Carmen R. Guerrero Pérez (born November 15, 1974) was the former Secretary of the

Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources The Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (PRDNER) is the executive department of the government of Puerto Rico tasked with protecting, conserving, developing, and managing the natural and environmental resources in Puert ...

and as of June 2016, is the director of the Caribbean Environmental Protection Division of the

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

Education

Guerrero-Pérez obtained her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in Environmental Public Policy from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Ann Arbor Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), ...

. She has a Master of Planning in

Environmental Planning Environmental planning is the process of facilitating decision making to carry out land development with the consideration given to the natural environment, social, political, economic and governance factors and provides a holistic framework to ...

from the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...

Graduate School of Planning and a

Master of Environmental Management The M.E.M. (Master of Environmental Management) is a degree designed for students with primary interests in careers in environmental policy and analysis, stewardship, education, Consultant, consulting, or management dealing with natural resource or ...

from

Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Yale School of the Environment (YSE) is a professional school of Yale University. It was founded to train foresters, and now trains environmental leaders through four 2-year degree programs (Master of Environmental Management, Master of Environmen ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. She also participated in sustainable development study programs in

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

and at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

. She is a licensed professional planner in Puerto Rico.

Career

Carmen returned to Puerto Rico to join the

San Juan Bay San Juan Bay ( es, Bahía de San Juan) is the bay and main inlet adjacent to Old San Juan in northeastern Puerto Rico. It is about in length, the largest body of water in an estuary of about of channels, inlets and eight interconnected lagoons ...

Estuary as a Project Coordinator. For more than 15 years, she served as an environmental and conservation planner and consultant to numerous organizations and government entities, among them:

Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico The Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico ( es, Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico) is a private, nonprofit organization protecting natural areas; constituting conservation easements; restoring, rehabilitating and preserving historical struct ...

El Yunque National Forest El Yunque National Forest ( es, Bosque Nacional El Yunque), formerly known as the Caribbean National Forest (or ''Bosque Nacional del Caribe''), is a forest located in northeastern Puerto Rico. It is the only tropical rainforest in the United Sta ...

, Corporación del Proyecto ENLACE del Caño Martín Peña,

, Banco Popular Foundation, and

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Natu ...

. Carmen founded an environmental nongovernmental organization that provided volunteer advisory services on environmental and sustainable development issues to local communities across Puerto Rico.

Environmental Protection Agency Caribbean Division

On May 19, 2016, Guerrero-Pérez was appointed director of the Caribbean Environmental Protection Division of the

by the regional administrator Judith A. Enck.

Secretary of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources

On May 13, 2013, Guerrero-Pérez was unanimously confirmed as

Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources of Puerto Rico The Secretary of Natural and Environmental Resources of Puerto Rico ( es, Secretario de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales de Puerto Rico) is responsible for protecting, conserving, and managing the natural resource, natural and environmental reso ...

. As a secretary, she managed to increase the protection by law of the island's territory from 8% to 16%. She worked on initiatives such as the Model Forest, the karst area management plan, the protection by law of the Northeast Ecological Corridor, among others.

Model Forest

Under her mandate, she succeeded in legislating Act 182-2014, known as the "Model Forest Act of Puerto Rico", the legislation creates a National Model Forest ecological corridor encompassing 390,000 acres, 31 municipalities, and interconnecting 19 protected natural areas. The purpose of the office is to protect and seek the sustainable development of the communities located in the geographic area of the Model Forest, through four fundamental principles of sustainability: local economic development, conservation of resources, education and participation of host communities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guerrero, Carmen 1974 births Living people University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment alumni Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies alumni