LASA 2008

Maria Eugenia del Castillo

Maria Eugenia del Castillo was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She earned a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra and is now pursuing a Master of Public Administration concentrating in International Economic Policy and Advanced Policy and Economic Analysis at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). Before coming to SIPA, Maria worked the Inter-American Development Bank Country Office in the Dominican Republic, mainly in the competitiveness sector. Previous to her experience at the IDB, she worked at the Center of Monetary and Banking studies.

Aurora Cardenas

Aurora Cardenas was born in Lima, Peru. She studied Economics at Universidad del Pacifico in Lima, and now she is a current graduate student at Columbia University - School of International and Public Affairs – pursuing a Master Degree in Public Administration, with a concentration in International Economic Policy. Before coming to Columbia, she worked at the National Council of Competitiveness, a permanent commission of the Prime Minister Bureau (PCM), and at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (MINCETUR). In MINCETUR, she was in charge of the coordination of International Technical Cooperation projects and was a member of the Trade Capacity Building Group during negotiations with EFTA, Canada and the European Union for Free Trade Agreements. Her hobbies are jogging and reading especially Latin American literature.

Miguel Posada

Miguel was born in Bogotá, Colombia. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in economics from the Universidad de los Andes and is now pursuing a Master of International Affairs concentrating in International Economic Policy at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. Miguel worked for a period of time in the private sector but he likes to think that his major contribution to his country’s growth and development was at his last job before moving to New York. As a Market Research Analyst at Proexport, Colombia’s Trade, Foreign Investment and Tourism Promotion Agency, he identified potential industries to promote Foreign Direct Investment, provided economic and business information to potential investors and advised Colombian companies on international trade issues.

In addition to NYC, Miguel lived in Strasbourg, France where he spent six months during 2003.

Alison Hare

Alison Hare graduated from the Universidad Externado de Colombia with a degree in Finance, Government and International Relations. She worked for 2 years in Washington DC with the Center for International Policy in their Latin America Demilitarization/Plan Colombia project; and after travelling in Europe, Central and South America and then later across the US, she moved to the Republic of Benin in West Africa with the Peace Corps. During her two and a half years there she worked in everything from agriculture to nutrition and AIDS. She is now at SIPA pursuing her MIA, concentrating on Economic and Political Development with a focus in Conflict Resolution. She plans on returning this summer to Colombia to intern with an NGO working on public policy in the framework of peace and civil society.

Julio Mariscal

Julio Mariscal received his BS in economics from Universidad de las Américas, Puebla (UDLAP) in Mexico.  He has experience in the private and public sectors and working in consultant teams.  Before coming to SIPA, where he is doing graduate studies in public administration, he worked as an associate in the team in charge of designing the impact evaluation of loan programs  at The World Bank.

Daniel Hincapie

Daniel Hincapie has a BA in Finance and International Affairs from Universidad Externado de Colombia. Before coming to SIPA he used to work as a congressional delegate to the Free Trade Agreement Negotiations between Colombia and the United States. He is currently pursuing his MIA, with functional Concentration in Advance Policy and Economic Analysis.