U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced today that Victoria L. Thornton will serve as Director of the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities.

The White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities was created by an executive order in 1996 that established both the office of the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities within the Education Department and the President's Board of Advisors on Tribal Colleges and Universities. As director of the initiative, Thornton will work with members of the board and department leadership to ensure tribal colleges and universities are recognized as accredited institutions and have access to opportunities afforded other higher education institutions.

Thornton worked in the former Bush Administration as Director of Scheduling and Logistics for Admiral James D. Watkins at the U.S. Department of Energy and in the Reagan Administration as a staff member for the Presidential Commission on Indian Reservation Economics. Thornton is returning to the Department of Education where she worked in various capacities from 1981 - 1987. Her earlier positions include Education Program Specialist in the Office of Indian Education, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for the Office for Civil Rights, and Special Assistant in the Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs.

Thornton is part Diegueno of the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians located in Valley Center, California, where her father served as Tribal Chairman for nearly twenty years.

Thornton received her Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, Fullerton and teaching credentials in single and multiple subjects from the University of California, Irvine.

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