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THE AUTHORS
He was admitted to Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU) in 1967, and he transferred to
the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) in 1969 to complete his architecture degree in 1980.
His graduate thesis was titled
Santo Domingo. La Conservación de su Centro Histórico
. He has been a professor at
multiple universities, including: Universidad Central del Este (UCE); Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y
Maestra (PUCMM); Altos de Chavón; Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE); Universidad Católica de Santo
Domingo (UCSD); Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD); University of Puerto Rico (UPR)
Rio Piedras Campus; and Universidad Católica Nordestana (UCNE). He has published works in Dominican
newspapers including
Listín Diario, El Nacional, Hoy, El Nuevo Diario, El Siglo,
and
Clave Digital.
He has also
been featured in magazines such as
Ahora!
,
Arquitexto
,
Archivos de Arquitectura Antillana, El Leoncito
and
AD+
.
Together with Víctor Duran he published
Arquitectura Popular Dominicana
and is the author of
El Último Monu-
mento,
a critical study on the Columbus Lighthouse. He is a Founding Member of Sociedad de Arquitectos de
la República Dominicana; a consultant at the United Nations Development Program: Plan Resure; a member
of the National Fire Protection Association; and Vice President of the National Council on Urban Affairs. He
was honored by the Caribbean Federation of Architects in 2002 and by Colegio Dominicano de Ingenieros,
Arquitectos y Agrimensores (CODIA) in 2003. Together with Omar Rancier, he received the Henry Klumb
Award from the Architects and Landscape Architects Association of Puerto Rico.
•
Andrea Canepari
Andrea Canepari has been the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary with Letter of Credence for
Italy in the Dominican Republic since 2017 when he reopened the Embassy of Italy, inaugurating a new Dip-
lomatic Chancery and a new Residence and resuming political, cultural, and economic relations. In 2018, he
promoted a cultural year program with more than 120 events in conjunction with institutions, companies,
universities, and local cultural centers to celebrate 120 years of diplomatic relations between Italy and the
Dominican Republic.
In 2019, he spearheaded another cultural year program to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the arrival
of the first resident bishop in Santo Domingo, the Italian Alessandro Geraldini. The celebrations of the two
cultural years aimed to highlight the significant common history that Italy and the Dominican Republic share
and to create new opportunities for future collaboration. Canepari is the Honorary President of the revamped
Dominican-Italian Chamber of Commerce, which now includes several prominent entrepreneurs from the
Dominican Republic on its board of directors.
From 2013 to 2017, he was the Consul General of Italy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with consular jurisdic-
tion for the States of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey (southern counties), North Carolina,
Virginia, and West Virginia. He has received numerous awards and more than 200 mentions from the press,
radio, and television. In 2016 he received the 2016 “Global Philadelphia Award” biennial award from Temple
University, awarded to those who stand out for their enhancement of international relations for the city of
Philadelphia. He has been a part of numerous committees and commissions with the objective of consolidat-
ing the international status of the Philadelphia region through increasingly deeper cooperation between Italy
and Europe, among which include: the Papal Event Committee (on the occasion of the Pope’s visit to Phil-
adelphia in September of 2015); the Presidential Advisory Board of Jefferson University, facilitating the crea-
tion of the first medical degree recognized in both Italy and the United States; the Heart Ball Executive Lead-
ership; the Board of Directors of Mid-Atlantic Division of the American Liver Foundation; Member of the
Studio Incamminati, School of Contemporary Realist Art Board; Honorary Founding Member of “USA250,”
the committee in charge of organizing the celebrations in Philadelphia for America’s 250th Anniversary in
2026; External Advisory Board Member for the Professional Science Master Degree Program in Bioinnova-
tion, Department of Biology, Biotechnology Center College of Science and Technology, Temple University,
Philadelphia; and the International Advisory Board of Scuola Universitaria Superiore IUSS of Pavia, Italy. He
was Deputy for the North American Unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2013 and the Dip-