About the UIS Director
(Available in French и Spanish)
Dr Montoya became the Director of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) in 2015. The UIS is the official UN repository for statistics in the fields of education, science and technology, culture and communications.
Dr Montoya brings to the institute extensive experience in a wide range of national and international initiatives to improve the quality, management and use of education statistics, with a specific focus on learning assessment. With the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Dr Montoya is working closely with the international education community to build consensus around a core set of indicators to measure progress towards education targets. This work entails a complete review of existing sources of information as well as an evaluation of statistical capacity-building services needed to help Member States produce and use the resulting data. In particular, she is representing UNESCO as the co-leader of SDG 4 (Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all) and the chair of the Technical Advisory Group on thematic indicators for the Education for All Steering Committee.
Prior to joining the UIS, Ms Montoya was the Director-General of Assessment and Evaluation of Education Quality at the Ministry of Education, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Among her many responsibilities, she oversaw the creation of the first comprehensive education quality index produced in Argentina. During the course of her career at the Ministry, she introduced a series of institutional changes and capacity-building initiatives to strengthen independence and objectivity in the production of education statistics and the measurement of learning outcomes.
Ms Montoya has also coordinated Argentina’s participation in several international assessment programmes, including: the Latin American Program of Educational Quality of the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI); IEA’s International Computer and Information Literacy Study; the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study; Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study; Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study; and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies.
Ms Montoya was also professor and researcher at the Catholic University of Argentina. She holds a Master’s and PhD in Policy Analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School, and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Ms Montoya is the author of many publications on education, vocational training and labour market issues. She has extensive experience as a researcher and consultant for major national and global organizations.
24/09/2015