Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 3, 2006

Contact: Eric Gerber
713.743.8189 (office)
713.617.7130(pager)
egerber@uh.edu

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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