became the World Bank’s Vice President for the Latin America and the Caribbean Region on January 1, 2005. She is a development economist and has held management positions in various countries and regions since joining the Bank in 1980.
From 2000 to 2004, Ms. Cox was Director of Strategy and Operations in the Office of the Vice President for the Africa Region, where she oversaw the increase of Bank lending to the poorest African countries. Previously, she served as Country Director for South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland from 1996 to 2000. During 1994-1996, she was Chief of the Country Operations Division in East Asia covering Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Korea. She served as Chief of the Agriculture and Environment Operations Division from 1992 to1994 in the same region.
During the early years of her career in the Bank, Ms. Cox was an economist working on agricultural and environmental issues in the units for South Asia and Latin America. In the Latin America and the Caribbean Region, Ms. Cox was a senior economist in the Agriculture Division (1985-87), where she worked primarily with Brazil.
A national of the United States, Ms. Cox holds two masters degrees (Masters of Arts in Law and Diplomacy and Masters of Arts in Development Economics/International Economics), as well as a Ph.D. in Development Economics and Policy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts.