Texas Border Business
BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – APRIL 3, 2014 – Katherine Archuleta, Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, has been named the speaker at The University of Texas at Brownsville’s 22nd Spring Commencement planned for 8 a.m. Saturday, May 10 on the Student Union Lawn.
Archuleta was appointed by President Barack Obama in May 2013 and sworn in as the agency’s tenth director in November 2013. She is the first Hispanic to lead the more than 5,000-employee federal agency responsible for managing federal job announcements, conducting background checks for prospective employees, creating new employee policies, managing federal pension benefits and insurance programs for employees and their families and doing security clearances.
Archuleta began her career as a teacher in Denver, Colo. She entered government as an aide to former Denver Mayor Federico Peña. Archuleta followed Peña to Washington, D.C. to become his Chief of Staff when he was named Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation during President Bill Clinton’s administration. She was later a Senior Policy Advisory in the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Energy which Peña also led.
Archuleta left federal government and founded the Center for Regional and Neighborhood Action in Denver and was the Director of Professional Services for the Davis, Graham & Stubbs law firm in Denver. She was also a Senior Policy Advisor to former Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, currently the Governor of Colorado.
Archuleta returned to the federal government during Obama’s first term to become Chief of Staff at the Department of Labor under Secretary Hilda Solis, who spoke at UTB’s Spring Commencement in May 2011. Archuleta was later National Political Director for Obama’s 2012-re-election campaign before joining the OPM.
She has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Metropolitan State University in Denver and a master’s degree in education from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colo.
Spring Commencement will feature the first group of UTeach Brownsville graduates. The UTeach Brownsville program in the College of Science, Mathematics and Technology allows students to receive teacher certification while earning a degree in mathematics or science through a collaborative partnership with the College of Education.
The university’s Mathematics and Science Academy will also have its largest graduating class ever with 46 students. The MSA in the College of Science, Mathematics and Technology was created by the 79th Texas Legislature in 2005. Graduating seniors receive a high school diploma from the academy and have up to 68 semester credit hours, enough to have finished the first two years of college. The first cohort of high school-aged juniors began in fall 2007 and graduated in spring 2009.
Spring Commencement will be the last for Dr. Miguel Angel Escotet, Dean of the College of Education, who announced earlier this semester that he will leave his position this summer.
Graduates who have questions about Spring Commencement should contact the Office of the Registrar located at the Enrollment Center & The Tower in Main at 956-882-8254 or registrars@utb.edu.
