U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced today that he has selected two talented and experienced individuals who will assume leadership roles in two White House Initiatives housed within the Education Department. Paige announced that Christine Brooks will serve as the director of the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Center and Leslie Sanchez will serve as the executive director of the White House Initiative on Hispanic Education.

The Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Center was established pursuant to an executive order signed by President Bush in January of this year. As the director of the center, Brooks will be responsible for establishing policies, priorities and objectives that will expand the capacity of faith-based and other community organizations for providing educational services to American students. The center will be active in developing policy and legislation and in implementing programs that will further President Bush's agenda to strengthen the institutions of civil society and America's families and communities through education.

Before assuming her position with the Education Department, Brooks served as the state administrator for Community Services Block Grant Programs for the government of the District of Columbia. Previously a congressional fellow at the Brookings Institution, she has served in a number of positions with government agencies including the District of Columbia's Department of Human Services, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the state of Florida, and serves on several education-related boards and commissions.

Brooks began her career as a junior high school and high school teacher, and was a professor at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Fla., and Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, N.C. Brooks received an undergraduate degree from North Carolina Central University, a master's in education from Teachers College at Columbia University and her Ph.D. in the design and management of postsecondary education from Florida State University.

The White House Initiative on Hispanic Education was created by an executive order signed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990. That order established both the office of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans within the Education Department and the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. As executive director of the initiative, Sanchez will work with the members of the commission to advise the leadership of the department on the educational progress of Hispanic Americans and to propose means for improving educational opportunities and achievement for Hispanic students through federal programs and in cooperation with the private sector.

Sanchez, a native of Texas, was most recently deputy press secretary for the Republican National Committee for the 2000 elections, where she developed communications strategies for Hispanic media, including a multi-million dollar Hispanic advertising campaign, and acted as a chief spokesperson for the committee. Previously a legislative assistant on appropriations to U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, she also has experience as a marketing consultant and has held various positions in public relations and with several local, state and federal political campaigns. She is a graduate of the George Washington University and is scheduled to receive a master's of business administration in marketing at Johns Hopkins University this summer.

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