Maria Cristina Damasco-Padolina is the current and seventh President and Chief Academic Officer of Centro Escolar University in Manila, Philippines.
Education
Born in Ilocos Sur, Padolina was educated in Chemical Engineering at the University of the Philippines and received her Master of Surgery in Chemistry in 1967 at the Ateneo de Manila University. She obtained her Doctor of Philosophy in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin.
Career
Padolina is a former commissioner at the Commission on Higher Education and also a professor emeritus at the Institute of Chemistry, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Laguna. She was also the chancellor of the Uttar Pradesh Open University from March 1995 to February 2001. She was appointed as the University"s President and Chief Academic Officer on September 2006, replacing the retiring Rosita L. Navarro.
She led the university"s centennial in 2007.
Membership
Padolina is a member of the Advisory Group of the National Health Promotion Committee, and was on the executive board of the Asian Association of Open Universities from 1998 to 2001.