Dr. ETHEL AGNES P. VALENZUELA

Dr. Valenzuela currently heads the Research Studies Unit at SEAMEO INNOTECH. Prior to joining SEAMEO INNOTECH, she was Director IV of the Commission on Higher Education where she headed two offices, Office of Student Services and International Affairs Service. Before joining CHED in 1995, she served as the Chairperson of the Education Department of De La Salle-Lipa. She once held an Assistant Professorial Lecturer V position at the Educational Management Department, College of Education, De La Salle University, and Manila.

She has substantial experience in doing policy research on internationalization of higher education, lifelong learning and student financial assistance programs. She handled four policy research studies of the UNESCO Education Committee. She was appointed as a UNESCO Commissioner in Education in 2004 where she served as Vice-Chairperson and headed EDCOM’s Technical Working Group of the project “Inventory on Lifelong Learning Programs in the Philippines”.

Dr. Valenzuela once served as one of the Philippine negotiators for multilateral agreements under APEC, ASEAN, JPEPA and other bilateral agreements on higher education. She has written and developed Internationalization of Higher Education Model and has written articles on educational innovation brought about by globalization and internationalization. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific (UMAP) and a CHED Technical Panel member on Distance Education.

She served as resource person and expert advisor to some national and international associations and government inter-agency committees such as the APEC Engineer Register Project, the association of hotel, restaurant and tourism educators of the Philippines on matters pertaining to overseas internship, the UMAP Council-Philippines, the Special Committee on Scholarship and the newly established UNESCO Lifelong Learning Center for Sustainable Development.

Dr. Valenzuela has a Baccalaureate (Cum Laude) and Master’s degree in Education. She holds a Doctor of Education with specialization in Educational Management at the De La Salle University. She is an alumna of the United States International Visitors Program (IVP-Philippines) where she used to chair the Higher Education Group. She was sent by the US Department of States to several universities in the United States to study higher education management for the Twenty-first Century. She holds the Career Executive Service Officer IV rank (CESO IV) in the Philippine Government. She is a member of various international professional and academic organizations including the Phi Lambda Theta Honor Society of Women Leaders in Education and the Phi Delta Kappa.