There are 9 people from Puerto Rico participating in the Design Summit -- 7 of whom will be traveling to Vermont, and two individuals who will join the discussion via live web streaming. Participants' names and short biographies are presented below, organized by the institution with which they are primarily affiliated.
CASA PUEBLO
Lizbeth Plaza Reyes
Lizbeth is completing a bachelor’s degree in Special Pre-school Education at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico in the Ponce Campus, specializing in Education for the Hearing and Speech-Impaired and also in Occupational Therapy. She works with the self-management community project Casa Pueblo in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, a municipality located in the central mountains of ‘La Cordillera Central’. This historical organization promotes through individual and collective iniciatives, voluntary participation to promote and develop alternatives to protect the forests, environment, cultural and human values. In its 32rd year, Casa Pueblo brings to birth a new project with the inauguration of The Puerto Rico Biosphere Reserve in the “Tierras Adjuntas”, contributing in the protection of one of the island’s most sensitive and of high ecological value because of the river’s and water system in the area.
CENTRO AMBIENTAL SANTA ANA (SANTA ANA NATURE CENTER)
Eliezer Nieves Rodríguez
Eliezer has a BA in education with a concentration in history and geography from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, and a MA in geography with a minor in outdoor education from the University of Akron, Ohio. He has worked as a Park Ranger Interpreter with the U.S. National Park Service at Denali National Park and Preserve, AK and Rocky Mountain National Park, CO. He is also a Certified Interpretive Guide, Trainer and Manager with the National Association for Interpretation (NAI). Since 2008, Eliezer has been an invitee instructor in the training program in natural resources RESERVA, in Yucatan, Mexico. Currently he is a professor of geography at the University of Puerto Rico and the director of the Santa Ana Nature Center.
CENTRO PARA LA CONSERVACION DEL PAISAJE (CENTER FOR LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION)
Edgardo Gonzalez
Edgardo has a BS in biology from the University of Puerto Rico and a Master in Forestry from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where he is also a doctoral candidate. Edgardo worked for twenty years in the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources of Puerto Rico and directed the Forest Bureau. Since 2009 Edgardo is the executive director of the “Centro para la Conservación del Paisaje” (CCP), an NGO working with conservation initiatives at a landscape level. In the CPP he has developed watershed conservation projects, urban forestry inventories and educational initiatives in agreements with the U.S. Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service. He is also representing Puerto Rico in the International Network of Model Forests with the Model Forest of Adjuntas through the regional network.
Norma Lozada Rosado
Norma is a native of Cabo Rojo, P.R. She has a BS in Biology from the
Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, San Germán campus. Norma worked for twelve years in the
Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) of
Puerto Rico as a Forest Biologist and as a Program Coordinator of Urban and Community Forestry and Forest Stewardship programs. During that
period she also worked as the liaison between USDA Forest Service/International Institute of Tropical Forestry office and the DNER.
In 2010 she started working as a Forest Biologist with the Centro Para la Conservación
del Paisaje and currently is the Executive Director of the Advisory Council for
Urban and Community Forestry of Puerto Rico.
Alejandro Torres Abreu (participating via live web stream)
FIDEICOMISO DE CONSERVACION DE PUERTO RICO (CONSERVATION TRUST OF PUERTO RICO)
Glorimar Toledo Soto
Glorimar is native to the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. After completing a BA in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico she pursued an MA in Conservation and Management of Environmental Resources. Since 2005, Glorimar has worked at the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico as the Natural Protected Areas Management Officer. She assists in the development of scientific research projects on environmental subjects, in the development of management plans, in sampling protocols and an array of reporting documents. She also prepares ecological assessment studies and scientific inventories; and creates, analyzes and manages Geographical Information Systems (GIS) data.
INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS PARA LA CONSERVATION DE PUERTO RICO (PUERTO RICO INSTITUTE OF SCIENCES FOR CONSERVATION)
Fernando Silva Caraballo
Fernando is the founder of the Puerto Rico Institute of Sciences for Conservation (PRISC), and is responsible for the development and planning of scientific support projects, and relations with institutional and community-based organizations. He is also the team leader for all research, planning and design work for the interpretive and sustainable tourism projects supported by PRISC. After completion of his BA in Sociology with a minor in Anthropology and Environmental Science from the University of Puerto Rico, Silva graduated with a Master's in Environmental Studies from Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Fernando has provided technical support to socioeconomic and environmental urban community projects in Los Angeles, has worked with the Forestry Service Bureau at the Natural and Environmental Resources of Puerto Rico, and is also an Associate Professor in Geography at the University of Puerto Rico.
SAN JUAN ULTRA
Tischa Muñoz-Erickson (participating via live web stream)
Tischa is Project Leader of the San Juan ULTRA program, an interdisciplinary network of research, policy, and community leaders focusing on understanding urban socio-ecological interactions in the Rio Piedras River Watershed and its role in promoting urban sustainability for the city of San Juan and its surroundings. Tischa recently joined the US Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry as a Chief’s Scholar Program fellow. Her research interests focus on the institutional arrangements, processes, and capacities for facilitating more productive interactions among diverse research and policy stakeholders and improving the ability of decision-makers, managers, and citizens to achieve more sustainable and just outcomes. She is in the final stages of her sustainability science doctoral degree (with emphasis on policy and governance) from the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University. Tischa also served as an IGERT Fellow in the Urban Ecology program at ASU and holds a M.S. in Environmental Science and Policy from Northern Arizona University.
UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO - RIO PIEDRAS
Chris is an ecologist, naturalist, and educator who is dedicated to the principles of placed-based landscape analysis, community education, and ecological design, and conservation planning. He is a researcher with the Environmental Sciences Program of the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras, and manages research projects at El Verde Field Station in El Yunque National Forest. Chris holds a BA in Geology from Oberlin College, and a Master's in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont. At UVM, he conducted his graduate research in conjunction with the PLACE Program. Chris is coordinating efforts to adapt PLACE to Puerto Rico and develop an island-wide sustainability education network. He will be co-facilitating the Design Summit in Vermont.
Glorimar is native to the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. After completing a BA in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico she pursued an MA in Conservation and Management of Environmental Resources. Since 2005, Glorimar has worked at the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico as the Natural Protected Areas Management Officer. She assists in the development of scientific research projects on environmental subjects, in the development of management plans, in sampling protocols and an array of reporting documents. She also prepares ecological assessment studies and scientific inventories; and creates, analyzes and manages Geographical Information Systems (GIS) data.
