Mexico Relations

Paola Garcia Hidalgo

Assistant Vice President, Mexico Relations

Paola serves as Assistant Vice President, Mexico Relations, at ASU's Office of Government and Community Engagement. As part of this role, she is responsible for keeping the university's institutional relations with Mexico, working with ASU leadership members.

She develops strategic collaboration with Mexican government agencies, universities, nonprofit organizations, and corporations. Working with units across the university, she identifies mutual interests with Mexican partners, designs and implements solution-driven initiatives. Recently, she's led the implementation of semiconductor workforce development initiatives with federal and state government agencies and universities that have delivered trainings and online programing to thousands of learners across Mexico. This initiative aims to increase talent in North America to achieve nearshoring opportunities, in alignment with the university's efforts to support the CHIPS and Science Act.

Prior to this role, Paola served as the first program manager of ASU's Spirit of Service Scholars. This initiative prepares outstanding students interested in public service. She developed the programming, operations, and evaluation for the program's first two years.

In Mexico, she worked at economic development agencies in Sonora, strengthening the supply chain management and FDI attraction. She also worked on small business development, as the founding executive director of a nonprofit organization where she helped prepare hundreds of business plans, and served as executive director of a tech-based business incubator.

Paola earned a B.S. in industrial and systems engineering (Summa Cum Laude) from Tecnológico de Monterrey, and a master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. As a digital transformation enthusiast, in 2023 she earned the Professional Certificate in Digital Transformation from MIT Professional Education.