Events

Join Columbia World Projects for a conversation with Dilia Leticia Jorge Mera and Jesús D’Alessandro, Dominican scholars and public officials dedicated to advancing sustainable and equitable urban development in the Dominican Republic. 

Agenda

• Opening and Welcome: Columbia World Projects
• Presentation: "Santo Domingo: A diagnosis and perspective" 
  • Jesus D’Alessandro will share a diagnosis of Santo Domingo, one of the most rapidly growing cities in the Caribbean, discuss key opportunities and challenges that must be addressed to ensure urban growth is sustainable and equitable. Jesus D’Alessandro is the technical secretary of the Ayuntamiento del Distrito Nacional de Santo Domingo (Municipality of Santo Domingo), director of the Universidad Iberoamericana's School of Architecture, and project lead of the Columbia World Project Building Climate-Resilient Communities in the Dominican Republic. Previous roles include Director of Transit and Urban Mobility for the city and coordinator of the Strategic Plan of the National District 2030. He was awarded the MEXT Scholarship and named distinguished visitor of San Juan Puerto Rico for his work as coordinator of Santo Domingo at the Union of Ibero-American Capital Cities (UCCI).
• Presentation: "Government Innovation in the Dominican Republic"
  • Dilia Leticia Jorge Mera will provide an overview of the work of the central government in transparency and innovation, discussing key challenges and opportunities for innovation within the public sector, including collaborations with academia, non-profit organizations and the private sector. Dilia Leticia Jorge Mera is a lawyer and recognized expert on child and family law, speaking across Latin America, Europe and the United States on the rights of children in Latin America. She contributed to the ratification of the Hague Convention on Child Abduction, has been a professor of personal and family law since 2006, has served as an interim judge of the Children’s and Adolescent’s Court of the National District of the Dominican Republic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Mayor’s Office of the National District, and is currently the Vice Minister of Innovation, Transparency and Citizenship of the Administrative Ministry of the Presidency in the Dominican Republic.    

Moderated Discussion