Dr. Martha Cruz Zuniga joined McMurry University in 2025 as Dean of the Johnson School of Business and Professor of Economics. She brings over twenty years of combined experience in academia and the private sector.
Before her appointment at McMurry, Dr. Cruz Zuniga spent sixteen years at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where she served as a professor of economics, chair of the Department of Economics for ten years, and interim chair of the Department of Sociology for one year.
Her research focuses on open macroeconomics and international development, covering exchange rates, international transmission of shocks, artificial intelligence, capacity building, training, agriculture, sustainability, and education. She has conducted fieldwork across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. She has collaborated with leading organizations, including the MacArthur Foundation, Organization of American States, Inter-American Development Bank, World Vision, and Catholic Relief Services.
Dr. Cruz Zuniga has presented at numerous national and international conferences, including the Southern Economic Conference, Midwest Economics Conference, Western Economic Association International, and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis–Missouri Economics Conference. She has also shared her work at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York and the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) High-Level Political Forum.
She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from Western Michigan University and her B.S. in Economics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. A dual citizen of the United States and Ecuador, Dr. Cruz Zuniga is fluent in English and Spanish.