Ilaria is an Italian Comboni Missionary Sister. After getting a BA in Social Work in Madrid (Spain), she was missioned to Lima (Peru), where she lived and ministered for 10 years with her community in a slum of the city. Later, she spent 4 years in Buenaventura (Colombia), collaborating with Bosconia, an NGO tending to minors living in the street. In the first 5 years of her time in the US, Ilaria served as a liaison between her Sisters scattered in 36 countries and the United Nations. At the same time, she started to collaborate with Catholic Mobilizing Network.

The privilege of having been an eyewitness of the healing power of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission held in Peru at the end of its devastating armed conflict, and the atrocities she witnessed during the Colombian conflict, sparked in her an acute interest in the intersection of restorative justice and trauma healing, bringing her to pursue a Master in Restorative Justice with the Eastern Mennonite University.