Titles

• PhD Student, Sustainability, School of Sustainability

Biography

Glorynel is a PhD student at the School of Sustainability. She possesses a multidisciplinary vision, thanks to her background in Civil Engineering, Urban-Territorial Planning, and Environmental Sciences. She is interested in sustainable transitions, green infrastructure, and behavioral change and collaborations to drive sustainable strategies. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she is committed to the effective transfer of scientific knowledge outside the academic environment, to use this science to support informed decision making. Integrating her expertise over eight years in multiple projects and initiatives, including in government, private industry, nonprofits, academia and professional associations.

She served several terms as Member of the Board of Directors in the US Green Building Council – US Caribbean Chapter. She was Team Member of the SEEDs (Schools Energy and Environmental Delegates) Green Schools Program; Representative for the Cool Cities Coalition and the Regionalization Project for the revision of the LEED Reference Guide Version 4 for Puerto Rico. Before Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit Puerto Rico and the collapse of Puerto Rico’s electric system, she was coordinating a Forum of Energy-Sector Stakeholders, a space for the convergence of multiple energy stakeholders in the Puerto Rican energy policy. 

Teaching Assistant Experience

University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras (2011-2012)

• Graduate School of Planning - Graduate Teaching Assistant for the first year planning course, Planning Theory and Institutional Frameworks and Implementation Processes.

Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (2006-2008)

• Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Laboratory Technician and Teaching Assistant in Civil Engineering - Laboratories for the undergraduate course Construction Materials Laboratory

Research Assistant Experience

• National Institute of Energy and Island Sustainability (INESI), 2015-2018 - Research assistant to prepare the first Catalogue of Resources in Energy and Sustainability of the University of Puerto Rico System. Responsible for conceptualization, coordination, stakeholder identification and analysis, the designing of the agendas and facilitating the discussion of the Forum of Energy-Sector Stakeholders, a space for the convergence of multiple energy stakeholders in the Puerto Rican energy policy.
• Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT), 2014-2015 - National Science Foundation Fellowship, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras
  IGERT Trainee in the Natural-Human Systems in the Urbanizing Tropics Program, that was based at the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras (UPR-RP) in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Focused in multidisciplinary approach to natural-human systems, develop a project (Agent of Change Project)

Spoken Languages:

Spanish (native)

Education

• MUTP, Urban-Territorial Planning, University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras, 2012
• BS, Civil Engineering, Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico-San Juan, 2008
• MS Candidate, Environmental Sciences, University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras

Expertise

• business practices
• corporate sustainability
• climate change and adaptation
• climate change mitigation
• vulnerability
• resilience
• community development
• organizing
• education
• future scenarios/strategic planning
• oral and written communications
• water
• green infrastructure
• behavioral change and collaboration
• sustainable transitions

External Links

• Website