Curriculum Vitae
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Profile
UNICEF Chief Statistician and Deputy Director (Data & Analytics) with senior experience building statistical systems and policy analytics for international organizations, including leadership roles at the World Bank. Work spans poverty and equity measurement, education and learning assessment, SDG monitoring, and large-scale survey/microdata harmonization, with a focus on reproducible analytics and operational decision support.
Selected contributions
- Led multi-unit data and analytics functions, managing teams of 45+ professionals across domains (population, education, poverty, nutrition, health, WASH, child protection, climate, frontier data, survey methods).
- Co-developed the World Bank Learning Poverty measure and contributed to scaling comparable learning outcomes metrics across countries.
- Built global data harmonization and analytics architectures spanning 1,000+ learning assessments and 1,200+ household surveys.
- Delivered technical assistance and capacity building with national statistical systems and sector ministries, including poverty mapping and deprivation indices to support resource allocation.
Education
- PhD in Economics, University of Newcastle (Newcastle, United Kingdom), 2006 (thesis submitted 2005). Supervisors: Prof. Peter Dolton; Prof. Nauro Campos.
- MSc in Economics, Universidade Federal Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 2001. Supervisors: Marcelo C. Neri.
- BA in Economics, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), 1998.
- High School, Sandia Preparatory School (Albuquerque, NM, USA), 1993.
Work Experience
UNICEF Headquarters
Chief Statistician & Deputy Director — February 2023–Present
UNICEF's first Chief Statistician, leading the organization's global data and statistical work. Responsible for a section with ten Units (Population; Education; Poverty, Equity and Gender; Nutrition; Health; WASH; Child Protection; Climate; Frontier Data; and Data Collection/Survey Methodology) and a total of 45 international staff with an annual budget of approximately $20 million. Main responsibilities include ensuring quality, timely and within-budget production and delivery of over 300 child-related indicators, including 19 Sustainable Development Indicators, country-level technical assistance on child-centered household surveys, such as the Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey, and the production of approximately 50 publications per year including refereed journal articles and UNICEF flagship reports on child-related SDGs.
World Bank Education Practice, Global Knowledge and Innovation Team
Lead Economist & EdTech Fellow — October 2018–February 2023
Lead Economist, EdTech Fellow and Education Statistics Coordinator from the World Bank Education Global Practice. Primary activity included the work on the measurement and operationalization of World Bank Human Capital Project, and on the scale-up of population measures of educational outcomes, with a focus on early childhood and learning outcomes. Created the EduAnalytics team at the World Bank Education Global Practice. Member of the core team which developed the World Bank Learning Poverty measure and Global Target. Implemented a data analytics reference architecture for over 1,000 learning assessments, including a Global Harmonization of Learning assessments, and developed standards and protocols for the reproducibility of indicator and analytical work produced by the EduAnalytics team.
World Bank Poverty and Equity Global Practice
Lead Economist — June 2015–September 2018
Led the Global Solution Group on Welfare Measurement and Statistical Capacity for Results from the Poverty and Equity Global Practice; as well as the Data for Goals initiative for the monitoring of the World Bank twin goals. Lead the creation of a Global Harmonization of over 1,200 household surveys used for the Global Poverty Monitoring and the creation of a data analytics reference architecture for the World Bank. Lead the dialogue, production and capacity building around the joint production with the National Statistical Agencies of Poverty Maps in the EU members states funded by DGREGIO, including Latvia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Hungary. Lead the Reimbursable Advisory Service for the Ministry of Regional Development in Croatia, including the conceptualization and implementation of the Croatian Index of Multiple Deprivation, currently used to determined EU Structural funds allocation within Croatia. Co-Lead the dialogue with DGAGR on a World Bank study on the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy in Poverty.
World Bank Poverty and Equity Practice Europe and Central Asia
Senior Economist — February 2013–June 2015
Led the World Bank Knowledge and Advisory work for the Government of Turkey on Poverty, Equity and Shared Prosperity, co-Lead World Bank Knowledge and Advisory work in Central Asia, including an active dialogue in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan; lead the ECA Statistical Team.
World Bank PREM/LAC
Senior Economist — August 2011–January 2013
Led the World Bank Knowledge and Advisory work for the Government of Colombia on Poverty, Equity and Monitoring and Evaluation; lead the LAC Statistical Team; and the LAC Monitoring and Evaluation Network.
World Bank PREM/LAC
Economist — August 2008–August 2011
Led the World Bank Knowledge and Advisory work for the Government of Colombia on Poverty Measurement, Human Opportunities and Labor market policies for the poor; co-lead of the regional study on teenage pregnancy; co-lead of the Listening to LAC pilots, and co-lead the LAC team for Statistical Development.
