Oscar Rojas is Executive Director of Fundación AlvarAlice, a Colombian non-profit committed to social development.
Prior to this post, he was Rector at the University Del Valle in Cali, Colombia. On August 1, 2002, in a ceremony presided over by Colombia's Minister of Education, he was awarded the Colombian Education Department's top award in recognition of his commitment and contributions to the country's higher education sector. From 1992 to 1999, he was the vice president for social development at the Foundation for Higher Education (FES), a corporate not-for-profit finance organization with a social mission. FES was created 34 years ago in Cali, Colombia as a university foundation. While remaining a nonprofit, the foundation evolved into a financial conglomerate owning a commercial financing company, a trust fund and a stock brokerage business. The Foundation annually awarded US$8 million in grants in education, health, income-generating programs for vulnerable groups, protection of the environment, protection of human rights (particularly those of children), and the institutional development of civil society organizations.
Previous positions with the Carvajal Foundation include vice president for community service programs for 12 years, director of a public hospital in Cali, and Colombian Vice-Minister of Health. Dr. Rojas has also served as a temporary advisor for public health issues to the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank. Dr. Rojas is an active member of CIVICUS (World Alliance for Citizen Participation) and is in charge of the Executive Secretariat of CIVICUS’ Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Dr. Rojas received a Medical Doctor degree from The University Del Valle and has Masters degrees in epidemiology from the University Del Valle and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the University of London, respectively.
The AlvarAlice Foundation, founded in 2003, supports innovative projects and programs that seek to enhance the life and living conditions of Colombian citizens, particularly the underprivileged by advocating strategic global, national, and local alliances, leveraging effective mobilization of resources, and promoting conflict resolution in the interrelated areas of peace building, education, healthcare, civic action, and income-generation.