Candidate for
Member Governing Board; Riverside Unified School District

Armando holds a bachelor's and master's dregree from the University of Puerto Rico and a Ph.D. from Cornell University in New York. Before joining the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service in 1980 he was Assistant Professor at the University of Puerto Rico. Since 1980 he has been working as a Research Economist at the Forest Service, Pacific Southwest (PSW) Research Station, Forest Fire Laboratory in Riverside, CA. He has been conducting research on the economic effects of wildland fires on natural resources. The areas covered range from the effect of fire on threatened and endangered species habitat to maintaining the ecological integrity of rivers. Internationally, Armando has served as consultant on Forest Service and the Agency for International Development (AID) sponsored missions to Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ghana, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, and Spain.

His teaching experience includes teaching at the University of Puerto Rico, the New Hampshire College, Puerto Rico Campus, and visiting professor of Environmental Economics at the University of California, Riverside. He is currently a visiting Professor of Natural Resource Economics at the International University of Andalucía, Spain. He has published more than 70 papers in scientific, technical and general journals and contributor to two books.

Armando is also very active in our community being PTA member and President at Emerson Elementary, University Hights Middle School and North High Schools. In 1996 he was selected Riverside Unified School District Volunteer of the year. He has been member of the RUSD Superintendent's Round Table, the Boundary Committee, and the Latino Advisory Committee. Armando is currently Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Concilio for the Spanish Speaking of the Inland Empire, a non profit organization dedicated to provide childcare services to low and middle income families. He is also Treasurer of the Latino Mentor Program, a non profit organization dedicated to provide individual counseling to high school students to help them gain access to four year colleges who might otherwise not attend. He has a daughter who graduated from North High School and a son who is a freshman also at North. He has received numerous local and International awards and recognitions.