Marco Antonio Cuevas Meza

Sponsoring Rotary District: 4185
Worked in: Mexico
Degrees from: Universidad de las Americas-Puebla, El Colegio de Mexico, University of California-San Diego
Future plans: "I am planning to pursue a PhD in Public Policy in the United States, after graduating from Duke University, where I would like to study the impact of the cancelation of Conditional Cash Transfer programs on disadvantaged populations in Mexico's Southeast."

Marco Cuevas is a 2021 Master of International Development Policy (MIDP) candidate at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy. Marco graduated magna cum laude from the Universidad de las Américas-Puebla with a BA in International Relations and received masters’ degrees in Political Science from El Colegio de México, and in International Affairs from the University of California-San Diego. He also spent a year in Brazil as a Rotary Exchange Student.

Prior to joining the Sanford School of Public Policy, he served as Head of the National Employment Service in the State of Tlaxcala, Mexico, where he promoted new employment for young professionals and issued loans to new businesses promising employment to at-risk populations. He also administered the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program between Mexico and Canada, by which more than 2,000 Mexican farmers from the State of Tlaxcala annually obtain jobs in Canada for anywhere between two to eight months.
He launched his career in Mexico’s federal government as a junior staff advisor to the Minister of Public Safety, then served as director of policy planning at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and most recently as senior staff advisor to the Minister of Social Development.

During his time in the MIDP program, he plans to conduct research about the relationship between insecurity and rising levels of poverty in the Mexican Southeast. Additionally, he would like to do research on the effects of migration in local politics and development, in the Northern Highlands of the State of Puebla, Mexico. Finally, Marco hopes to return to his country in order to apply the skills and knowledge he gained at Duke in the most underdeveloped areas of Mexico.