President and CEO of Texas 2036 to Speak at UTEP Centennial Lecture
Last Updated on February 13, 2020 at 12:00 AM
Originally published February 13, 2020
By UC Staff
UTEP Communications
Margaret Spellings, the president and CEO of Texas 2036, will be the guest speaker at The University of Texas at El Paso's Centennial Lecture at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020, in the Undergraduate Learning Center, Room 106, on the UTEP campus.
The topic is “The Future of Higher Education.”
The lecture is free and open to the public.
In her role as president and CEO of Texas 2036, Spellings utilizes the vast knowledge and experience she has developed over an exceptional career in public service at the state and national level. Texas 2036 is a nonprofit organization building long-term, data-drien strategies to secure Texas’ continued prosperity as it approaches its bicentennial in 2036.
Spellings was president of the University of North Carolina from 2016 to 2019, overseeing the 17-campus system and leading the state’s public university into a new period of performance, affordability and growth with a focus on improving economic mobility, ensuring accountability and advancing the public good.
Before that, Spellings served as president of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, where she oversaw programs on economic opportunity, education reform, global health, and special initiatives on women’s leadership and military service.
From 2005 to 2009, Spellings served as U.S. Secretary of Education, leading the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, a bipartisan initiative to provide greater accountability for the education of 50 million U.S. public school students.
As secretary, she also launched the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, a plan to address challenges of access, affordability, quality and accountability in our nation’s colleges and universities.
Before serving as secretary, Spellings was White House domestic policy advisor from 2001 to 2005, overseeing the administration’s agenda on education, transportation, health, justice, housing and labor.
Spellings’ experience also includes serving as senior advisor to then-Governor George W. Bush; president and CEO of Margaret Spellings and Company, a Washington, D.C., consulting firm that provided strategic guidance on a variety of domestic policy matters; and as president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, advocating for more effective education and workforce training.
Spellings was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but spent much of her childhood in Houston. She is a graduate of the University of Houston, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. She also received an honorary doctorate and Distinguished Alumni Award from the university in 2006. Spellings has two adult daughters and resides in Dallas.
