Jose is a second-year graduate student in the MINT program at the Geneva Graduate Institute. He is originally from the City of Oxnard, California in the U.S, an up-and-coming city of resilience. 

Jose believes cities hold the keys to unlocking the potential of sustainable urban development to get the world back on track towards implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Youth make up half of the world's population but are not in the decision-making process.  Jose believes in the innovative power of cities and direct participation of local residents in taking the lead on constructive actions towards the UN SDGs in their communities. Everyone has a role, a choice, and a voice to discover to make an impact. 

Part of his policy and research work include creating pathways towards intergenerational equity amongst youth, including refugees, displaced populations, and the unhoused, rooted in his belief that everyone has the right to find their human potential to “tell their story” in life. 

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Here is a list of 3 questions he seeks to answer at the Lab:

1. How can we bridge the intergenerational cultural divide to advance the UN SDGs?
2. What strategies can we develop from the affective sciences to turn collective inaction into sustainable actions?
3. How can we "glocalize" inputs of local populations into UN frameworks centered on state commitments to the 2030 Agenda?

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