Prior to her current position, Helga Hernandez worked as the Vice-President of planning and projects of the Colombian National Tourism Fund and former deputy Minister of Education of Colombia. She has built a solid career working in her country at the Ministry of National Defense, the National Planning Department, the Presidency of the Republic and the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, among others. She has experience in the structuring and implementation of projects and public policies with a territorial approach, in State-building interventions in areas affected by armed conflict and by illegal economies.

Helga is an economist and holds a master’s degree in Analysis of Contemporary Political, Economic, and International Issues from the Externado University of Colombia. In 2015, she was selected to participate at the Georgetown University’s Innovation and Leadership in Government Program (ILG).

Her research as an AsiaGlobal Fellow focused on local governments. She analyzed and contrasted Asian experiences in how to make sustainable strategies to promote growth of local economies. This emphasis seeks to explore different competitive mechanisms that could create value and replace the illegal incomes that predominate in some of the rural regions in her country, a problem that is especially relevant to the current post-conflict situation in Colombia.