Mrs. DEBBIE P. LACUESTA

Mrs. Debbie P. Lacuesta is associate specialist for research, and head of the Research and Development Unit under SEAMEO INNOTECH’s Programs Office.

Mrs. Lacuesta rose from the ranks during her more than 20 years of service at SEAMEO INNOTECH working with the Center’s Research and Evaluation Program. She started as a Research Assistant in 1985; got promoted as Research Associate I in 1991, and eventually, as Research Associate II in 1996. She then moved on to become a Research Officer, a position that she held until 2005 prior to her current post.

Mrs. Lacuesta has extensive background in research and extension programs, having been involved in various capacities in numerous Center projects funded by local and international agencies, organizations and institutes. Among these notable projects are (1) the award-winning ADB-assisted project of the Department of Education Bureau of Nonformal Education on materials development for the Philippine’s nonformal education accreditation and equivalency; several projects commissioned by the Philippine Senate Committee on Education, Culture and the Arts like (2) Project TAO or Teachers’ Assistance for Optimum Well-Being, a policy research on the employment status, welfare benefits and working conditions of all public elementary and secondary school teachers, (3) Project WITTY, a survey on the profile of teacher educators and teacher training institutions in the country, and (4) Project TAO CARES, a nationwide survey on the ICT preparedness of elementary and secondary schools; (5) the case study funded by the IIEP-ANTRIEP on the successful school management in the country; (6) another ADB-funded project on the Math and Science achievement of 13 to 14-year-olds in 10 countries in Southeast Asia and a cross-country analysis of significant predictors; (7) and the educational policy notes on alternative learning systems and alternative delivery modes funded by the World Bank. On top of these, she currently serves as project coordinator of three R&D projects--the Third Elementary Education Project on Madrasah materials development, the Project IMPACT in Mindanao, and the Project e-IMPACT.

Mrs. Lacuesta’s expertise is in educational policy research and research management, program monitoring and evaluation, qualitative research and evaluation in education, literacy and nonformal education, and development of self-instructional and flexible materials for distance education.

She obtained her undergraduate diploma with a Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. At present, Mrs. Lacuesta is taking her masteral studies in Educational Management at the Pangasinan State Open University.