Alicia Bárcena is the executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Previously, she served as the under-secretary-general for Management at United Nations Headquarters in New York, chief of staff and deputy chief of staff to then secretary-general, Kofi Annan. Prior to her work with Annan, Bárcena held the post of deputy executive secretary and director of ECLAC’s Environment and Human Settlements Division. She also served as coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Sustainable Development Program of the United Nations Development Programme, responsible for the Environmental Citizenship Project at the United Nations Environment Program. Before her work with ECLAC and various U.N. posts, Bárcena was the founding director of the Earth Council in Costa Rica, a non-governmental organization in charge of follow-up to the agreements reached at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. She has taught and conducted research at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) in Mexico and has published numerous articles on sustainable development, public policy, environmental issues, and public participation. Bárcena holds a Bachelor of Science in biology, and holds a Master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University. She has completed courses for a degree of Master in ecology, and has begun studies for a PhD in economics at UAM.