Carolyn Aguilar coordinates the Diploma courses on Sustainable Design & Construction and Design of Sustainable Communities at IBERO. She developed the implementation of the university’s Green Campus Project and also conducts research on green materials in Mexico. She works on a multidisciplinary (design, architecture, engineering, physics and mathematics) Master’s degree in Energy & Sustainability, and a Doctoral degree in Living Space at IBERO.

She is Certified Chief Construction Officer and Certified Expert on Urban Development for the Mexico City Local Authority.

Carolyn Aguilar studied architecture at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and urban design at Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom. She obtained her PhD in History at IBERO in December 2016, with a thesis focused on a different way of viewing the urban park, assessing the views of designers, managers, and users, towards building park systems to bring together nature and democracy to a better city environment and community life.

She works principally in continuing education on sustainability topics, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating systems for buildings and neighborhoods, and biomimicry – the process of understanding and applying biological principles to architecture and design.

She was responsible for the construction of 500 low-income housing units after the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City, as well as the design, building, remodeling of residences, offices, public spaces, neighborhood markets, health clinics and subdivisions. She has worked on World Bank transportation projects, urban planning, urban design and urban image studies for local land plans and policies.

Carolyn Aguilar has been a member of the Mexico City Architectural Association for the past 25 years, directed its Architecture & Urbanism Institute for four years. She is a member, through IBERO, of the US Green Building Council (USGBC), the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), and of the Urban Land Institute.

She received the coveted Women in Sustainability Leadership Award, sponsored by the Green Building & Design Review magazine in 2016. On receiving the award, Carolyn Aguilar commented: “I believe that any environmental problem or sustainability goal can be successfully addressed through education [enabling us to] build a more socially just, economically equitable, and environmentally healthy world.”

She received two Outstanding Teacher Awards, and was the first woman to be named Head of the Department of Architecture at IBERO. She was recipient of the Living Building Hero 2012 presented at the Living Future 2012 Congress.

She is also Secretary of the Board of the International Living Future Institute based in Seattle, WA, USA. The International Living Future Institute is a leading NGO that focuses on the transformation to a world that is socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative. The institute offers green building and infrastructure solutions that move across scales (from single room renovations to neighborhoods or whole cities).

She is co-editor of Sustainable Design and Construction: Unavoidable Reality (IBERO, 2011) and has written articles on topics of sustainability in Responding to Climate Change, OBRAS, C+IBERO, and TRIM TAB.

Carolyn Aguilar was coordinator of the Holcim Forum “Re-inventing Construction” held at IBERO in 2010 and was Head of the Holcim Awards jury for region Latin America in 2011. She handed over the Global Holcim Awards finalist certificate to Francisco Pardo and Julio Amezcua at the 5th Holcim Forum 2016 on “Infrastructure Space” held in Detroit, USA.