Since 2016 Yara has been in charge of projecting to the Latin American and Caribbean region as well as to the world, the various projects that UNESCO IESALC leads in the field of higher education, as well as the institute’s biggest event: CRES, held every 10 years. She also has experience in the areas of language teaching, management of pedagogical and cultural projects and, more recently, in the holistic area.
Blanca has a degree in Philosophy with a PDE in education from the Complutense University, Madrid. With more than 20 years of experience in the development of eLearning training programmes, she is interested in exploring the possibilities of technology and new methodologies to promote inclusion. As academic coordinator, she has designed and organised virtual and blended capacity-building programmes for HEIs.
Systems engineer with extensive experience in web security, web design, and network administration. With over 10 years of experience in the field, he has worked on complex and challenging projects. In addition, he has knowledge of complex computer networks, virtual private networks (VPNs), server infrastructure, Linux and Windows servers, network equipment, and information security systems.
Mathias is a Policy Analyst at UNESCO IESALC. He holds a PhD in economics from University Paris Saclay and has 10+ years experience researching education, higher education and sustainability internationally, including as a Analyst at the OECD Center for Educational Research and Innovation. At UNESCO he is actively involved in the management of the different initiatives of the Policy Hub, including the development and design of the HE Policy Observatory.
Communications professional, ICT management specialist and MBA with a focus on project management. With a solid academic profile and extensive experience in the field of education. Her experience stands out in the management of online education units, digital transformation and university teaching in virtual education programs.
Passionate about the strategic use of digital technologies for the transformation of education, organizations, and society in general to achieve positive and sustainable impact.
Holds a Master of Laws in Human Rights from the University of London, Birkbeck College, United Kingdom. With a dedicated service history within the UN system, she has worked in UNICEF and the UN Department for Peace Operations in New York, UNRWA in Amman, and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee in Geneva. Her work has focused on pivotal areas, including gender, human rights, education, and protection, spanning development and humanitarian/peacekeeping contexts. She is currently engaged in gender-related initiatives.
Flávia is a professional with more than 4 years of experience in higher education policy and research. Her fields of expertise include the third mission of universities, community engagement in higher education, university rankings and quality assurance. At UNESCO IESALC, she is mostly involved in the ‘Feasibility study for the creation of a diploma supplement for Latin America and the Caribbean. She holds Master in Research and Innovation in Higher Education (MARIHE) and a Master of Science and Technology Policy from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP).
Claudia joined the Communications team in 2021. Her main expertise is in International Relations and Communication, a field in which she has a master’s degree (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) and Doctorate studies (Universidad del País Vasco). She was a reporter and then editor-in-chief in Venezuelan newspapers and also worked as a freelancer for different media. She has also developed campaigns and communications for organizations, believing that sharp messages are cornerstones that contribute to interpret changes and enable appropriate responses.
Engineer with more than 20 years of experience in the creation of digital knowledge management solutions and virtual collaborative learning platforms. He leads the IESALC campus and the institute’s R&D projects and is the driving force behind open source technological developments. Expert in the implementation of technological solutions aimed at strengthening the digital transformation of organizations, focusing on process optimization, integrations and security.
Eliane El Haber is a young woman from Lebanon. She is a master’s student, and her educational background is in management and psychology. Eliane has more than 12 years of experience in education, both formal and informal. She also has extensive experience in youth engagement. She also has significant experience in public speaking. Before joining UNESCO IESALC, Eliane published research focusing on the education system and the curriculum in her country, Lebanon, and her region, the Arab States. At UNESCO IESALC, Eliane’s work focuses on research, youth, events, and partnerships.
Victoria joined the institute in April 2021 as the Chief of Research and Analysis. She has a background in higher education policy, with experience as a policy analyst at the OECD, as an expert for the European Commission and as senior advisor for national governments and universities worldwide. With a PhD in university engagement, Victoria has co-authored 50+ academic publications and 90+ technical reports, she has had visiting appointments in universities in four continents, delivered professional training in 27 countries and spoken in 150+ events internationally.
Karina holds a master’s degree in Educational Research from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain) and brings over seven years of experience in the field of education. Her background includes participating in various research initiatives at universities, NGOs, and the UN level. In her current position, Karina is involved in research and administrative activities within a project to support women’s participation in higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her primary focus areas encompass education policy analysis, inequalities in higher education, gender dynamics, and intersectional analysis.
Since 1993 Zulay has been in the Administration Unit in charge of the activities related to the Institute’s budget as well as supporting all operational tasks.
More than 23 years of experience in the design and implementation of high impact projects, based on social innovation with education as a lever for change. Expert in the design of innovative digital solutions, aimed at the transmission of knowledge with a focus on social and collaborative learning. Specialized in the creation of communities for the development of competencies and in the digital transformation of higher education institutions. She promotes the UNESCO competency model to incorporate Education for Sustainable Development in the academic curriculum, through deep transformation processes based on transformative pedagogies.
Kelly holds Master degrees in Higher Education from the University of Oslo (Norway) and in European Politics and Policy from New York University (USA). She has 7+ years of experience in HE as a researcher, practitioner and analyst. Her passion for understanding the role of HE in climate change, politics and society drove her to work for UNESCO IESALC’s Policy Analysis team where she can consider HE policymaking globally. She also volunteers with the Climate Action Network for International Educators (CANIE) and leads a team to produce the podcast Trends in Higher Education Systems in International Spheres (THESIS).
Lily has been leading consensus-making among multi-stakeholders to promote agenda setting and implementation of emerging education priorities, establishing innovative partnerships to support increasing access and quality of higher education, and leading South-South Cooperation on strategic higher education planning and financing. Prior to this role, she has worked in policymaking and project management on Education, Innovation, Environmental Efficiency, and Standardization with a global scope covering all UN regions and hands-on experience in more than 40 countries. She has also managed 1.26 million donation implementations to eight countries in the Global South during the pandemic.
