Mirella Mahlstein joined the Basel Institute in May 2024 to support publishing and communications across the organisation. In this role, she works closely with the Institute's subject-matter experts and researchers to ensure the highest quality standards of publications, as well as their visibility and usefulness to relevant stakeholders. She previously worked at the Basel Institute from 2007–2010 as a research assistant and returned to the Institute temporarily in 2015, providing administration and project support. 

In between, Mirella spent five years in Nigeria, during which she held different positions at the Australian High Commission in Abuja. Her diverse portfolio of tasks included involvement in research, translation work, public diplomacy activities, media liaison, the day-to-day business of the development cooperation program, the preparation of consular and diplomatic missions abroad as well as the development of consular crisis action plans. Following her return to Switzerland, she joined the City of Zurich's administration. As staff of the Director of Social Services at the Department of Social Affairs her main focus was on strategic and operational management support.

Mirella then envisaged a career change into publishing, starting with an internship at a small non-fiction publisher in Switzerland. After a brief detour as Rights Manager, she most recently worked as Assistant Editor in non-fiction at the Swiss independent publisher Rotpunktverlag. 

Mirella holds a Master of Arts degree in Social Anthropology and in Law from the University of Basel. She speaks German and English fluently, a rusty French and acceptable but grammatically rather freestyle Italian.