José Israel Cruz (Washington, DC) is a Class of 2019 Frederick Douglass Distinguished Scholar at American University majoring in Chemistry minoring in Sustainability. He hails from Bayamón, Puerto Rico. J.I. cares deeply for the relationship between communities and their natural environments, and he has a heavy interest in exploring how socio-economic factors affect this relationship. Additionally, J.I. has a deep interest for local politics and its capacity to catalyze meaningful change. He hopes to foster and build Puerto Rico’s green economy through Research & Development in Materials Science and Energy, using the power of business and local governance to simultaneously bring economic progress and dramatically change how Puerto Rico’s urban communities impact their natural environment. Selected to participate in Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program Conversation with Justice Sonia Sotomayor March 2017