Lourdes Melgar ’85, P’24

Lourdes Melgar is currently a Nonresident Fellow at the Baker Institute Center for Energy Studies at Rice University, and a Research Affiliate at the Center for Collective Intelligence at MIT, where she was the 2016-17 Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow.

Her leadership has been instrumental in Mexico’s transformational energy reform. From 2014 to 2016, she served as Mexico’s Deputy Secretary of Energy for Hydrocarbons, and as Mexico’s Under-Secretary for Electricity from 2012 to 2014. As a member of Mexico’s Foreign Service, she held various diplomatic positions between 1993 and 2007.

Melgar is a Founding Director of Voz Experta, an organization that promotes the visibility of women energy experts, and was Founding Director of the Center for Sustainability and Business at the Tecnológico de Monterrey’s EGADE Business School. In 2018 she was recognized by Forbes as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Mexico. Melgar holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from MIT. Her daughter is a 2024 graduate of Mount Holyoke.

Class year: 1985
Joined board in: 2022