Huberth Méndez Hernández

Santa Ana

Huberth Méndez Hernández has served as a researcher and consultant for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Ministry of Environment of Canada, the Organization of American States (OAS), the Metropolitan Federation of Municipalities (Costa Rica), the Mayor’s Office of Comayagua (Honduras), the Metropolitan Planning Office of El Salvador, the CRUSA Foundation, UNEP-RISO Centre (Denmark), Fundecooperación for Sustainable Development, the Energy Efficiency Exporters Alliance (Canada), the Climate Change Directorate of Costa Rica, the Ministry of Housing and Human Settlements (Costa Rica), the Costa Rican Technical Standards Institute (INTECO), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in El Salvador. Additionally, he has collaborated with commissions of the Federated College of Engineers and Architects of Costa Rica (CFIA) and the Costa Rican Chamber of Construction (CCC), and has been invited as a panelist and speaker at various national and international conferences, including the Latin American Congress of Architecture Schools and the 2014 World Urban Forum in Medellín. From July 2016 to December 2019, he served as Territorial Manager of the Municipality of Curridabat, where he helped transform the vision of local government in the Costa Rican context. He facilitated the shift from traditional administration to a science-, empathy-, and happiness-based governance model, focusing on territorial phenomena, variables, and systems—going beyond legal mandates to diversify services that connect people with well-being, biodiversity, and ecosystem benefits through the restructuring of local public management. Today, as an advisor to the Mayor’s Office of Curridabat, he continues to advance the Ciudad Dulce (Sweet City) development vision, represents the municipality in national and international platforms, and manages various municipal investment portfolios. Since 2021, he has ventured into academia, collaborating with Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico) on courses about regenerative development and resilient communities; with the School of Architecture at Universidad LCI Veritas (Costa Rica), where he teaches urbanism courses and thesis workshops, in addition to participating in international initiatives with Alamo Colleges (Texas). He has also been part of the Transformative Action Center at the University for International Cooperation (UCI).