Treasury of the State of Rio de Janeiro
Superintendent for Public Policy Evaluation — February 2007–January 2008
Led a team of applied econometricians to assist the decision making process of Treasury of the State of Rio de Janeiro. Main projects included: (i) the creation of 'Doing Business' indicators from the administrative records of the state of Rio; (ii) the use of DEA and stochastic frontier methods to analyze the efficiency of the state auditors and suggest personnel reallocation; (iii) the ex-post evaluation of fiscal incentives policies using a longitudinal matched employer-employee dataset and other administrative records, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of such policies; and (iv) the econometric evaluation of the federal tax simplification policy for micro entrepreneurs which open their business in the late 90s, using a longitudinal matched employer-employee dataset.
Brazilian Ministry of Education / UNESCO / UNDP
Executive Coordinator, National Evaluation of the Programme Brasil Alfabetizado — October 2004–December 2007
Designed and coordinated the implementation a nation-wide economic evaluation of the Brazilian National Adult Literacy program. Responsibilities included implementing the evaluability assessment of the program, to suggest and supervise the necessary changes to the program design, including its monitoring and information system (MIS) in order to assure its evaluability. Additional responsibilities were to coordinate the implementation of the evaluation and providing technical assistance on all aspects of the design of instruments, sample design, field operation of a 2,000-observation panel survey of the program beneficiaries, as well as directing the analysis of the data and preparing a series of background reports. The objective of this evaluation was to the provide the Ministry of Education with a comprehensive assessment of the program targeting, effectiveness, efficiency, as well as policy recommendation for the program redesign.
Teaching & Mentoring
Teaching
- Avaliação em Políticas Públicas (Evaluation in Public Policies), Escola Nacional de Administração Pública (ENAP) (Brazil)
Training Instructor • professional
2006 - Curso de Aperfeiçoamento em Acompanhamento, Avaliação e Monitoramento de Programas e Projetos Sociais do FNDE, Escola Nacional de Administração Pública (ENAP) (Brazil)
Training Instructor • professional
2006 - Avaliação ex-post de programas sociais para gestores (Post-evaluation of Social Programs for Managers), Escola Nacional de Administração Pública (ENAP) (Brazil)
Training Instructor • professional
2006 - Regression Discontinuity Design: An Overview, Policy Study Institute (United Kingdom)
Specialist Trainer • professional
2005 - Econometria Aplicada (Applied Econometrics), Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) (Brazil)
Substitute Professor • graduate
2003–2004 - Econometria Aplicada (Applied Econometrics), Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) (Brazil)
Substitute Professor • undergraduate
2001–2002–2003 - Introdução a Economia (Introduction to Economics), Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) (Brazil)
Substitute Professor • undergraduate
2001–2002–2003 - Cálculo I (Calculus I), Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) (Brazil)
Substitute Professor • undergraduate
2001–2002–2003 - Contabilidade Nacional (National Accounting), University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (United Kingdom)
Substitute Professor • undergraduate
2000–2001 - Economia Monetaria (Monetary Economics), University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (United Kingdom)
Substitute Professor • undergraduate
2000–2001
Supervision & Mentoring
- Master's Thesis Co-Advisor, Fundação Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) (Brazil)
Co-Advisor • graduate
2008 - Doctoral Examination Committee, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) (Brazil)
Committee Member • graduate
2006 - Doctoral Co-Advisor, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) (Brazil)
Co-Advisor • graduate
2006–2007–2008
View detailed teaching & mentoring experience →
Skills
Programming & Analytics
- Stata (advanced, ado-file development, SSC contributor)
- R, Python, SQL
- Analytical APIs & data services (SDMX/REST/JSON; microdata catalogs; data warehouse APIs)
AI & Automation
- LLM-assisted analysis (governed use of LLM APIs for summarization/classification/extraction)
- Human-in-the-loop QA, versioning, and review workflows
Data Engineering
- Data quality & reliability engineering (schema validation, provenance logging, caching)
- Security & compliance for analytics (token/secret handling; PII-safe workflows)
- Reproducible workflows and automated refresh pipelines
Quantitative Methods
- Econometrics & Impact Evaluation
