Biography
Paola is an education policy specialist, working on topics
relating to education inequalities, inclusion, intersectionality, and
evaluation methodologies of education interventions. Her background is in Political Science and Public Policy, and she is currently a PhD Student in the Faculty of Education at Cambridge University. Prior to coming to Cambridge, she worked for the United Nations Development Programme Headquarters office in New York City and Mexico City office, on policy initiatives to promote socio-emotional skills within youth students in crisis-affected communities. She has worked for the Mexican Government as Director for the Certification of Teachers and Director for the Evaluation of Education Policies. In her last position she was the research leader of the publication "International Education Strategies during COVID-19 Emergency: Preparedness, Response, Recovery and Reconstruction” (2021), in which she was responsible of the cross-country analysis of 14 case studies in Latin America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia on key education interventions to respond
to the pandemic crisis. Furthermore, she recently led the evaluation of inclusive education policies for students with disabilities in disadvantaged schools in Mexico.
Research
My research interest is focus on how to build on resilient education systems in order to became more responsive in emergencies, and frameworks to design inclusive education policies for migrants and refugees.