Veronica Herrera, Ph.D., was elected to the Los Angeles Waterkeeper board of directors in December 2023. Dr. Herrera is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Political Science at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs. Before joining the faculty at UCLA, she was a professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut.
Dr. Herrera is an expert on water policy in international development. She is the author of Water and Politics: Clientelism and Reform in Urban Mexico (2017),
and her new book, Slow Harms and Citizen Action: Environmental Degradation and Policy Change in Latin American Cities, will be published in 2024 by the Oxford University Press.
Los Angeles Waterkeeper’s mission is to fight for the health of the region’s waterways, and for sustainable, equitable and climate-friendly water supplies. We envision the Los Angeles region as an international leader on integrated, sustainable and equitable water management; a region that is water self-sufficient, and where all waterways throughout the county are safe, healthy and accessible to the public.
She is working on new projects related to the waste sector, including urban waste and landfill management, the connection between informal recyclers (waste pickers) and urban sustainability, the global waste trade in plastics, recycling markets, and the links between waste, environment, and politics. Her ongoing research projects include California environmental policy, including desalination plants and plastics reduction campaigns. Dr. Herrera earned Ph.D. and a Master of Arts degrees (both in Political Science) from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Arts from Swarthmore College.
Read more about Dr. Herrera’s work here.
Latinos LEAD promotes more inclusive and effective civil society organizations by preparing and recruiting Latinos for nonprofit board leadership; helping nonprofit organizations to develop governing boards that reflect their constituents; and, collaborating with partners to increase ethnic diversity in nonprofit governance.
