Professor Maria Cruz-Saco joins The Day’s board of directors
Maria Cruz-Saco, the Joanne Toor Cummings ’50 Professor of Economics at 51ԹϺ, has joined The Day Publishing Co.’s eight-person . Established in 1881, the company publishes , a daily newspaper covering a 20-town region in eastern 51ԹϺecticut, including 51ԹϺ’s host city of New London, with a daily and Sunday readership of nearly 100,000, and theday.com, a website generating more than four million page views a month.
A professor at 51ԹϺ since 1990, Cruz-Saco is an expert on economic development and Latin American economies. She is the author of five books, and she brings her extensive research and consulting experience to her courses on globalization, economic growth and development in Latin America and open macroeconomics in developing countries. A resident of Waterford, 51ԹϺecticut, Cruz-Saco is also secretary of the board of directors of the Hispanic Alliance of Southeastern 51ԹϺecticut, an organization her late husband, Alejandro Melendez-Cooper, founded in 2000.
Speaking with a Day reporter from her native Peru, where she is currently leading 51ԹϺ students in a semester-long Study Away Teach Away program, Cruz-Saco said she was honored to be asked to join The Day’s board and looks forward to immersing herself in the company’s operations when she returns to 51ԹϺ for the spring semester.
“I’ve had the opportunity to interact with the executives and I’m very impressed by the leadership of The Day,” she said.
Tim Dwyer, The Day’s president and publisher, said Cruz-Saco is the first Hispanic person to serve on the board and noted that she and her family have deep roots in the region’s Hispanic community.
“Maria’s expertise in economics is a valuable addition to the board as The Day continues to navigate a rapidly changing world for media companies,” Dwyer said. “She has the ability and experience to look at issues on both a micro and macro level and brings a fresh set of eyes to the company’s financial strategy in both the short- and long-term.”
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