Carlos Alvarado Quesada, the forty-eighth President of the Republic of Costa Rica, completed his constitutionally limited term in May 2022. He is a Professor of Practice in Diplomacy and a Senior Fellow at the Edward R. Murrow Center for a Digital World of The Fletcher School at Tufts University.

In 2018, Alvarado assumed the Presidency of Costa Rica with one of the largest fiscal deficits of all time: 7% and rising. Two years later, the country faced the worst health crisis for humanity in a century. From his position, making unpopular decisions and measures, he managed to put Costa Rica on the path to having a primary surplus at the end of his administration and reduce the fiscal deficit to 5.83%.

Widely praised for his innovative approach to sustainable energy, his ambitious climate policies, and a highly successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic, President Alvarado joins Fletcher’s world-renowned multi-disciplinary faculty with a focus on small states diplomacy and preparing tomorrow’s leaders to address the most pressing global issues.

In June 2022, at the United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon, President Alvarado was awarded the 2022 Planetary Leadership Award by the National Geographic Society for his outstanding commitment and action toward protecting the ocean. The Planetary Leadership Award honors world leaders who have successfully established globally significant protected areas, such as national parks, wilderness areas, or marine reserves, that are shielded from exploitation. In November 2019, President Alvarado was named one of TIME’s 100 Next Emerging Leaders around the World who are shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership. In September 2019, he received the Champion of the Earth Award for policy leadership on behalf of his country, presented by the United Nations Environment Program.

Under President Alvarado’s leadership, Costa Rica has contributed to global efforts to combat climate change and defended human rights, democracy, and multilateralism, including the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative with the World Health Organization to facilitate faster, equitable, and affordable access to COVID-19 health products for people in all countries. Furthermore, his administration has overseen historic fiscal reforms to strengthen the country’s economy.

In 2019, President Alvarado launched Costa Rica’s National Decarbonization Plan, the first of its kind since the Paris Agreement of 2015, which established the road map to decarbonize the country’s economy by 2050, organized the run-up to the U.N. Climate Change Conference - COP25 in Madrid, and created with France and the United Kingdom the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People that now includes more than one hundred member states. He was responsible for Costa Rica’s accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), marking the fourth Latin American country and the first in Central America to do so.

President Alvarado was born in San José and received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Costa Rica, from where he also received a master’s degree in political science. He received a master’s in development studies from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at Sussex University, United Kingdom.