Dr. J. Prospero “Popoy” de Vera currently holds the positions of Chairperson of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Adviser of the Philippine Negotiating Panel with the National Democratic Front/Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army (NDF/CPP/NPA), and Commissioner of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He is a Professor of Public Administration at the University of the Philippines and served as its Vice President for Public Affairs from 2011-2016.

Dr. De Vera is an academician who has used his technical expertise to help policymakers, educate the public, and run political campaigns. His areas of policy expertise cover higher education, agriculture, indigenous communities, environment and climate change, good governance, and local governments.

Dr. de Vera has spent the past three decades in the policy arena in the Philippines and the United States. He served as executive assistant, chief-of-staff, senior consultant, and senior adviser to Senate Presidents Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Koko Pimentel, Senate Presidents Protempore Sotero Laurel, Leticia Ramos-Shahani, and Juan Flavier, and Senators Gregorio Honasan and Ramon Magsaysay, Jr. from the 8th-16th Congress.

Dr. de Vera is an internationally recognized political analyst and opinion maker whose views are extensively quoted by foreign and local media. As a public intellectual, he simplifies complex studies and explains national issues through his top-rating education program Turo-Turo in DZMM Teleradyo (ABSCBN) and No Filter on the ABSCBN News Channel (ANC).

He was a Fulbright-Hays Visiting Scholar at the University of Southern California and the California State University-Sacramento and a Senior Fulbright Visiting Professor/Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University. He served at the Committee on Revenue and Taxation of the California State Legislature and was the first Filipino recipient of a California State Assembly Resolution [Res. No. 7 given by Speaker Willie Brown] commending his work at the California Legislature in 1992.

He served as member or adviser to the Philippine delegations to the 1994 UN Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo, Egypt; the 1995 UN World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen; the 1996 UN World Food Summit in Rome; and the 2002 UN Special Session on Children in New York. As a political strategist he has run many political campaigns at the national and local levels and serves as the President of the Association of Political Consultants in Asia (APCA).

Dr. de Vera finished his BA History and Doctor of Public Administration degrees from the University of the Philippines and an MA Social Science degree from De La Salle University.