Advisory Board Members
Ed Rivera
Chairman of the Board
Ed Rivera
Ed Rivera is a product of Brownsville; born here and educated in the local public-school system. His career spans forty years in the petrochemical and consumer product sectors and he has global working experience in 29 countries including Russia, China, South Korea, most of Western Europe, South and Central America in addition to the US. As such, he has over 5,000,000 air travel miles. Ed is the former President of the Economic Development Corporation of Laguna Vista, TX. and a former board member of Texas Southmost College and the Brownsville Museum of Fine Arts . At present, he is a board member of the University of Texas RGV Foundation and Hooked for Life Kids gone Fishing non-profit organization. Ed has Chemical Engineering bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston and Master of Business Administration from Harvard.
Javier Villarreal
Vice Chair
Angel Ramos
Airport Director
Patricia Guillermo
Secretary
Patricia Guillermo
Patricia is a seasoned communications professional with a broad background in government, media, marketing and public relations. Most recently, Patricia was the Director of Outbound Communications for the Brownsville Economic Development Council in Brownsville, Texas. Prior to this Patricia was the media strategist and spokesperson for a successful U.S. Congressional campaign. She was also the media strategist and a senior advisor for a member of Congress in Washington, D.C. In that role, she advanced the Congressman's policy agenda by forging relationships with important media outlets and became a reliable source of information and background on political events of national and local importance. Patricia also served as a media and political advisor in the Office of the Texas Attorney General, providing expertise on border and international legal issues.
Prior to her work in government, Patricia was an award-winning broadcast journalist reporting on events locally, nationally and internationally, including reports from Mexico and the former Yugoslavia. She was a freelance network correspondent for CNN Headline News, the Fox News Channel and SKY-TV in the United Kingdom and has been widely lauded for her work. Her awards include recognition by the Mayor and City Council of Dallas for negotiating the peaceful surrender of a violent bank robber to the Dallas SWAT team while on assignment for her news organization. She was honored by the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters Association for investigative reporting and continuing coverage on a news series that led to the imprisonment of corrupt law enforcement officers in South Texas and was recognized with the Special Achievement Award from KGBT-TV for her community service.
Patricia is the proud mother of two active duty U.S. Army Majors. She is a graduate of Southwest Texas State University – now Texas State University – in San Marcos, Texas. After living and working in New York City and Washington, D.C. for over a decade, she has returned to her home town of Brownsville, Texas to once again give back to her community.