Dr. Mildred García, president of California State University, Dominguez Hills, has been appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.
García is one of 19 individuals from the education, business, nonprofit, philanthropic and high-tech sectors nationwide appointed to the commission, which will advise the president and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on issues related to improving educational opportunities and outcomes for Hispanics. With Hispanics representing the fastest-growing minority group in the United States yet having the lowest rate of education attainment in the country, the committee’s work will play an integral part in helping the Department of Education shape its strategies to meet the president’s “2020 Goal” of the U.S. having more college graduates than anywhere else in the world.
“I am proud to nominate such impressive men and women to these important roles, and I am grateful they have agreed to lend their considerable talents to this administration. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead,” said President Obama in a July 5 press release regarding the announcement of several nominations and appointments, of which García was one.
President Obama established the advisory commission in October 2010 with the signing of the executive order renewing the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, which was originally established by President George H.W. Bush in 1980 and continued by each subsequent president. At the invitation of Department of Education officials, García stood alongside President Obama during that signing.
“I am honored to be appointed to this important commission,” García said. “The growth of the Latino community in California and the United States emphasizes the need to expand educational opportunities. As the president of a university that is over 40 percent Latino, I look forward to working with educational leaders throughout the country to expand student success.”
García became president of CSU Dominguez Hills in August 2007 and in doing so became the first Latina president of a California State University campus. That year she was also named to Hispanic Business magazine’s “Top 100 Most Influential Hispanics” list. A scholar and sought-after speaker at national and international conferences in the area of equity in higher education, García is committed to the cause of access for all who strive to learn and succeed.
In June 2010, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan appointed García as the sole four-year university representative to the U.S. Committee on Measures of Student Success, which is working to develop recommendations on how best to measure student success at associate degree-granting institutions. García also recently visited the countries of Oman and Jordan as one of seven university and community college presidents on a Fulbright-Hayes Seminars Abroad Program that focused on gaining insight into higher education practices in those countries and explore the development of educational exchanges between the U.S. and Middle Eastern campuses.
García is an active member of the American Council of Education, American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, and the Association of American Colleges and Universities, where she serves on their board of directors and on the editorial advisory board of its Peer Review publication. She also is a member of the advisory board for Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, and is a founding board member of the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships.
