For the Central Mindanao University (CMU), 2011 is not just another new year. It is also a time for a new president. Just before 2010 ended, Dr. Maria Luisa R. Soliven took her oath of office on December 15 as the university’s new prexy.
As CMU’s 8th president, Soliven assumed her new post on January 1.
An agricultural economist by profession, Dr. Soliven graduated from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) in 1977. Right after graduation, she joined CMU as a faculty member of its Agricultural Economics Department.
She finished her master’s degree in economics, major in international trade at the De La Salle University in 1987. Then in 1999, she was back in UPLB for her doctorate degree in agricultural economics, which she finished in 2002.
She pursued post graduate studies and earned her certificates for the “Training course on environmental and resource economics” and “International training on education for sustainable development” in Changmai and Bangkok, Thailand in 2004 and 2009, respectively.
At CMU
From 2002 to 2003, Dr. Soliven served as the agricultural economics department chair. She then became the Dean of College of Agriculture from July 2003 to April 2009.
She became the Vice-President for Academic Affairs from May 2009 till her appointment as new president.
She also held various positions such as the president of the Council of Deans and Heads of Schools in Agriculture Education in Region X from 2005 to 2007; team leader of National Agriculture and Fisheries Education System (NAFES) Field Evaluation and Validation of Prospective NUCAF and PIAF Schools for Regions I, II and III from November 2008 to June 2009; over-all coordinator of the Job Enabling English Proficiency Program from November 2009 to present, among others.
To Dr. Soliven’s credit are a number of reference workbooks/learning guides for economics and agricultural economics courses of her department, namely: General principles of economics (Econ 11), Introduction to macroeconomics (Econ 45), International trade and policies (Ag Econ 71), Introduction to microeconomics (Econ 44), Advanced agricultural price analysis (Ag Econ 203), Introduction to agricultural policy and development (Ag Econ 43), Marketing management (Management 255), and Advanced agricultural price analysis (Ag Econ 203). She is also a member of the Instructional Materials Development Board.
Other accomplishments
Dr. Soliven has also been extensively involved in PCARRD-supported as well as in internationally funded socioeconomics research and development (R&D) projects. She pioneered the implementation of PCARRD-CMU R&D project on “Supply chain improvement (SCI) for fresh vegetables in Region 10”. Now on its Phase 2, the project is piloting an intervention strategy through a “Farmers cluster managed bagsakan model”.
Soliven was also one of the researchers tapped in another PCARRD-supported SCI project on banana in which she covered the component study in Region 13. She was also a co-researcher of the recently completed documentation of the organic vegetable farming in Region 10 of PCARRD and the Northern Mindanao Integrated Agricultural Research Center.
At the international scene, Soliven was recently appointed as marketing expert for the research project “Multi-use landscape in South-East Asia: A negotiated support toolbox for integrated natural resources management from August 2009 to December 2009. She also served as a consultant of the World Fish Center for the research project “Assessment of alternative livelihood opportunities for small-scale aquaculture operation in the Philippines” from February 2010 to December 2010.