Andrea is an economist with expertise in public policy, inequality, and social sciences. She has extensive experience in both the public sector and research, particularly in analysing key information to support evidence-based decision-making. Currently, Andrea serves as Chief Advisor to the Ministry of Education of the Government of Chile, where she leads the development, implementation, and deepening of policies that strengthen public education across all levels. Her work specifically focuses on designing and drafting proposals for legal reforms and evaluating public policies aimed at enhancing the educational system.
Before her current role, Andrea worked in higher education policy within both the Government of Chile and the Chilean Universities Council. At the Council, she studied and analysed the higher education admissions system and equity access programs, with the aim of proposing improvements to make access to quality higher education more equitable. In the Government of Chile, she was part of the cabinet for the Minister of Education, contributing to the higher education reform that eliminated tuition fees for students from the 60% most disadvantaged families in Chile. This landmark reform sparked a significant political debate on inequality, challenging concepts like meritocracy and educational justice.
Andrea has also been an active participant in social movements in Chile, including the 2011 student movement and the 2019 social uprising, both of which were pivotal in driving political change in the country. Her political commitment is to challenge existing social and economic structures to ensure equal opportunities for all individuals to develop freely and independently, regardless of their socioeconomic background. Her involvement in social movements and her work in higher education policy has connected her with people working against inequality in Chile and Latin America from different work areas and perspectives.
Andrea holds an undergraduate degree in Economics and a master's in Public Policy from the University of Chile, as well as an MSc in Inequalities and Social Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
I have seen change happen as social movements in Chile have revalidated protest as a form of political action, leading to important reforms. I could see in Chile’s recent reforms, in which I participated, that the importance of free higher education is more than just not having to pay: it calls into question the issues of meritocracy, segregation and exclusion. We are already seeing the impacts of these reforms, as more students from the most deprived income quintile are enrolling and they have lower drop-out rates than their peers.Andrea Encalada García