The University of Texas System announced that Dr. Juliet V. Garcia, former president of The University of Texas at Brownsville, was presented with the nation’s highest civilian honor, The Presidential Medal of Freedom, on Thursday, July 7, in Washington D.C.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public, or private endeavors.
Garcia, a current University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) communications professor, is among the first group of Americans to receive the honor under President Joe Biden’s term.
“Juliet has enriched the lives of many Rio Grande Valley students, from elementary to college,” said UTRGV President Guy Bailey in a statement. “Her contributions to higher education in South Texas and beyond are long-lasting and have created pathways of success among a new generation of Latino leaders. On behalf of everyone at UTRGV, I congratulate Juliet on this well-deserved national award.”
Garcia was the first Mexican-American woman to serve as a college president in the United States. During her tenure as president, Garcia pioneered a partnership between UT Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, a community college where she served as president from 1986 to 1992, when she assumed the presidency of UTRGV’s legacy institution UT Brownsville. She stepped down as UTB president in 2014 when UTRGV was established.
The recipient of numerous awards, TIME magazine named Garcia one of the top 10 college presidents in the nation in 2009, and she was named one of the top 50 world leaders by Fortune magazine. In 2008, García was selected to join President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team.
Garcia, a Brownsville, Texas native, received her Ph.D. in communication and linguistics from The University of Texas at Austin and her M.A. and B.A. in speech and English from the University of Houston.
“Juliet Villarreal Garcia personifies the American dream. As the first Mexican-American woman to lead a U.S. college or university, Dr. Garcia has been the inspirational force behind countless individuals who made public service their life’s work and students who realized their academic potential,” said UT System Chancellor James B. Milliken. “I am proud to call her one of our own – as a distinguished alumna of The University of Texas at Austin and President of UT Brownsville – and I congratulate Dr. Garcia on this prestigious and well-deserved honor.”
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