Informal Cities Workshop Kickoff Lecture: María M. Jaramillo Garcés

Maria M. Jaramillo is a strategic leader in sustainable urban and regional development with over 20 years of experience across Latin America and Europe. As CEO of RenoBO—Bogotá’s public land bank—she oversaw urban renewal and land readjustment in the heart of the capital. As Secretary of Planning for Bogotá (2021–2023), she directed Bogotá Reverdece 2022–2035 Land Use Plan, co-designed and institutionalized Bogotá’s Care System and Monetary Transfer System, serving 3.5 million people and keeping 500,000 out of poverty during COVID-19 pandemic.

A Harvard Mason Fellow (MPA, 2025) and Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (2023–24), she founded LACPlan to build the governance, planning, and leadership frameworks Latin America and the Caribbean need to address their most urgent transnational challenges — climate, migration, peace, and security — at the continental scale they demand.