Luis Gilberto Murillo-Urrutia

Luis Gilberto Murillo-Urrutia

Former Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Colombia

Visiting Scholar 2020-2022

Hosted by Professor John E. Fernandez, Environmental Solutions Initiative

Luis Gilberto Murillo is a policy and advocacy expert with 28 years of experience in the areas of environment, sustainable development, and peace building.

Bio

Luis Gilberto Murillo-Urrutia is a well-known and influential public figure in Colombia, particularly in the Pacific Coast. He has 30 years of experience and achievements in public policy design, implementation and advocacy; most notably, in the areas of sustainable regional development, environmental protection and management of natural resources, social inclusion and peace building.  Murillo-Urrutia has served in key positions in the public sector. He was elected Governor of the predominantly Afro-Colombian State of Choco, and under President Santos’ administration he served as Presidential Advisor and Director for the Todos Somos  PAZcifico Development Plan and later served as Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development.

In the 2000s, Murillo-Urrutia worked to make the voices of marginalized Colombians heard in the policy debate both, in Colombia and Washington, DC, and was a catalytic force in creating links between Afro-Colombian and African American civil society, elected officials and the public in general.

Mr. Murillo-Urrutia is a Mining Engineer with a Master of Science in Engineering. Currently, he is a Research Fellow at the Center for Latino and Latin American Studies (CLALS) at American University in Washington, DC and Senior evaluation consultant on natural resource management, equity and inclusion for the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

At MIT

Afro-InterAmerican Forum on Climate Change (AIFCC or the Forum), MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI), November 2021

MLK Luncheon Seminar: "Climate change policy and solutions in the context of Afro-descendant people in Columbia," 29 April 2021

"It is incoherent to protect the Amazon if glyphosate sprays continue," CNN Español, 22 April 2021

Buenaventura bajo fuego: ¿qué está pasando? ¿cómo encontrar soluciones de fondo? HORA 20, Caracol, 8 February 2021

On what awaits the country with Joe Biden as President the United States, CABLENOTICIAS, 25 January 2021

Colombian government must rethink its relations with U.S.Noticias Caracol, 20 January 2021

Vanishing Amazon: Wealth, growth, and justice at the edge of conservation, MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, 14 October 2020

Advisor, MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI), 2019