Veronica Vargas Stidvent
Veronica "Ronnye" Vargas Stidvent is Program Director of the Hispanic Leadership Initiative and a lecturer in the Department of Business, Government and Society. She previously served as the inaugural Director of the Center for Politics and Governance at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.
From 2004-2007, she served as the Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor, where she provided advice and counsel to the Secretary of Labor on issues including immigration reform, worker health and safety, and job training. Her office was responsible for the management and implementation of policy development, regulations, and program implementation. Prior to her appointment as assistant secretary, Stidvent served in the White House as special assistant to the president for policy, where she helped develop policy on a wide range of issue areas, including labor, education, justice, homeland security, and regulatory reform. Before that, she served as a policy adviser in Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. In that position, she provided counsel on federal regulatory policy.
A native of El Paso, Stidvent received her B.A. in the Plan II Honors Program and American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was honored as a Dean's Distinguished Graduate. After earning her law degree at Yale, she served as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Sidney Fitzwater, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
She served on the University Texas Commission of 125, a group of citizens convened to express a vision of how the University of Texas can best serve Texas and society during the next 25 years. In 2006, Stidvent was honored by the National Association of Hispanic Publishers as a Latina Role Model.
Stidvent has served on the Travis County Elections Study Group. She is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for Indiana University School of Public Affairs. She currently serves as an at-large representative to the Texas Exes Council and chairs the Hispanic Alumni Steering Committee for the organization. She also sits on the Boards of Directors for The Texas Tribune and the Texas Exes Scholarship Foundation. In 2009, she was appointed to a six-year term on the Texas Commission on Human Rights.
Vanessa D. Stotts
Vanessa Stotts is the Administrative Associate for the Hispanic Leadership Initiative and Subiendo: The Academy for Rising Leaders. In 2007, Vanessa graduated with her M.A. in politics and religion from the Claremont School of Theology. At Claremont she studied the how religious rhetoric influences the salience of a population toward political decisions. During her Master’s program she had the incredible opportunity to research for her thesis in Paris, France, while learning French.
Vanessa's background includes research projects such as working with the Methodist Church in Santa Ana, CA on a community analysis and helping them identify their new role in the community. She interned for the Narrative Pedagogy Project, developing a program to teach children about cultures to increase tolerance, and has worked for the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center as well as the Moore Multicultural Center at the Claremont School of Theology. She has worked with non-profits such as the Hill Country Children’s Theater on business management and strategic planning. Vanessa earned a dual B.A. in 2005 in history and world religions from the University of Texas at Austin and was awarded the Neil and Elaine Griffin Scholarship for her studies. She is currently working on her Master's of Public Affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.