September 1, 2006
Bush Picks Alumna Martinez
Tucker for Education Post

President Bush announced this week that he will nominate Sara Martinez Tucker, MBA ’79 and McCombs Hall of Fame recipient, to serve as undersecretary of education.

Martinez Tucker is currently the president and CEO of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), a position she will leave at the end of September in preparation for her move to Washington, D.C.

In a recent profile in Texas magazine, the McCombs School of Business alumni magazine, she talked about her commitment to higher education, especially in the Hispanic community.

“If we don’t educate the Hispanic population, the economy will go bust,” Martinez Tucker said. “The industrial jobs that once formed the backbone of the American economy have dwindled to only 10 percent of the workforce. The service-sector jobs that have replaced them require a level of skill that, for the most part, can be gained only through programs offered at colleges and universities.”

Prior to joining the HSF, Martinez Tucker, a native of Laredo, served 16 years at AT&T and was the first Hispanic female to reach the company’s executive level.

In addition to her MBA, Martinez Tucker earned her bachelor's degree in journalism from UT Austin in 1976.  She received the Texas Exes’ Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2005. As a member of the Chancellor’s Council and the Advisory Council for the College of Natural Sciences, she continues to be highly involved in the university.

Among many honors earned throughout her career, Martinez Tucker was named the 2000 Hispanic of the Year by Hispanic magazine, and one of America’s top 80 elite Hispanic Women by Hispanic Business magazine in 2003.