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Miguel Urquiola Appointed Vice Dean for Academic Affairs
Miguel Urquiola, an associate professor at SIPA and in Columbia’s Department of Economics, has been named vice dean for academic affairs at SIPA.
When he takes office July 1, Urquiola will assume responsibility for faculty recruitment and faculty development. He replaces Scott Barrett, who will begin a year of leave after serving on a temporary basis following the February 2012 appointment of Robert C. Lieberman as interim dean.
“SIPA’s faculty are at the heart of this school — they are essential to our global public policy mission of teaching, research, and service,” said Urquiola. “I look forward to collaborating with Dean Lieberman to continue building our incomparable faculty, and to create a positive environment for faculty and students alike.”
Urquiola’s appointment is for one year. This will allow SIPA’s next permanent dean — to be named by President Lee Bollinger — to select his or her own administration.
“I'm very grateful to Miguel for his willingness to take on this important role for the school in the coming year,” Lieberman wrote in a message to SIPA faculty in which he also thanked Barrett for his service. “I know you will all join me in welcoming Miguel and saluting Scott.”
An economist by training, Urquiola is a core faculty member in Economic and Political Development at SIPA and a path-breaking scholar of education policy in the developing world, especially in Latin America. He studies educational markets, with a focus on the effects of school choice on stratification and school quality.
The new vice dean joined the Columbia faculty in 2003 and became an associate professor in 2009. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and co-editor of the Journal of Human Resources, with prior appointments at the Russell Sage Foundation, Cornell University’s economics department, the World Bank’s research department, the government of Bolivia, and the Bolivian Catholic University. He holds a BA from Swarthmore College and a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
SIPA comprises more than 70 full-time faculty and more than 200 adjunct faculty. They are the foremost scholars, researchers, and practitioners in their fields, coming from the highest levels of academic, government, non-government, nonprofit, and private-sector institutions. They produce scholarship in a wide variety of subjects, including international relations, democratization, elections, demography, and social policy.