Juliette Shillingford

Juliette Shillingford is a Dominican urban planner and public servant who served as the Chief Physical Planner within the Physical Planning Division of the government of Dominica. In this high-level administrative capacity, she directed national land-use management, structural zoning compliance, and urban development frameworks across the island. Her tenure was particularly marked by leading institutional responses to climate resilience, environmental conservation regulations, and national infrastructure reconstruction following major ecological impacts in the Caribbean region.

Professional Career and Public Service

Shillingford spent the bulk of her professional career in the public sector, advancing through the technical ranks of the Ministry of Housing. Upon her appointment as Chief Physical Planner, she assumed executive oversight of the Physical Planning Division and executed statutory mandates established under the Physical Planning Act. Her regulatory duties encompassed managing the structural building application process, enforcing environmental impact assessment requirements for major developments, and formulating long-term national spatial development plans.

Throughout her administration, Shillingford coordinated multi-sectoral strategies aimed at modernizing Dominica’s building codes and spatial planning laws. She served as a primary state representative to regional bodies, working alongside organizations like the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and United Nations development networks to implement sustainable land-management frameworks. Her administrative divisions played an integral role in evaluating large-scale public infrastructure, housing initiatives, and eco-tourism development models to ensure strict alignment with the state’s overarching policy of climate resilience.