José Cao-Alvira

José J. Cao-Alvira is a Lecturer at the Department of Economics at Barnard College. He obtained
his Ph.D. in Economics from Cornell University, and his research focuses on machine learning,
investment analysis, and the nexus of economic development and finance. Cao-Alvira is a former
Fulbright U.S. Research Scholar, and currently serves in the Fulbright Foundation’s U.S. Scholar
Peer Review Committee and as Mentor for the Fulbright Commission of Colombia.

Cao-Alvira lectures Statistics for Economics, Finance and Accounting for Economics, Financial
Economics, International Money and Finance, and Money and Banking courses at Barnard.
Before joining Barnard, he held professorial and executive positions at the City University of
New York (CUNY) and the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). As Associate Dean for CUNY, he
worked with eleven academic departments, the College’s executive branch and over 135 full time
faculty members in areas of budgeting, scheduling, MSCHE reaccreditation, assessment of
learning and curriculum development. As Chair of the Graduate School of Business at UPR, he
directly supported the initial AACSB accreditation of the Business School.

In his private practice and investment advisory roles, Cao-Alvira has worked on portfolio
management, economic impact analysis, project evaluation, and macro-financial assessment. His
consultancy work with public-sector agencies mainly focuses on antitrust issues in the health
sector, the financial health of retirement plans of public employees, and assessing power
cogeneration contracts. He is a CFA charterholder, an Investment Advisor Representative (IAR),
and possesses the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and Financial Risk Manager (FRM)
professional designations.