She has served as the Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Director of the Hispanic Research Center at the University of Texas at San Antonio, as well as Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Educational Testing Service, a founding member of the Board of the Fundacion Solidaridad Mexicana Americana, a member of the board of The American Association of Higher Education, and a leader of numerous state and local organizations in education, voting rights, public service, leadership development and children's concerns.
From 1989 to 1992, she served as Director of the Southwest Center on Values, Achievement and Community in Education, affiliated with the LBJ Institute at Southwest Texas State University. She came to SWT after three years as Director of the Office of Minorities in Higher Education at the American Council on Education. In January of 1993, she completed her second six-year term as a member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
She has served as Vice-President for Institutional Advancement at Our Lady of the Lake University and as Director of Training at the Intercultural Development Research Association. In 1977, she became Commissioner of the Administration for Children, Youth and Families in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare where she led the Nation's Head Start Program, the Child Welfare Program, the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, the Day Care Services Program, the Youth Services Program and the Child Development Research Program.
Formerly a teacher of both the pre-school and high school levels, Dr. Cardenas-Ramirez also served as Director of Development of Innovative Programs at the Edgewood Independent School District, where she designed an extensive array of programs which became national models. As early as 1969, Dr. Cardenas-Ramirez pioneered the implementation of bilingual infant stimulation programs, bilingual early childhood education for severely handicapped children, teacher credentialing programs for teacher's aides and youth tutoring youth and youth involvement in experiential learning.
A native Texan, Dr. Cardenas-Ramirez received her Bachelor of Journalism Degree from the University of Texas at Austin and her Doctorate in Education Administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is the recipient of Honorary Degrees from Notre Dame University, Kean College and St. Mary's College. Additionally, she has received numerous awards from national and international bodies including: the National Education Association Human Rights Award, the National Council of La Raza "La Raza" Award, the Human Rights Award form the Washington Committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Educator Award from Operation Push and the Pioneer Award from the National Association for Bilingual Education. On four occasions, Dr. Cardenas-Ramirez has been recognized by Hispanic Business as one of the "100 most influential Hispanics in the country," and a recent Harts Hanks survey in Texas cited her as one of the "20 most influential Hispanics in the State."
In December of 1991, she was inducted in to the "Orden del Aguila Azteca," the highest honor given by the Government of Mexico to a non-citizen of that country.
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