Dr. Cynthia Rose Bautista is currently the Vice President  for Academic Affairs of the University of Philippines system, and chairs the UNESCO National Commission’s Social Sciences and Humanities Committee. She is a past Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, and now returning as member of the Board of RMAF.

She has assumed other leadership roles in academe--as Dean of the UP College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Executive Director of the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies, and Co-chair of the CHED Technical Panel for the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Communications. Her professional involvements include chairing the executive committee of the Philippine Social Science Council, the Philippine advisory board of the Ford Foundation's International Fellowship Program and the Executive Committee of the Human Development Network.

A multi-awarded social scientist, Dr. Bautista has been involved in international research on agrarian transformation, migration , the Asian middle classes and other social development concerns. She earned her doctoral degree from the University of WisconsinMadison.

Beyond research and publications, has served as Advisory Board, Management Board, Board of Trustees or Executive Board of institutions such as the National University of Singapore’s Asian Research Institute; the Philippine Institute of Development Studies, the Human Development Network, the Philippine Social Science Council, Pulse Asia, the Social Weather Stations, the UP Press, the Ford Foundation’s International Fellowship Program and the Asian Scholarship Foundation.