Rosie Rios
| Rosa Gumataotao Rios | |
|---|---|
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| 43rd Treasurer of the United States | |
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In office August 6, 2009 – July 8, 2016 |
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| President | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | Anna Escobedo Cabral |
| Succeeded by | Jovita Carranza |
| Personal details | |
| Born | July 17, 1965 |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
| Website | Official website |
Rosa "Rosie" Gumataotao Rios (born July 17, 1965) was the 43rd Treasurer of the United States. and is a Visiting Scholar at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. She is known for initiating and leading the efforts to place a portrait of a woman on the front of U.S. currency for the first time in the nation’s history, and continuing her work to honor historic American women. Upon her resignation in 2016, she received the Hamilton Award, the highest honor bestowed in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Treasurer Rios was the longest serving Senate-confirmed Treasury official beginning with her time on the Treasury/Federal Reserve Transition Team in November 2008 at the height of the financial crisis. A graduate of Harvard, she was recently selected by the university as the first Latina in its over 380-year history to have a portrait commissioned in her honor. Treasurer Rios continues advocating for women and girls and has launched EMPOWERMENT 2020 at Harvard. Its first project, Teachers Righting History, began as a pilot program on August 26, Equality Day. She currently lectures about her tenure in Treasury and building leadership and civic engagement.
In May 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Rios to be Treasurer of the United States and was confirmed by the Senate unanimously in July 2009. In her role as Treasurer of the United States, Treasurer Rios was the Chief Executive Officer of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the United States Mint, including Fort Knox. Her day-to-day responsibilities included overseeing all currency and coin production activities with almost 4,000-employees in eight facilities nationwide and an annual budget of approximately $5 billion. In the first five years of her tenure, she saved over $1 billion by implementing efficiencies and innovative concepts while meeting increased production demand and increasing employee morale at record levels. Treasurer Rios was the first Treasurer to ever have her portfolio which also included the Chair of the Advanced Counterfeiting Deterrence Steering Committee and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury in the areas of community development and public engagement. Her signature currently appears on a record $1.2 trillion out of the $1.4 trillion in circulation worldwide.
Her almost eight-year effort to redesign the nation’s currency included the first-ever nationwide public engagement process in the history of the federal government using a social media portal, roundtables and town halls. Treasurer Rios began pushing for the change soon after she joined the Obama Administration in 2009. Her presentation to then Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner went so well, she told CNN afterward, that she left the room convinced the cause was sailing forward.[2] Rios has said that it was during her time on the Treasury/Federal Reserve Transition Team in 2008 where the theme of Democracy during that era inspired her to pursue the concept. In April 2016, Treasury announced that women will be placed on the $5, $10 and $20 bills reflecting the theme of democracy. The concepts will be unveiled on August 26, 2020 in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote.
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Wikipedia