This occasional newsletter highlights events and stories about innovation in sustainable development for rural, remote and island regions. We want to change the discourse to demonstrate how islandness can be a driver for innovation.
About Hon. Lourdes “Lou” A. Leon Guerrero
The Honorable Lourdes “Lou” Aflague Leon Guerrero is the ninth Governor of Guam and the first female governor of the territory. She is also a registered nurse, a businesswoman, a policymaker, a mother, and a grandmother.
Since taking office in January 2019, she eliminated GovGuam’s $83 million general fund deficit, paid tax refunds the fastest in Guam’s history, raised salaries for nurses, law enforcement officers, and teachers, and ended two costly federal receiverships. Within her first year in office, she worked with the Guam Legislature to raise the minimum wage, legalize cannabis, and deliver millions in long-overdue war reparations to Guam’s World War II survivors.
Within months of the unprecedented global pandemic, Governor Leon Guerrero created the island’s first-ever unemployment program, providing $808 million to over 30,000 displaced workers. This is in addition to over $100 million in direct aid distributed to over 2,500 local businesses and multiple innovative programs to aid Guam families in recovery. Under her leadership, Guam also achieved one of the highest vaccination rates in the nation. She continues to champion healthcare initiatives, including establishing the island’s first-ever paramedic program, and she is currently on a mission to rebuild Guam’s only decades-old public hospital.
A graduate of the Academy of Our Lady of Guam (AOLG), Governor Leon Guerrero embarked on a career in nursing, earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from California State University and later a Master of Public Health from UCLA. She has worked as a staff nurse in hospitals in both California and Guam. Governor Leon Guerrero has also held several management positions in health care at the Guam Memorial Hospital and FHP Inc. and served on the GMHA Board of Trustees. To this day, Governor Leon Guerrero continues to be passionate about health care and has maintained her licensure as a registered nurse.