- Survey Design & Sampling
- Small Area Estimation & Poverty Mapping
- Data Visualization & Dashboard Development
Domain Expertise
- Poverty Measurement & Analysis
- Education Statistics & Learning Assessment
- Child Development Indicators
- SDG Monitoring & Reporting
- Human Capital Measurement
Leadership & Management
- Team Leadership (45+ staff at UNICEF)
- International Development Operations
- Multi-stakeholder Coordination
- Technical Assistance & Capacity Building
Languages
- Portuguese (native)
- English (fluent)
- Spanish (fluent)
Service and Leadership
- Co-Lead, Global Solution Group on Welfare Measurement and Statistical Capacity (World Bank)
- Co-Lead, Data for Goals Initiative (World Bank)
- Education Statistics Coordinator, Education Global Practice (World Bank)
- Member, Technical Cooperation Group on SDG 4 indicators (UNESCO Institute for Statistics)
- Reviewer, World Development, Journal of Development Economics, World Bank Research Observer ()
- SSC Contributor, Statistical Software Components (Boston College)
Selected Talks & Presentations
- Webinar: Effective Reading Instruction in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: What the Evidence Shows (2025)
Panelist: "GEEAP-endorsed literacy report global launch panel discussion"
Virtual - ADEA Triennale 2025 (2025)
Panelist: "Measurement in Foundational Learning in Africa"
Accra, Ghana - ARFSD-11 Side Event (2025)
Speaker: "The State of African Children: Harnessing Data for Policy Action and SDG Acceleration"
Virtual - CIES 2025 (2025)
Presenter: "Digital tools and data-driven approaches in foundational learning"
Chicago, USA - UN56SC Side Event: Africa Expert Group on Child-and Adolescent-Related Statistics (2025)
Organizer: "Establishing an Africa expert group on child-related statistics"
Maurice Pate conference room, New York, USA - UNSC side event: Technology-Facilitated Violence against Children & ICVAC implementation strategy (2025)
Organizer: "Launch of UNICEF data brief on TFVAC; implementation strategy for ICVAC"
Labouisse Hall, New York, USA - 56th UN Statistical Commission Side Event (2025)
Speaker: "AI & Data Quality: A Critical Intersection for Official Statistics"
New York, USA - 7th OECD World Forum on Well-being (2024)
Presenter: "Child well-being agenda"
Rome, Italy - 9th Africa Statistical Conference (2024)
Organizer: "Multiple sessions: Child-centric Surveys & MICS Programme; Health Data Analytics; Data Governance for Children; Expert group on child-related statistics"
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - 14th IAEG-SDG (2024)
Presenter: "Presenting methodology from UNICEF Child Wellbeing report"
Copenhagen, Denmark - UNICEF Pakistan — PITB Delegation Visit (2024)
Delegation Leader: "ICT Interventions and Data Analytics Collaboration"
Lahore, Pakistan - Pakistan DataFest 2024 (2024)
Keynote Speaker: "Data For Life and Equity: Closing Human Capital Gaps"
Islamabad, Pakistan - 14th NIC.br Annual Workshop on Survey Methodology (2024)
Keynote Speaker: "Improving ICT data quality and availability: combining new methodological approaches"
São Paulo, Brazil - NYU GPH Industry Seminar / PQAR Symposium (2024)
Panelist: "Biostatistics & Data Science careers panel / PQAR Symposium day"
New York, USA - IDAC Steering Committee (2024)
Chair: "First Steering Committee meeting of the International Data Alliance for Children on the Move"
Virtual
View all speaking engagements →
Blogs, Opinion & Commentaries
World Bank Blogs (24 posts)
- School closures and longer-term implications of COVID-19 for inter-generational mobility (2023)
Let's Talk Development - Why hasn’t the pandemic sparked more concern for learning losses in Latin America? The perils of an invisible crisis (2023)
Education for Global Development - The global education crisis – even more severe than previously estimated (2022)
Education for Global Development - Five lessons from remote learning during COVID-19 (2021)
Education for Global Development - Will every child be able to read by 2030? (2021)
Let's Talk Development
UNICEF & Other Organizations
- UNICEF report puts children at the heart of sustainable development (2023)
UNICEF - Learning losses due to COVID-19 could add up to $10 trillion (2020)
Brookings - Prioritizing public schooling over social transfers in Brazil (2018)
Brookings - Did the EU’s economic recession lead to a rise in populism? (2018)
Brookings
LinkedIn Articles
- From Evidence to Action: Strengthening Africa's Learning Data Ecosystems (2025)
- When the Future Arrives Faster Than Expected: Reflections on AI and Education at CIES 2025 (2025)
- Strengthening Child and Adolescent Statistics in Africa (2025)
- A Year of Insights, A Future of Action: UNICEF Data and Analytics 2024 (2025)
- Data that Matters: Achieving Both Precision and Public Trust in Statistics (2024)