MIRIAM I. CRUZ

Miriam Cruz founded and serves as President of Equity Research Corporation (ERC), a private, non-profit educational consulting firm based in Washington, D.C . The firm serves universities with significant Hispanic student populations and helps them upgrade their capabilities and better prepare their graduates for challenges in the new global economy.

Ms. Cruz, who was born in San Juan Puerto Rico, formerly served as Deputy Assistant to President Jimmy Carter for Hispanic Affairs.  She graduated from Shelton College in New Jersey and later did graduate work in Education and Political Science at the University of Puerto Rico and Roosevelt University in Chicago.

Beginning her career as an English teacher, Ms. Cruz participated in a teacher exchange program between the Department of Education of Puerto Rico and the City of Philadelphia. She then moved to Chicago where she directed multi-cultural educational programs for non- governmental organizations.

In 1973 Major Richard J. Daley chose her as his Assistant for Hispanic Affairs.  In that position, she identified demographic growth, needs, problems and issues affecting Chicago's Spanish-speaking community. She also served as the city's liaison with the school districts in the Spanish-speaking communities and, to better serve that community, she established a talent bank of Spanish-speaking professionals and designed seminars on the Hispanic community for city employees.

As Deputy Assistant to President Carter for Hispanic affairs, Ms. Cruz organized and presided over briefings for Hispanic constituencies, prepared presidential briefing materials on Hispanic issues, and outlined options for the President on public policy issues affecting Hispanic Americans.  She represented the President throughout the country at activities in the
Hispanic communities.

In her tenure as President of ERC, Ms. Cruz has brought together Hispanic higher education institutions to work with major academic institutions and federal agencies to develop more educational opportunities for Hispanic Americans.

ERC projects that Ms. Cruz was instrumental in developing include the Hispanic Educational Telecommunication System, which links via satellite 10 Hispanic-serving universities throughout the United States. Satellite channels covering the entire United States, as well as audiovisual and computer technologies, make it possible for the member institutions to
share academic instruction, curricula programming, and cooperative research.

As founder of CEPA (The Consorcio Educativo para la Proteccion Ambiental), Ms.Cruz established a partnership among three National Laboratories of the U.S. Department of Energy, five Hispanic-serving universities in the U.S., including Puerto Rico, two Mexican, and three Chilean universities. The CEPA program consists of a true partnership among participating groups and provides for curricula development, student exchanges, faculty development, and creation of bilingual educational materials, joint research, and other cooperative
activities.

Another project established by ERC is the National Hispanic Bilingual Engineering Program. This consortium is a collaboration between Hispanic- serving universities, public school systems, National Laboratories of the U.S. Department of Energy and multinational corporations. The program's main goal is to recruit and train Hispanic students as bilingual-bicultural engineers who can successfully compete internationally.

Because one of the best avenues to reach the Hispanic community is through its churches, ERC has organized the National Hispanic Religious Partnership for Community Health. Based at ERC, the partnership brings together religious institutions, colleges and universities, other community organizations and governmental agencies to develop health related educational programs in the community.

Ms. Cruz is a frequent speaker on Hispanic issues in the United States on college campuses, to non-profit, charitable and religious institutions and before corporate executives.  She has organized seminars on the Hispanic community in the U.S. and has participated in conferences in Latin America, Europe and Africa.

In 1994 she was appointed by President Clinton to the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.  She is also a member of the National Board of Distinguished Women and Distinguished Alumnae of Mississippi University for Women, member of the Board of MANA-a Latina Organization, a trustee of the National City Christian Church Corporation and a member of the Christian Board of Publications.

Throughout her professional career she has received numerous awards, including the Thomas Eleanor Wright Human Relations Award from the City of Chicago in 1974, in 1976 she received the Chicago Jaycees Outstanding Young Citizen Award and in September 1994, the Hispanic Congressional Caucus' Medallion of Excellence for Role Model.  The United States Environmental Protection Agency also named her as the 1995 recipient of Hispanic Champion
in Education Award.

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