Sessions
Fireside Chat: Congressional Support for Puerto Rico's Quest for 100% Renewable Power
11:30 AM - 11:45 AM Thu
Liza M. García Vélez is a notary attorney, born on April 28, 1980 in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. She graduated from Hatillo High School, the town where she grew up. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Puerto Rico and completed a Juris Doctor at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico. She has a Master's Degree in Communication with a specialty in Public Relations from the University of the Sacred Heart. She prepared her master's project at the European Forum of the Business School in Navarra, Spain. In 2015 she was chair of the Association of Electoral Bodies of Central America and the Caribbean known as the "Tikal Protocol". She was the first woman to be President of the Puerto Rico's State Elections Commission (CEE). She managed to implement electronic counting system for the first time in the Primaries, General Elections 2016 and Plebiscite 2017.
She worked from 2002 to 2009 in the House of Representatives as a Press Officer, Legal and Legislative Advisor. She has been an exponent of the Institute of Human Rights in Costa Rica and has participated in international observations in more than 15 countries. She is part of the Executive Committee of the Association of Electoral Magistrates of the Americas (AMEA), in which missions and initiatives are with a gender perspective. García-Vélez is part of a group of electoral experts who do technical missions and electoral support at the international level.
From 2017 to 2020, she returned to his private law practice where she has provided services and strategic business counseling to multiple companies, small and medium-sized businesses, municipal legislatures, government and corporate affairs.
In January 2021, she began working as Director of Legal, Legislative and Government Affairs of the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce. Nine months later, she was unanimously appointed by the Board of Directors as the first woman as Executive Director of the PR Chamber of Commerce, after 109 years of existence. Also, she is currently the Coordinator for International Trade Missions and the private sector advocacy effort in Washington, DC. She lives in Puerto Rico with her husband and their daughter.