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Marcela Escobari

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Marcela Escobari
Assistant Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development for Latin America and the Caribbean
In office
January 13, 2022 – April 10, 2024
PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded byJohn Barsa
In office
May 17, 2016 – January 20, 2017
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byMark Feierstein
Succeeded byJohn Barsa
Personal details
Born (1973-11-16) November 16, 1973 (age 51)
Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Political partyDemocratic
EducationSwarthmore College (BA)
Harvard University (MPP)

Marcela X. Escobari (born November 16, 1973) is a Bolivian-American government official and diplomat who serving as an immigration advisor in the National Security Council. Prior to her NSC position she served as the Assistant Administrator of the Latin American and Caribbean Bureau at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from January 2022 to April 2024. She previously worked as a Senior Fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., where she led the Workforce of the Future initiative.[1]

She served as the Assistant Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean from May 2016 to January 2017 after being nominated by President Barack Obama on December 7, 2015 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 17, 2016.[2] Previously, she was the Executive Director of the Center for International Development at Harvard University.[3] Before that, she led the Americas region and served on the Executive Committee of the OTF Group (formerly Monitor Group) and worked as a financial analyst at J.P. Morgan Chase & Company.[1]

In April 12, 2021, President Joseph Biden announced his intent to nominate Escobari to serve in her former role at USAID.[4] On July 28, 2021, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held a hearing regarding her nomination. On December 18, 2021, her nomination was confirmed in the Senate.[5]

Early life and education

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Escobari was born in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. She attended Santa Cruz Cooperative School (SCCS) high school. In 1992 she came to the United States to pursue a Bachelor's degree. She received her bachelor's degree in Economics from Swarthmore College in 1996. She graduated in 2001 from Harvard Kennedy School of Government with an M.A. in Public Policy. Her master's thesis, "Assessing Network Applications for Economic Development " won best Policy Analysis Exercise (PAE) in her graduating class.[6]

Career

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After completing her undergraduate education, Escobari worked for two years as a financial analyst in mergers and acquisitions at J.P. Morgan in New York City.[1] She worked as a visiting scholar at the London Business School, writing two strategy cases on Brazilian companies (Natura was used at the MBA program). After receiving her graduate degree from Harvard, she joined OTF Group, an international management consulting firm that was a spinoff of Monitor Group (now Monitor Deloitte), where she advised governments on how to increase export competitiveness and harness the private sector to eradicate poverty.[7][8]

From 2007 to 2016, Escobari served as the Executive Director of Harvard University's Center for International Development (CID), a research center working to generate breakthrough ideas that bring stable, shared, and sustainable prosperity to regions around the world.[3][9] During her tenure, the Center tripled in size, with projects in 17 countries across 5 continents focused on unlocking constraints to economic growth.[3] Under her leadership, the Center published the Atlas for Economic Complexity, a data visualization tool that allows people to explore global trade flows across markets, track these dynamics over time and discover new growth opportunities for every country.[10][11]

Escobari left CID in 2016 when she was confirmed as the first woman to serve as USAID's Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean. In that role, she worked to reinforce U.S. support for the peace accord in Colombia, focused on the post-hurricane response in Haiti, and pushed for a more proactive strategy to confront the humanitarian and political crisis in Venezuela. In response to Congress' doubling of funding to Central America, she launched a task force to ramp up talent and capacity at the regional hubs to disburse funds more strategically to combat the root causes of poverty and migration in the region.[4]

From 2011 to May 2016, Escobari also served on the board of Root Capital, a nonprofit focused on financing rural development globally.[12]

In 2017, Escobari left USAID and became a Senior Advisor at Mastercard's Center for InclusiveGrowth, where she advised on data philanthropy and research initiatives.

In 2018, she became a visiting fellow and, later, a senior fellow, at the Brookings Institution, where she created the Workforce of the Future initiative. Her research at Brookings uses data and network analysis to chart cities' paths toward economic growth; examine the dynamics of economic mobility in the U.S. labor market; and offer policy solutions to align economic and workforce development efforts at the city level, including responses to economic shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. She has also written on the role of the private sector in driving job quality in a sustainable manner. Escobari's Brookings publications and research insights have been cited in publications such as the New York Times,[13] BBC,[14] Bloomberg,[15] CNBC,[16] Washington Post,[17] and Forbes Advisor.[18]

In 2020, Escobari co-led the Development, Global Health and Refugee policy working group for President Joseph Biden's presidential campaign.

After two years serving as Assistant Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development for Latin America and the Caribbean, Escobari resigned to join the National Security Council as an immigration advisor.[19]

Selected publications

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Books and Reports

Blogs, Op-Eds, Podcasts, and Journal Articles

Published Congressional Testimony

Online Data Visualization Tools

Awards and recognitions

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Marcela Escobari". Brookings. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  2. ^ "PN1005 — Marcela Escobari — United States Agency for International Development 114th Congress (2015-2016)". US Congress. 18 December 2021. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d Center for International Development, Harvard University (2016). "Senate Confirms Marcela Escobari as Head of USAID Bureau for LAC".
  4. ^ a b "President Biden Announces His Intent to Nominate 11 Key Administration Leaders on National Security and Law Enforcement". The White House. 2021-04-12. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  5. ^ "PN415 — Marcela Escobari — United States Agency for International Development 117th Congress (2021-2022)". US Congress. 18 December 2021. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  6. ^ Aral, S; Escobari, M; Nishina, R (2001). "Assessing Network Applications for Economic Development: Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI) Project" (PDF). MIT Media Laboratory-eDevelopmentGroup.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ "OTF Group Company Profile | Management and Employees List". Datanyze. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  8. ^ "Marcela Escobari". Bruegel | The Brussels-based economic think tank. 2 February 2018. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  9. ^ "Marcela Escobari". CEPR. 7 January 2021. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  10. ^ Hausmann, R; Hidalgo, C; Bustos, S; Coscia, M; Simoes, A; Yildrim, M (2013). The Atlas of Economic Complexity (PDF). MIT Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ "The Atlas of Economic Complexity by @HarvardGrwthLab". atlas.cid.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  12. ^ Root Capital, Inc (2016). "Form 990" (PDF). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. ^ Porter, Eduardo (2020-12-01). "Reinventing Workers for the Post-Covid Economy". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  14. ^ Gent, Edd. "Why reskilling won't always guarantee you a new job". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  15. ^ Pickert, Reade (7 November 2019). "For 53 Million Americans in Low-Wage Jobs, a Difficult Road Out". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  16. ^ Rosenbaum, Eric (22 March 2021). "How low-wage work could get even worse in a post-pandemic future". CNBC. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  17. ^ "Opinion | Infrastructure should be a no-brainer". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  18. ^ "FDA Approves Pfizer's and Moderna's Covid-19 Vaccines. Will This Save The Economy? – Forbes Advisor". www.forbes.com. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  19. ^ "White House shakes up its immigration team". www.thehill.com. Retrieved 2024-05-03.
  20. ^ Fairbanks, Michael; Fal, Malik; Escobari-Rose, Marcela; Hooper, Elizabeth; Warren, Rick (2009). In the river they swim : essays from around the world on enterprise solutions to poverty. West Conshohocken, Pa.: Templeton Foundation Press. ISBN 9781599472515.
  21. ^ "Jury". St. Gallen Symposium. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  22. ^ "Network of Global Future Councils 2016-2018" (PDF). World Economic Forum. May 2019. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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