María Cristina Cárdenas Peralta

General Coordinator of @prende.mx, an agency of the Ministry of Education, charged with the planning, coordination, execution, and periodic evaluation of the National Program of Digital Inclusion and Literacy, which focuses on the promotion and incorporation of new developments in the field of Information and Communication Technologies into the learning-teaching process.

Ms Cardenas previously worked in the Office of the Presidency to implement Pilots Programs for Digital Inclusion, which seeks to grow digital capabilities in Mexican schools, consistent with the President’s National Digital Strategy.

Prior to her work in the Presidency, Ms Cardenas worked at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, focusing on impact evaluation of projects in Central and South America. Ms. Cardenas has also worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she helped to design and implemented a pilot program for financial outreach in rural Mexico.

In addition to her time in the Office for the Coordination of the National Digital Strategy, Ms Cardenas worked for the Presidency in CONSAR, and has participated in diverse academic projects for COLMEX, ITAM, and CIDE.

Ms Cardenas received her Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Essex, and her undergraduate degree from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México