Leading national Hispanic advocacy group names KU official to board

Editor's note: A photo of Janet Murguia is available via e-mail; contact kunews@ku.edu.

LAWRENCE -- The National Council of La Raza, the leading Hispanic advocacy group in the country, has named Janet Murguia, executive vice chancellor for university relations at the University of Kansas, to its board of directors.

Murguia is among nine newly elected board members. The board is a 32-member group made up of elected officials and representatives of community-based organizations, the corporate sector and academia.

Other new members include Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO; Robin Read, president and CEO of the National Foundation for Women Legislators; Horace Deets, former executive director of AARP; and W. Roger Haughton, chairman of the board and CEO of the PMI Group Inc. and its subsidiary, PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., one of the largest private mortgage insurers in the United States.

"We are truly honored and pleased to have such a distinguished group join our board of directors," said NCLR President Raul Yzaguirre. "These are persons who have served in the highest echelons of government, business and the nonprofit sector, and they will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the work of the National Council of La Raza."

The council is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization that works to reduce poverty and discrimination and improve life opportunities for Hispanic Americans.

Murguia, who grew up in Argentine, the Mexican-American neighborhood of Kansas City, Kan., became executive vice chancellor in July 2001. She oversees the university's internal and external relations with the public, including governmental and public affairs. She earned three degrees from KU, including a juris doctorate from the law school in 1985.

Before returning to KU, Murguia served as deputy campaign manager and director of constituency outreach for the Gore/Lieberman presidential campaign. Murguia previously 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. She provided strategic and legislative advice to the president on key issues and managed a legislative staff of 25. Murguia started her career working as legislative counsel to former Kansas congressman Jim Slattery for seven years.

Murguia is a member of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's Youth Development Board; the University of Kansas School of Law Board of Governors; the Wyandotte County Community Foundation; the Lawrence Rotary Club; and the board of directors for YouthFriends, a nationally recognized school-based mentoring effort.

In April, Murguia was one of 13 women in academia chosen for Hispanic Business magazine's list of the "Elite 80" Hispanic businesswomen in the United States.