Carlos Guillermo Alvarado Cerezo Guillermo Alvarado Cerezo

Carlos Alvarado is the General Secretary for the Central American Higher Council (CSUCA). He promotes the integration and strengthening of higher education institutions in Central America through their internationalization and academic innovations, which are based on the needs of each country in the region. For CARP, Carlos is the Principal Investigator for the Latin American and the Caribbean Regional Unit at CSUCA, based in Guatemala City. He is responsible for the successful implementation of CARP in LAC and for managing the regional funds to support research on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction within the CSUCA-partnered universities.

Carlos has an extensive career in the academic field. He is currently the General Secretary at CSUCA, a position he holds for the second consecutive period (2018-2022 and 2022-2026). Carlos is also the current President of the Board of Directors of the Consultative Committee of the Central American Integration System (SICA) since July 2020. Carlos has been selected as one of the leaders to work on Axis 11, which focuses on the autonomy principle for higher education institutions at the upcoming Regional Conference on Higher Education (CRES+5). This important conference is being organized by UNESCO and will take place in Brasilia, Brazil in 2024. He is also the representative of the COPERNICUS Academy for Central America and has been a rapporteur, moderator, lecturer, and guest panelist at various national, regional, and international activities.

He holds a degree in Dental Surgery from the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, the only public university in his country. Later, he was elected as Rector of the institution for the period 2014 – 2018. He also worked for the institution for more than 35 years, holding various positions such as Full Professor, Deputy Secretary, Academic Secretary, and Dean of the Dental School. He also served in the Central Administration of the University as a  General Secretary for two consecutive periods.

Carlos also holds a master’s degree in Senior Political Management and Public Administration, a post-graduate degree in Reengineering, Computer Science, and Social Communication Technologies, and a specialization in Educational Innovation, among others. His professional career has allowed him to contribute to the development and transformation of higher education not only in the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean with whom he works hand in hand through different higher education networks.