Janice E. Castro is new DCRM director

Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality administrator Eli D. Cabrera has appointed Janice E. Castro as director of the Division of Coastal Resources Management.

Castro has been the acting DCRM director since June.

“Ms. Castro has been serving as the acting director for DCRM for the past several months, and I am confident in her abilities to serve as the division’s director,” Cabrera said. 

“Janice brings years of experience from both the government and private sector and has a deep passion for the environment. She has been doing very well as the acting director of DCRM, and has built a good relationship with our CRM board and our local and federal staffers within the division. She will be a great asset to DCRM and our environmental community moving forward,” said Gov. Ralph DLG Torres.

Castro said she will work to uphold DCRM’s mission of protecting the environment.

“DCRM works to protect and enhance the CNMI’s coastal resources for both residents and visitors. Through effective and adaptive resource management, we strive to balance our environmental integrity with economic prosperity, while working toward building a more resilient and sustainable CNMI. With the current increase in development, it is critical that we continue to engage in early coordination with all interested developers and their consultants to ensure that any proposed project will not adversely impact our coastal resources. Through avoidance, minimization, and mitigation, we can work together to protect our valuable resources which contribute tremendously to our culture, livelihoods, and economy,” Castro said. 

Before moving back to the government, Castro was the executive assistant for Alter City Group, Inc. from April 2015 to May 2016. She was a former grants specialist in the Office of Grants Management under the Office of the Governor from July 2013 to December 2014.

In 2009, she was a natural resource planner for the Division of Environmental Quality, where she spearheaded the launch of the “Green Business Initiative.”

In 2007, she was a campus sustainability assistant at Seattle University, where she developed a “Green Cleaning Guide” that addressed the hazards of everyday household cleaning products. She was also an environmental protection assistant for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Seattle.

A former CRM intern herself, she graduated from Seattle University with a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies with a minor in philosophy in 2008. She received her associate degree from the Northern Marianas College in 2005. (PR)