HONORARY UH DOCTORATES
TO U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY SPELLINGS, PHILANTHROPIST O’CONNOR
UH Alumna Margaret Spellings and Humanitarian
Maconda Brown O’Connor Feted at May 11 Ceremony
HOUSTON, May 3, 2006 – U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret
Spellings and noted philanthropist Maconda Brown O’Connor
will be awarded honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees by the
University of Houston in a special ceremony May 11.
“We have chosen to award our highest honor to Secretary
Spellings for her distinguished service to the state and the country,”
said University of Houston System Board of Regents Chairman Leroy
Hermes, “and to Dr. O’Connor for her distinguished service
to the Greater Houston community, especially to its children. They
are both richly deserving. The university will be doubly honored
by their presence when they join us to accept these degrees.”
Spellings, who attended public schools in Houston and earned a
bachelor’s degree in political science in 1979 from UH, served
as senior adviser to Texas Gov. George W. Bush from 1995 to 2001,
developing and implementing educational policies. She then followed
Bush to Washington, D.C. following his election as president. Serving
as assistant to the president for domestic policy, she helped craft
educational policy on a national level, most notably the No Child
Left Behind Act of 2001, considered the most sweeping educational
reform in a generation. In 2005, Spellings was appointed U.S. Secretary
of Education, managing a 5000-person department that oversees national
policy development for both the K-12 sector and higher education.
O’Connor serves as a lifetime trustee of The Brown Foundation,
a philanthropic organization that has contributed generously to
a wide variety of city and state institutions, from non-profit social
agencies to museums and universities. At UH, the foundation supported
the recent expansion of the M.D. Anderson Library and Honors College,
established the Brown Foundation Chair in Hispanic Literature, and
has funded several projects in the Graduate College of Social Work.
Besides this support from the foundation, O'Connor has generously
contributed personally to many UH programs and activities.
A native Houstonian, O’Connor earned her undergraduate degree
at the University of St. Thomas (in Houston) as well as a master’s
degree and a Ph.D. from Smith College’s School for Social
Work. She has played a principal role in such important local and
regional initiatives as the Houston A+ Challenge, which is undertaking
public school reform, and the Greater Houston Collaborative for
Children, a program to foster healthy child development. As a clinical
social worker, she is actively involved with many agencies and organizations
serving underprivileged and delinquent youth.
Previous honorees have included George H.W. Bush, Francois Mitterrand,
Carlos Menem, Barron Hilton, Philip Johnson, Edward Albee, William
P. Hobby Jr., Jack Valenti, Jan De Hartog and Loretta Devine.
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