer at the International Forum for U.S. Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Mexico and at the Centre for Legal and Criminological Research at the Autonomous University of Queretaro. She is part of the expert group Global Initiative Against Transnational Crime (GI – TOC), an organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, that brings together professionals seeking innovative strategies against organized crime. In the field of social science research, she is the author of various publications on topics related to gender violence, illicit economies, business participation in peacebuilding, and security policies in urban spaces. She has also published opinion and popular articles in regional and national newspapers and magazines, such as Noroeste, Animal Político and Revista Nexos, contributing to reflection on issues related to respect for human rights. Additionally, she has worked as a project assessment consultant, as well as in the preparation of seven urban development programmes in different Mexican states. In addition to being a teacher, researcher and writer, Iliana is the mother of Lía and Luis Javier.