| Janet Murguía | |
|---|---|
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings with Janet Murguía on July 18, 2005 |
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| Born | September 6, 1960 Kansas City, Kansas |
| Education | B.S. degree in journalism (1982), a B.A. degree in Spanish (1982), and a J.D. degree (1985), Kansas University.[1] |
Janet Murguia (born September 6, 1960) is a prominent civil rights leader in the United States. She grew up in Kansas City, Kansas but now lives in Washington, D.C. and works as a renowned advocate for the Latino community. Both her twin sister Mary and her elder brother Carlos are federal judges.
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On January 1, 2005, Murguía replaced Raul Yzaguirre as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S. As President and CEO, Murguía often testifies before Congress about issues affecting the Latino community including education, health care, immigration reform, civil rights and the economy. In her role as a spokesperson for the organization, she is frequently interviewed by various news outlets and has appeared on many news programs.
Since 2005, Murguía has placed more emphasis on strengthening the relationship with NCLR’s network of nearly 300 community-based organizations (CBOs) that serve millions of people annually. The CBOs are essential to NCLR’s work because they provide crucial services to the community and bring attention to the needs of community members they serve.
She has also emphasized leveraging the growth in the Latino population throughout the United States into political power. NCLR and its partners helped register almost 200,000 new Hispanic voters during the 2008 election and continued their empowerment campaign during the 2010 midterm elections. With the help of other initiatives and partnerships, NCLR has also helped more than 1.5 million eligible immigrants apply for citizenship.
During her time as president of the organization, Murguía has worked with organizations such as the NAACP and the National Urban League to help strengthen the relationship between the African American and Latino communities.
Under Murguía’s direction, NCLR also brought back the NCLR ALMA Awards after a three year hiatus. NCLR created the ALMA Awards in 1995 as part of its strategy to promote fair and accurate portrayals of Latinos in the entertainment industry. Eva Longoria of ABC’s Desperate Housewives has previously hosted the show. Murguía served as one of the show’s executive producers.
Murguía currently serves as a board member of the Independent Sector, a coalition of leading nonprofits, foundations, and corporations, and is an executive committee member of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. She also sits on the Board of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility and the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda.
Janet Murguía has emerged as a key leader in the Latino community. In 2001, Murguía joined the University of Kansas (KU) as Executive Vice Chancellor for University Relations. Murguía managed KU’s strategic planning and marketing efforts on four campuses.
Before joining KU, she served as deputy campaign manager and director of constituency outreach for the Al Gore presidential campaign, 2000 Gore/Lieberman presidential campaign where she was the primary liaison between former Vice President Gore and national constituency groups. She also served as a spokesperson for the campaign, working with radio, print, and TV media outlets.
Murguía served seven years as legislative counsel to former Kansas Congressman Jim Slattery before working at the White House from 1994 to 2000. She eventually served as deputy assistant to President Bill Clinton, providing strategic and legislative advice to the president. She also served as deputy director of legislative affairs where she was in charge of the legislative staff and acted as a senior White House liaison to Congress.
Murguía has been named to the following: