Lecture: Carmen Yulin, Mayor of Sun Juan Puerto Rico (HZ '86)

 

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Carmen Yulin, Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico (Hnz '86), "My Journey from Hamburg Hall to City Hall"

Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Time: 12:00pm- 1:30pm

Location: Hamburg Hall 1000

 

 

Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto was born in San Juan on February 25, 1963. She is the daughter of Pedro Cruz and Carmen Irene Soto.  She attended UHS, the high school of the University of Puerto Rico, where she became President of the Student Council and represented her school at the Presidental Classroom.  During these years her skills in track and field and leadership academics started to excel.

 

She went to the University of Boston, Massachusetts, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a concentration in Human Resourses Management and a degree in Political Science. She received a Master's degree at the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Here she was the first student to receive the Spirit Award, now the Barbara Jenkins Award, an honor given to the student who impacted positively the quality of life of other students in and out of the classroom.

 

After graduating Carmen Yulín was then hired by Westinghouse to be part of their program for the development of Managers in Human Resources. She has been Manager and Director of Human Resources for companies in the private sector, such as Colgate-Palmolive, Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, Cellular One ( now AT&T), Scotiabank. In the public service sector she worked in the Treasury Department of the United States of America.

In 1992, after living in the United States for 12 years, she moved back to Puerto Rico to enter the world of politics. First, she became an aide to Mayor Sila Calderón and later on, to the President of the House of Representatives, Carlos Vizcarrondo Irizarry, until finding her own path.

 

In 2003 she became a member of the Institute of Political Education of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD ). That same year she was elected President for the National Organization of Popular Democratic Women. ( OMP). In 2005 , Governor Ani3bal Acevedo Vilá named her to the Commission for the Reorganization of San Juan. In 2006 she was re-elected as National President of OMP for another term, a position she still holds. In 2008 she was a member of the task force who developed the 2008 Platform for the Popular Democratic and the leader in charge of Women's Affair in the Platform. In 2008 the people of Puerto Rico elected her Representative at large. In March of 2012, Populares recognized her work with their votes as she revalidated as candidate for the House of Representatives in the Popular Democratic primary.

 

But destiny had something else for her. Something she had always aspired as a child. At the end of March, she accepted the nomination to run for Mayor of her City of San Juan, winning the election on November.

 

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