[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 133 (Wednesday, September 29, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1775]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


HONORING LATINA LEADER AWARD RECIPIENT DR. JULIET V. GARCIA, PRESIDENT 
                               OF UTB/TSC

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. SOLOMON P. ORTIZ

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 28, 2010

  Mr. ORTIZ. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the work, dedication 
and leadership of Nueces, UTB/TSC President, Dr. Juliet V. Garcia, who 
will receive this evening the Latina Leader Award at the Washington 
Court Hotel.
  Dr. Garcia joined The University of Texas System as the president of 
The University of Texas at Brownsville in January 1992 after having 
served as president of Texas Southmost College for six years. When she 
was named as president of TSC in 1986, she became the first Mexican-
American woman in the nation to become president of a college or 
university.
  Under Dr. Garcia's leadership, the campus has grown from 49 acres to 
more than 460 acres; the budget has increased from $31.4 million to 
$150 million, and the total fall enrollment has grown from 7,000 
students to more than 15,000 students.
  While the university has continued to increase in quantity, it has 
also grown in quality. The vocational nursing graduates have achieved a 
pass rate of more than 95 percent for their state licensures, likewise, 
the teacher education graduates achieved a 94 percent pass rate on 
their certification exams, with education students specializing in 
music, school counseling, Spanish, social studies, special education, 
physical education and mathematics achieving a 100 percent pass rate.
  Dr. Garcia has established a campus culture that promotes student 
success. She was instrumental in the establishment of a Math and 
Science Academy for high school students, an Early College High School 
in collaboration with the Brownsville Independent School District.
  She has a strong history of public service. She served as chair of 
the Advisory Committee to Congress on Student Financial Assistance and 
on the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic 
Americans. Most recently, Dr. Garcia has served on the boards of 
National Campus Compact, chaired Texas Campus Compact, and was a member 
of President-Elect Obama's Transition Team.
  She currently serves on the boards of Ford Foundation, the Public 
Welfare Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Humanities 
Texas, and Raise Your Hand Texas. She is also currently serving as the 
co-chair of the Notre Dame University Task Force: On the Participation 
of Latino Children and Families in Catholic Schools in America.
  Among the many honors Dr. Garcia has received for her work is 
induction into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame for Lifetime Achievement 
in Education and the Hispanic Heritage Award. She has received the 
Reginald V. Wilson Diversity Award from the Office of Minority Affairs 
from the American Council on Education. She was named one of the Top 10 
College Presidents by Time magazine; Hispanic Business magazine 
recognized her multiple times in their 100 Most Influential Hispanics 
annual publication. The Brownsville Independent School District named 
the Juliet V. Garcia Middle School after her.
  She has received honorary degrees from the University of Notre Dame 
and Brown University. Dr. Garcia earned a Ph.D. in Communications and 
Linguistics from The University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. and B.A. 
in Classical Rhetoric and Public Address and English from the 
University of Houston. For more than a decade, she has been invited 
annually to lecture at Harvard's Institute for Educational Management 
on the university presidency. She is often invited to speak at national 
conferences on the issues of access and innovation in higher education.
  She is married to Oscar E. Garcia for 40 years. They are the parents 
of two grown children, Oscar D. Garcia and Paulita Rico, and are 
blessed with four grandchildren.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in commemorating UTB/TSC President Dr. 
Juliet V. Garcia for her work and dedication to UTB/TSC and her well 
deserved award as a Latina Leader.

                          ____________________