Biography

I am committed and passionate for furthering Academic Development as a profession that intersects with current educational standards and teachers’ ‘real’ concerns.

Being exposed to a variety of academic cultures I grew a particular interest in understanding learning and its behavior taking into consideration how learning may be influenced by external and societal factors.

Studies:

PhD in Social Psychology, London School of Economics, 2001. Thesis title: 'Social Representations of Human Rights: the case of the patrona-muchacha relationship'. A look inside the private life of women in Mexican middle-class urban households.

Licenciatura in Psychology at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México, UNAM, 1995.

Additional training:

I am currently training as a systemic and strategic therapist at the Gregory Bateson Institute, the European representation of the Mental Research Institute located in Palo Alto, California.

In 2004 I became an accredited Quality Management Evaluator of the European Foundation of Quality Management EFQM.

Experience:

Before joining EPFL in 2009, I worked at the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) where I collaborated as a Quality Advisor for teachers and instructors.

Teaching assistant at the Department of Social Psychology of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

My first job in Educational Development was as part of a newly established Pedagogical Research Support for the Virtual Campus Project of the renowned Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM)at Mexico City (1996-1997).

I volunteered for many causes, such as for the Indo-American Refugee and Migrant Organization (IRMO), in London and Amnesty International.

Mandates:
During my free-time I participate on trainings on scientific communication and teaching in Higher Education.

Other responsabilities

Lecturer, University of Bern for the CAS Program on Teaching in Higher Education.

Secretary General, Swiss Faculty Development Network, SFDN (2009-2015).
Ocassional reviewer for the International Journal of Academic Development (IJAD), and the Revue Internationale pour la Pédagogie de l'Enseignement Supérieur, RIPES.