Lynda Y. de la Viña, dean of The University of Texas
at San Antonio College of Business, has been
named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics
by Hispanic Business magazine in its October 2005 edition. The magazine
has published the listing since 1983. De la Viña is also the Peter Flawn Professor of Economics and the executive director of the Center for Global Entrepreneurship in the UTSA College of Business. She is the first woman to serve as UTSA College of Business dean and the only female Hispanic business dean in the University of Texas System.
She has also received two prestigious appointments within the last few months to a governmental advisory committee and a national fellowship program. De la Viña was recently appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to the 17-person advisory committee for the newly created Emerging Technology Fund. The $200 million fund was created to foster innovation, research and job creation in emerging high-tech industries.
This fall de la Viña was named one of 10 fellows in the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities Kellogg Leadership Fellows Program. The program is designed to identify and mentor the next generation of higher education leaders. The fellows receive mentoring, training and networking support throughout this yearlong program which includes intensive workshop sessions and forums throughout the United States.
De la Viña has developed a strategic plan for the College of Business that includes raising the academic profile of the college to become one of the nation’s best business schools and creating national distinction through strategic threads of excellence. She has enhanced Latin American partnerships, raised funds for two endowed professorships and developed alliances with other nationally and internationally recognized institutions.
She has led a distinguished career in academic and government service. The first Mexican-American woman at the secretarial level of the U.S. Treasury, de la Viña was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy and served from 1998 to 2001. She is a member of the board of directors of the Center for International Private Enterprise, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Operational Technologies, a technology company that she co-founded.
De la Viña received her master’s and doctorate in economics from Rice University and her bachelor’s in government and economics from UT-Pan American. She was the first Mexican-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in economics in the United States.
