Diana Alarcón received her PhD in Economics from the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Alarcon had been Chief Advisor and Director of International Affairs since December 2018 when Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum was Mexico City Mayor. Dr. Alarcon retired in August 2017 from the United Nations after 10 years of service at UN headquarters in New York. Her latest appointment at the UN was Head of the Policy and Development Analysis Unit at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). From this position, she led the editorial team of the World Economic and Social Survey, the world’s longest development publication. In the United Nations Secretariat she played a leading role in the preparation of analytical contributions to the intergovernmental processes that defined the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Dr. Alarcon played an important role in the coordination of technical assistance provided by the United Nations for the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); she was co-chair of the United Nations commission that prepared the meta-data for the MDGs, and in 2008 she co-directed the creation and annual publication of the report on compliance with MDG-8 in relation to international cooperation for development.
