New Acting Pennsylvania Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Richard Negrín is in the process of putting his staff together, and confirmed to AL DÍA that former Congreso CEO Carolina DiGiorgio will be the department’s new Chief Counsel on Monday, March 13 — her first day on the job.

DiGiorgio comes to the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) after six years at the helm of Congreso de Latinos Unidos. There, she took the long-standing organization serving North Philadelphia’s Latino community and grew its income from $17 million to $25 million, and pivoted its services to focus more on youth and family development.

She officially stepped down from her role as president and CEO of the organization on March 10.

For her efforts, DiGiorgio was the 2020 AL DÍA Hispanic Heritage Month Nonprofit Archetype. The organization also consistently earned top workplace recognition throughout her tenure.

Before becoming Congreso’s president and CEO, DiGiorgio sat on the organization’s board for eight years — first joining when she was an attorney at Stradley Ronon. After the law firm, DiGiorgio would also serve two years as the Director of Commerce for Montgomery County at the tail end of current PA Governor Josh Shapiro’s tenure as Chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners.

In 2023, DiGiorgio will work once again under Shapiro as he carries out his vision for Pennsylvania.

Part of that vision was to bring a more diverse cabinet to Harrisburg, and Shapiro did that with the Department of Environmental Protection when he appointed Negrín as secretary on Jan. 10. 

Negrín is the first Latino to ever be appointed Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Environmental Protection. DiGiorgio also represents that shift, as she was born in Honduras, and migrated to the U.S. with her family when she was five years old. Her first memory of the U.S. — as she told AL DÍA in a 2020 profile — was getting lost in the Miami Airport.

Now, she’s part of shaping the environmental future of Pennsylvania in a time when climate change and Mother Nature are at their most unpredictable.