Juliet Villarreal Garcia, Ph.D., M.A.
Juliet Villarreal García, Ph.D., M.A., was elected to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Board of Trustees in January 2008.
García, an internationally acclaimed educational leader, became the first Mexican-American woman in the nation to become president of a college or university when she was named to lead Texas Southmost College in Brownsville, Texas, in 1986. When Texas Southmost College joined The University of Texas system in 1992, Garcia became president of the combined institution—The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College. She continues to serve in that role. The partnership between the two Brownsville higher education institutions has resulted in the elimination of transfer barriers, greater efficiency, higher student achievement and increased higher education opportunities for the people of Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley.
García currently serves on the boards of the Ford Foundation, Public Welfare Foundation and The National Academies’ Government, Universities, Industries Research Roundtable. Previously, she has served as chair of the American Council on Education, on the National Advisory Council on Institutional Quality and Effectiveness, and as a commissioner on the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.
García earned a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.A. from the University of Houston and a B.A. from the University of Houston.
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