AUSTIN, Texas—State Rep. Irma Rangel, chair of the House Committee on Higher Education, will be the keynote speaker at a May 6 leadership conference at The University of Texas at Austin sponsored by the Hispanic Faculty/Staff Association.
The conference in the Red McCombs School of Business will include speakers and discussion sessions to stimulate leadership skills and encourage participants to take on leadership roles in their communities. The conference is free and open to the public.
Registration will begin at 11 a.m. in the CBA Atrium on the third floor of the business school. Rangel’s keynote address is scheduled to begin at 11:45 a.m., said Twiggy Aguilera, president of the Hispanic Faculty/Staff Association at The University of Texas at Austin.
Rangel, a native of Kingsville, is the first Mexican American woman elected to the Texas House of Representatives, the first Mexican American woman elected as chair of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus and the first Mexican American appointed to serve as chair of the House Committee on Higher Education.
Rangel has represented South Texas District 35 since 1976 and is seeking a 14th term in the Texas Legislature. She represents the citizens of Brooks, Jim Hogg, Kenedy, Kleberg, Starr, Willacy and Zapata counties.
House Speaker James E. "Pete" Laney appointed Rangel chair of the House Committee on Higher Education in 1995, making her the first Mexican American to head the committee.
For further information contact: Twiggy Aguilera, HFSA president (512) 471-3567 or Robert D. Meckel, Office of Public Affairs (512) 475-7847.
