Paula Acosta is the director for Government and Strategic Areas at the Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, where she is in charge of monitoring the strategic goals of the president and also the cross-cutting coordination of his regional strategic initiatives. Her professional career includes high level positions within the government such as Deputy Minister of Health and general deputy director of the National Planning Department. She has also been a lecturer at Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia, and researcher at Fedesarrollo, Colombia's most important research institute on public policy. Ms. Acosta holds a B.A. in industrial engineering from Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia, an M.A. in economics from Georgetown University, and an M.A. in public administration from Syracuse University.