Marla Perez-Lugo

Marla Perez Lugo is an environmental sociologist interested in energy governance, environmental justice, and vulnerability to natural hazards. Her PhD is from Rutgers University. She is a Professor of Sociology at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez and codirector of Puerto Rico's National Institute for Energy and Island Sustainability. Since Hurricane Maria's impact, her work focuses on how universities intervene in communities during extreme operating environments. As a result, Perez Lugo confounded The RISE Network as a national interuniversity convergence collaborative platform to shift the paradigm towards more just, equitable, and collaborative university interventions.