Pinay raised in slums named next Utah Valley University President

Astrid Tuminez, a Filipino raised in slums in the Philippines, has been selected as the first female president of the Utah Valley University (UVU) in the United States.

According to a report on the Utah Valley University website, Tuminez was selected by the Utah State Board of Regents as the seventh president of the UVU.

"Out of an impressive field of candidates, Dr. Tuminez rose to the top in the search for the next president to lead UVU," David L. Buhler, Utah Commissioner of Higher Education, was quoted as saying.

"She articulated a clear and compelling vision for UVU, and she understands the value of collaboration within Utah's system of public colleges and universities," he added.

Tuminez was selected by a 24-member Presidential Search Committee co-chaired by Regent Steven Lund and UVU Trustee Chair Elaine Dalton from a pool of 41 national and international applicants.

She is set to succeed Matthew S. Holland who served as the UVU President since 2009. He earlier announced that he would depart from the school in June.

Prior to her selection as UVU President, Tuminez served as the Vice Dean of Research and Assistant Dean of Executive Education at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

She was also a senior consultant to the US Institute of Peace, Director of Research at AIG Global Investment, and program officer at the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Tuminez also currently serves as an independent director at the Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI).

According to her LinkedIn page, Tuminez took up her Master of Arts in Soviet Studies at the Harvard University and her Doctorate Degree in Political Science and Government at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A report on Utah-based publication The Deseret News said Tuminez was raised in the slums in the Philippines before she moved to the United States.

"I was raised in the slums of the Philippines and I was five years old when Catholic nuns offered me and my siblings a chance to go to school," Tuminez was quoted as saying in the report.

"So that changed the entire trajectory of my life, and that's what makes it so exciting for me to be in a university like UVU," she said.

UVU is said to be the largest public university in the state of Utah, and is one of several universities that offers a dual-mission mission — a first-rate teaching university with the vocational programs of a community college. —Jon Viktor Cabuenas/KG, GMA News