National Hispanic magazine names KU official to 'Elite 80' list of businesswomen

LAWRENCE -- Hispanic Business magazine has named Janet Murguia, executive vice chancellor for university relations at the University of Kansas, to its list of 80 elite Hispanic businesswomen in the United States.

The magazine includes 50 women from the business sector, 17 from government and 13 from academia to portray a broad range of progress in ethnic and gender diversity. The 21-year-old magazine has about 200,000 readers.

Murguia oversees the university's internal and external relations with the public, including governmental and public affairs. Her administrative areas include the offices of University Relations, Governmental Relations and Trademark Licensing; KANU-FM public radio station; and Kansas Audio-Reader Network, a radio reading service for the blind and visually impaired. Murguia also coordinates the university's strategic planning and marketing efforts with those of the KU Alumni Association and the KU Athletics Corporation and works closely with the KU Endowment Association.

A Kansas City, Kan., native, Murguia earned three degrees from KU: a juris doctorate from the law school in 1985, a bachelor of science in journalism from the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications in 1982, and a bachelor of arts in Spanish from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 1982.

Before coming to KU in 2001, Murguia served as deputy campaign manager and director of constituency outreach for the Gore/Lieberman presidential campaign. Prior to the campaign, she worked at the White House in various capacities beginning in 1994. She was deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of legislative affairs, serving as the senior White House liaison to Congress.