A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

In that role, she and the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans will serve as the administration's primary advocate for Hispanic educational issues.

"Sarita has devoted herself to helping increase access to education for Hispanic Americans," said Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley. "Her experience will be quite valuable in our efforts to promote educational excellence for Hispanic Americans."

Brown has been assistant dean of academic affairs at American University since December 1995. She has served as diversity officer for the university's Office of the Provost and designed a universitywide diversity plan. She also helped develop ALCANZA!, a university outreach effort to the Latino community.

Before that, Brown was a senior fellow at the American Council on Education's Office of Minorities in Higher Education from June through November 1995. From 1993 June 1995, she was a principal partner in the Education Trust, a division of the American Association for Higher Education that supported education reform from preschool to college.

Brown began her career at the University of Texas at Austin in 1978 and held various posts through 1993, including serving as assistant graduate dean and founding director of the Graduate Opportunity Program. The project was designed to enhance the university's minority graduate enrollment and led to the school's ranking number one in doctoral degrees awarded to Latinos in 1993.

She holds a master of arts, bachelor of science in organizational communication, and a bachelor of arts in general and comparative studies all from the University of Texas.

President Clinton signed Executive Order 12900 in February 1994 establishing the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans and the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.

Nationally, Hispanic students made up 13 percent of America's public elementary and secondary school enrollment in 1994. In some states, more than one third of the enrollment was Hispanic that year, including Texas, 36.1 percent, and California, 37.9 percent.

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