Dr. Maria Hernandez Ferrier – 5/29/10
Inaugural President, Texas A&M University-San Antonio
On Friday, February 12, 2010, The Texas A&M System Board of Regents named Dr. Maria Hernandez Ferrier the first president of Texas A&M University-San Antonio. Her history with TAMU-SA began in April 2008 with her appointment as executive director when the university was operating as a system center. The next year Ferrier was named interim president, and was the force behind the university’s recent growth and development to successfully become designated as a stand-alone institution of higher learning. Ferrier continues to provide dynamic and energetic executive leadership; on-site coordination of academic, administrative, and student services; vision and guidance in strategic planning; and collaboration with external constituencies from the local community and businesses as well as local, state and national leaders.
Prior to her career with A&M-San Antonio, Ferrier held a number of national education appointments. In 2002, President George W. Bush named Ferrier to direct the Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students in the U. S. Department of Education. She rose first to Deputy Undersecretary and next to Assistant Deputy Secretary, serving as the principal advisor to the Secretary of Education on all matters pertaining to limited-English proficient students, and Hispanics in general. Ferrier also advised businesses and organizations with an interest in building or expanding education partnerships as a liaison between chambers of commerce across the nation and the Department of Education.
Other national appointments include the Corporation for National and Community Service, whose mission is to strengthen communities and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering; and, in 1992, Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander appointed her to Director of Bilingual Education & Minority Language Affairs.
Ferrier currently serves on the Hispanic-Serving School Districts/ Hispanic Serving Institutions Advisory Council for the Hispanic Association of Colleges and University (HACU). Her prior involvement with HACU includes serving as co-chair of the HACU National Leadership Team, a group of college and university presidents committed to higher education success for Hispanics. In this capacity, and as part of the secretary’s cabinet, she delivered presentations in Spanish in front of the Mexican Minister of Education as a representative of the United States at the annual Bi-National Meeting in Mexico. She also formed the department’s faith-based Hispanic task force, whose mission was to reach and apprise parents of English language learners of their rights and opportunities under the new educational federal law.
Ferrier is an active member of the Council of Public University Presidents and Chancellors (CPUPC), a forum of chief executive officers of Texas public universities that encourages inter-institutional cooperation in meeting the state’s goals for higher education. The organization recently made recommendations concerning opportunities to increase the number of students transferring from community colleges to institutions of higher learning, an increasingly relevant discussion in public higher education.
Ferrier’s accomplishments include the creation, development and/or implementation of many highly successful programs, such as City Year, a national service organization that became the model for the now federally-funded program known as AmeriCorps; the first elementary school chapter of Students Against Driving Drunk; Partners in Pride, the first in-school mentoring program in Texas; “Safety Kids”; Helping Academic Leadership Through Theater; the Community Resource Fair; Nimitz 50, a school/business partnership with Valero Energy Corporation; “The Nimitz Blue,” matching adjudicated youngsters with police officers serving as mentors; the Southwest ISD/Kelly AFB Mentoring Partnership; and the multi-district Partnership School for expelled and adjudicated youngsters. Many of these model programs have been replicated in other schools throughout the nation.
Ferrier has been the recipient of numerous awards, including: the San Antonio University Roundtable’s “Best and Brightest” Award (2009); the Life of Idealism Award from City Year-San Antonio (2005); the Hispanic Heritage Award from the Department of Labor (2003); the “Point of Light” designation from the White House (1990); the Minority Leadership Award from the National Community Education Association (1989); and the Imagineer Award from the Mind Science Foundation (1988).
In 1999, Our Lady of the Lake University chose Ferrier as the first Distinguished Visiting Professor for the doctoral program of the university’s Center for Leadership Studies.
Ferrier served as the general editor for the Handbook on Choosing Your Child’s Education (2007), published by Focus on the Family, and provided the editor’s foreword for the newly released book, Arise & Ascend – A Woman’s Cry to Freedom (2009), published by Xulon Press.
She currently serves on the board of directors for a variety of organizations, including Southwest Independent School District Foundation, KLRN-TV Public Television, Southwest General Hospital and the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. She is a member of the Lackland AFB Joint Land-Use Study Executive & Advisory Committee, and serves on the HACU Hispanic-Serving School Districts/Hispanic-Serving Institutions Advisory Council.
Ferrier earned a Bachelor of Arts in Speech and a Master of Education in Guidance and Counseling from Our Lady of the Lake University, and a Doctorate of Educational Administration from Texas A&M University.
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