Plans and carries out local transfers and trips to support the daily activities of the director and institutional staff; carries out the administrative management and the revision of the vehicle under his charge. Also supports in the delivery of official correspondence.
With experience in the public and private sectors, Sara has extensive experience developing communication strategies and inter-institutional relations, with skills to work in complex and intercultural environments. At the Institute, she is responsible for coordinating the dissemination of knowledge through media and publications. She holds a BA in Social Communication from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, an MA from New York University and courses on Literary Studies from Universidad Central de Venezuela.
With a European PhD in Applied Social Sciences, she is a professor at the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of the Autonomous University of Madrid and coordinator of the Center for Documentation and Research on Disability. For more than a decade, her main line of research focuses on the processes of inclusion and exclusion in HE, analyzing from the conceptions of its members to the results of policies that affect underrepresented groups. She has taken part in national and international related projects and has published papers warning about the weak commitment of our HE systems to inclusion.
Specialist and consultant for the incorporation of technologies in education, committed to academic excellence and the integral development of learners, he has an occupational profile enriched by a solid academic background; and more than two decades accompanying teaching-learning processes mediated by virtual learning platforms. His goal is to contribute significantly to educational processes, fostering a stimulating and participatory learning environment that inspires the intellectual and emotional growth of teachers and students.
Engineer and bilingual master’s degree with 15 years of experience in leadership positions, in the development of sustainability areas, consolidation of strategies and high impact relationships with different sectors within the sustainability and development ecosystem. She has led the creation of sustainability areas until their consolidation within the organization’s strategy, in addition to leading social and environmental programs. Her experience in community relations has allowed her to lead shared value generation programs.
Neus is the Executive Assistant to the Director. She has extensive experience supporting senior management. She brings to the Institute more than two decades of experience in the private sector. Prior to joining UNESCO IESALC, she held similar roles in prominent global multinational consulting firms. Her strong management background is complemented by international studies in the United States and France.
Francesc Pedró is since May 2019 director of the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC). Previously, he worked as principal administrator and senior analyst at the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and as head of education policy at UNESCO. He is a Professor of Comparative Education Policy in the Department of Political Science at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona).
José Antonio received his B.A. degree in Librarianship (Cum Laude) and Law degree (Cum Laude) from the Central University of Venezuela. He also holds a master’s degree (‘Top 5% Honors Class’) in Information Management from Sheffield University, UK. He is keenly interested in the internationalization of HE, particularly student mobility, and human rights and their full enforcement, particularly the right to education beyond the “minimum core concept”. He has interest in treaty law and the processes of treaty negotiation, ratification, implementation, and monitoring.
Engineer and educational consultant with more than 15 years of solid experience in the creation, implementation and optimization of online educational programs. She has experience from the pedagogical evaluation process to the expert management of LMS systems and content repositories. She is deeply passionate about the application of new technologies in the pursuit of innovative educational quality, with the aim of enriching the learning experience in virtual environments.
Executive Editor of the ESS Journal
With experience in academia and research management, Debora is in charge of the editorial production of the journal ESS, an organ for the dissemination of reflections and analysis of relevant topics on higher education in LAC. She has supported the production of titles and reports, presenting results institutionally in conferences and working groups. She has also generated knowledge on institutional and international university networks and provided technical, academic, and training support on quality assurance.
Giulia graduated in International Relations from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), holds a master’s degree in Culture of Peace (UCA, Spain) and another in Latin American Studies (USAL, Spain). She has over ten years of experience in international cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a focus on culture and education. She joined UNESCO IESALC as a consultant supporting the Institute’s youth strategy and the Regional Conference on Higher Education – CRES+5 and is currently a project officer in the partnership and UN liaison unit, working across different initiatives that promote south-south cooperation, multistakeholder collaboration and youth engagement to transform education.
Karla holds a joint master’s degree in Research and Innovation in Higher Education from the Danube University Krems in Austria and Tampere University in Finland. She is interested in higher education policies and how these shape different systems and countries, which is reflected in her work at the Policy Analysis Team of UNESCO-IESALC. In addition, Karla has over 5 years of experience in the field of adult education and faculty development.
Yeritza worked since August 1993 in the Administrative Unit, specifically in the accounting sector of the UNESCO Office in Caracas, Venezuela. She continued in that position even when the Office became what it is today, the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNESCO IESALC), in 1999. Prior to this period, Yeritza accumulated vast experience in the private banking sector.
Jaime is a specialist on higher education (HE) policies, currently working on the contribution of HE institutions to sustainable development, including the SDG evaluation tool set4hei.org, as well as on the use of microcredentials in HE. His publications address issues such as universal access and the right to HE, gender equality in HE institutions, academic careers, HE financing and financial support to students, the impact of artificial intelligence in HE, the inclusion of HE within national development plans, HE governance and regulation, the local impact of HE, and the futures of HE. Jaime holds a Master’s degree in public and social policy.
Expert in development cooperation projects focused on the education sector and on strengthening the digital skills of young people and teachers. Specialist in planning and management of development cooperation interventions with extensive experience in the management of impact projects and committed to knowledge management as the backbone in the implementation of transformative initiatives.
Her work focuses on Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education. Amongst other publications, she has co-authored the Quick Start Guide for ChatGPT and AI in Higher Education and the Primer for Higher Education Stakeholders: Harnessing the Era of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education. She is a political scientist with a double master’s degree in Global Policies for Education Development. She has over 7 years of experience managing education projects for vulnerable populations, especially in South America.