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Gov. Jenniffer González Colón on Sunday announced several appointments to advisory boards and councils.
The governor appointed Ileana Valcourt Rodríguez as a member of the Office of the Women’s Advocate (OPM by its initials in Spanish) Advisory Council.
Valcourt has worked in private firms as an auditor and controller, and has been a legal adviser in the Department of Agriculture, the College of Criminal Justice and the OPM. In the OPM’s Caguas Region she served as a legal intercessor and psycho-legal specialist. Since 2017 she has worked in the Women’s Office of the Municipality of Gurabo as a coordinator and legal intercessor.
Valcourt holds a Juris Doctor degree from Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, and a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in human resources from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus.
The OPM Advisory Council was created within the agency’s organic law. Its function is to advise the OPM “on all matters related to women in all spheres of social, political, economic and cultural life, as well as on the situation of discrimination, oppression or marginalization of women.”
It must also make proposals aimed at ensuring the full enjoyment of women’s human rights, and evaluate public policy in relation to women in various areas to promote actions that contribute to ensuring the participation of women in all spheres of social, political, economic and cultural life.
The governor also appointed planner Joel O. Olmedo as a member of the Land Management Board, a position that requires the consent of the Senate.
Olmedo has served as city revitalization manager under the federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program in the Municipality of Canóvanas; as a geographic information system programmer for the Department of Health; as a specialist in the Planning and Economic Development Office of the Municipality of Toa Baja; and as a planning analyst for both the municipalities of Fajardo and the Puerto Rico Planning Board, among other positions. He holds a master’s degree in planning and a bachelor’s degree in geography, both from the University of Puerto Rico.
The purpose of the Land Management Board, which is part of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce, is to promote the economic, social and urban development of Puerto Rico and to collaborate with various agencies to make their projects a reality and effectively implement their public policies and work plans through the orderly acquisition and development of land.
