Dr. Cruz is a full professor in the Academic Department of Finance and a member of the Research Center at the Universidad del Pacífico. She holds a PhD in Economics from the Universidad EAFIT University (Colombia), a Magister in Finance from the same university, and a Licentiate in Economics from the Universidad de la Havana (Cuba).
Her research experience spans banking, financial fragility, financial inclusion, microcredit, and financial modelling. Beyond academia, she has worked as a consultant for institutions such as the IDB, the World Bank, ECLAC, and LACADI. At the UP she teaches on financial risk and quantitative models for finance. 
Dr. Cruz has participated in important international conferences such as IFABS and the IFC, where she is on the board of directors. Previously, she served as a undergraduate and postgraduate researcher and professor at Universidad EAFIT and as a member of the COLCIENCIAS National System of Researchers (Colombia), where she was part of the financial and banking research group. She has featured as a reviewer for several international indexed journals, and as a speaker at numerous international conferences.

Areas of specialization:
Finance, financial modeling, financial risks, financial inclusion, financial optimization.