Tribute to Dr. Liliana Meza Gonzalez
Written by MIMS Alumni Rolando Diaz
Dr. Liliana Meza Gonzalez passed away on Saturday, September 23rd from complications of an advanced melanoma. A beloved mother, colleague to many and personal mentor, Dr. Meza leaves a legacy of knowledge that was powered by her profound commitment to both academic and civil service.
A distinguished and beloved teacher, scholar, and civil servant, Dr. Meza was highly regarded in all sectors she entered. She earned her Bachelor’s (1986) and Master’s (1991) in Economics from Mexico’s Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de Mexico (ITAM) before earning a second Master’s and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Houston in 1997.
Her excellence in scholarship can be attributed back to her graduate student years, where in 1993 she earned the Miguel Palacios Macedo Medal of Academic Excellence for most outstanding student in Economics at ITAM. Her research includes over 40 academic articles, book chapters, and policy briefs on Mexican international migration, labor policy of the US and Mexico, as well as the trade relationship between the two countries.
She’s presented at countless conferences, her favorite being the annual Migration Conference that is held internationally. She last presented Labor force participation of Central American migrant men and women in Mexico at the Hamburg Migration Conference.
Since the 2000s, Dr. Meza has worked in several key sectors of the Mexican government. She worked in the administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderón, the Mexican Secretariat of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS), Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), and was most recently the Director of the Master’s in Migration Studies program at Universidad Iberoamericana, where she coordinated a bi-national graduate program with the University of San Francisco’s Master’s in Migration Studies program (MIMS).
In spring 2020, I had the privilege of forming part of USF’s cohort of students that attended Universidad Iberoamericana. In the midst of a hectic semester that was defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Meza’s course, Migration Mobility, provided a sense of normalcy with her incredibly high sense of teaching effectiveness and immersion into the world of economics, labor market policy, and migrant integration approaches. She was open to everyone’s perspectives, including the many diverse voices and minds that formed our cohort. From the American perspective, to the Mexican, Salvadoran, and European, she was all ears if someone had something to say. It was because of this that I asked her to be my thesis advisor to study the effects of Mexico’s labor market policies on LGBTQ migrants in the country.
Not knowing what exactly I was getting into, my thesis came into formation thanks to her steadfast mentorship, guidance, and above all- her friendship. She not only made sure I met thesis deadlines, but also that I captured the experience of Univerisdad Iberoamericana and Mexico City as a whole with me back home. And, while millions were impacted by the pandemic, she made sure to check in with me on how I was navigating a thesis in the midst of the pandemic.
We shared many views about the world and, in fact, almost shared a birthday - hers being August 9 and mine August 10. Coming from an International Relations background, one tends to have opinions that deviate from what is aspirational—Dr. Meza was always supportive, never judgmental, and found the rationale in my ideas.
I will remember our coffee chats at Starbucks in Santa Fe, CDMX about how we were both hoping for a return to “any world order, but that it be an order”. In regards to the 2020 election, we both wanted the same outcome and it does not quite get more comical than an “Ay dios mio, ojalá que sí”. Luckily, the outcome turned out to be what we, or what everyone, really wanted. I will very much miss Dr. Meza’s mentorship and her legacy of academic and civil service will continue to be an inspiration not only to me, but to everyone in the world of migration and economics, across all borders.
Gracias por todo, Dra. Meza.