Ana Lúcia Gazzola is Director of IESALC (UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean). Prior to that position she was Vice-Director and director of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, (UFMG), Brasil, and Dean of Postgraduate studies, where she was in charge of the formulation, instrumentation and evaluation of academic policies related to postgraduate studies. She also exercised the ANDIFES presidency (Association of Directors of Universities and Federal Institutions of Brazil) and was Member Associate of the Council for the Economic and Social Development of the Presidency of the Federal Republic of Brazil.

Ana Lucia Gazzola is a Graduate in Letters, with a Masters’ in Luso-Brazilian and Latin American Literature and holds a Doctorate in Compared Literature from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, USA. She followed postdoctoral studies in Theory of the Culture at the University of Duke, Durham, North Carolina, USA.

Ms Gazzola is author of several publications on Latin American higher education and culture.