Dr. Laura Guerrero

It is with deep sadness and heartbreak that we announce the passing of Laura Guerrero on January 14, 2025, at the age of 54 after a brave battle with pancreatic cancer. Her loss has sunk us into sorrow but we take solace in knowing that Laura is free of pain and in the comfort of serenity’s warm embrace.

Laura was born on March 7, 1970, in Mexico City, Mexico, to Rodolfo Alberto Guerrero Declementi and Silvia Antonieta Hernandez Fonseca. She was one of three children: Rudy and Gabriela were her siblings.

As a teenager, Laura and her family moved to El Paso, Texas, where she attended high school and the University of Texas at El Paso, or UTEP, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in business. She later attended Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where she got a master’s degree in business and Western University in London, Ontario, Canada, where she earned a PhD in business. Laura loved Canada and the many friends she made there. But she was never a fan of its bitter cold and that summer seemed to last only several days a year.

Laura was always an explorer and wanderer throughout her life. She studied and worked in Mexico, the United States and Canada, seeking new experiences and thoughtful conversations. But she was always close to her brother and sister and parents and adored being an aunt to her three nephews and later to her two nieces.

She eventually returned to El Paso and worked at her alma mater UTEP as a professor in the college of business.

In El Paso, Laura rekindled her long friendship with Juan Lozano, who lived in Houston. The friendship would blossom into romance and they would embark on a five-year long-distance relationship that bloomed into marriage in 2016.

Laura moved to Houston and worked teaching and doing research at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Laura and Juan settled into a home with their two fur babies, Chuco and Poppy. When Juan’s niece Betty passed away in 2017, Laura welcomed, without hesitation, Betty’s daughter Hailey into their home. Hailey completed the home Laura and Juan had created and they later adopted her. Hailey brought Laura so much joy, deepening and expanding the emotion and affection that Laura had for life.

When Juan’s sister Maria passed away in 2024, Laura again did not hesitate to have Hailey’s sister Nevaeh come live with them. Even as Laura was in the midst of fighting cancer, which was making her weaker with each passing day, she was the first to say that Nevaeh, who had been living with Juan’s sister, had to come live with them.

There was never hesitation in Laura’s actions and values when it came to helping those in need, whether it be family, friends, strangers or furry creatures. Laura practiced kindness but not at the expense of calling out those who were cruel or contemptuous of charity and compassion. She loved to organize social gatherings and her prowess in bringing people together for food and fun is still marveled at today.

Laura is survived by her husband Juan, her daughter Hailey, her mother Silvia, her sister Gabriela, her brother Rudy, her nephews Alec, Andy and Julian, her nieces Lucia and Ana Sofia and Navaeh, her sister-in-law Audrey, her brother-in-law Luis and various cousins and other family members in Mexico.

Laura’s Celebration of Life Service will be on Thursday, Jan. 23, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Earthman Southwest Funeral Home, 12555 S. Kirkwood Road, Stafford, Texas. The family is working to set up an account to benefit Laura’s two girls, Hailey and Nevaeh.

Laura’s loss is being felt by so many. It’s a wound that will likely never fully heal. But the pain will lessen, overtaken by the smiles and laughter that will tumble forward whenever we recall our special memories of her. Laura will forever remain in each one of us that admired her, that cherished her, that loved her.