Octaviana Trujillo named to Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s advisory committee
Montreal, 30 September 2015—Octaviana V. Trujillo (Yaqui), Ph.D., has been appointed as a US member of the Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a trilateral organization that supports cooperation between Canada, Mexico and the United States to address North American environmental issues.
Dr. Trujillo is founding chair and professor of the department of Applied Indigenous Studies at Northern Arizona University (NAU), and teaches courses on tribal nation building. She is also the principal investigator (for community outreach) at the National Cancer Institute-funded Partnership for Native American Cancer Prevention, which focuses on alleviating the burden of cancer among Native Americans of the southwestern United States.
Throughout her professional career, she has been involved with education, health, social services, as well as cultural enhancement programs in conjunction with communities, tribal government entities, and higher education institutions.
Dr. Trujillo received a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Arizona State University.
JPAC is composed of 15 citizens, five from each of the three countries. It advises the CEC’s governing Council, which is composed of the cabinet-level environment ministers from Canada, Mexico and the United States, and ensures public participation, openness and transparency in the actions of the CEC.
A full biography for Dr. Trujillo and additional information about JPAC is available at www.cec.org/JPAC.
About the CEC
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) was established in 1994 by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States through the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, a parallel environmental agreement to NAFTA. As of 2020, the CEC is recognized and maintained by the Environmental Cooperation Agreement, in parallel with the new Free Trade Agreement of North America. The CEC brings together a wide range of stakeholders, including the general public, Indigenous people, youth, nongovernmental organizations, academia, and the business sector, to seek solutions to protect North America’s shared environment while supporting sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations
The CEC is governed and funded equally by the Government of Canada through Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Government of the United States of Mexico through the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, and the Government of the United States of America through the Environmental Protection Agency.