Throughout her career, Dr. Burgos-Sasscer spearheaded activities that enhanced higher education opportunities for all students, but especially women.
SILVER SPRING, MD, December 16, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Ruth Burgos-Sasscer, PhD, with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Dr. Burgos-Sasscer celebrates many years' experience in her professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in her field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Dr. Burgos-Sasscer, Chancellor Emeritus of the Houston Community College System (HCCS) led a very productive and interesting career in academia that began in 1968 when she was hired to teach at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico. She later moved to the University of Puerto Rico(UPR) where she held various faculty and administrative positions culminating in the position of Director and Dean (CEO) of the University's Aguadilla Regional College. In 1988 she returned to the mainland United States to serve as vice president of faculty and instruction of Harry S. Truman College in Chicago. In 1993 she moved to Texas to become president of San Antonio College and in 1996 to Houston to serve as Chancellor of the Houston Community College System, retiring from that position in 2000. She then accepted an invitation to become a senior fellow at the Institute of Higher Education Law and Governance of the University of Houston Law Center, a position she held for two years. After that, she and her husband moved to Silver Spring, Maryland to be near their children, and where she worked as an educational consultant until 2011.
Passionate about education, Dr. Burgos-Sasscer has spent much of her spare time taking courses, and attending seminars and industry-related events within the United States and in other countries. She has studied at Iowa State University, Harvard University, University of Puerto Rico, the University of Salamanca (Spain), and after she retired, enrolled in a summer program at Oxford University (UK).
Throughout her career, Dr. Burgos-Sasscer spearheaded activities that enhanced higher education opportunities for all students, but especially women. While working at the University of Puerto Rico, the Governor of Puerto Rico appointed her to be president of the Commission for Women's Affairs, a position that allowed her to work with other women leaders to promote legislation that benefitted women during the late 1960s and through the mid 1970s. It also gave her the opportunity to represent Puerto Rico at United Nations Women's Conferences (Mexico, Copenhagen) where she participated at the ground level of a growing movement to improve the education and status of women in other parts of the world. Not surprisingly, in 1978, the department she chaired at the time (at UPR Aguadilla) created and offered the first credit course about women in Puerto Rico.: La mujer marginada par /a histaria (Women by-passed by history).
Dr. Burgos-Sasscer has served as a member (and/or officer) of the Boards of Directors of numerous national educational organizations, such as the American Association of Community Colleges, the National Community College Hispanic Council, the American Council on Education Advisory Commission-Women in Higher Education, International Consortium for Economic and Educational Development, and the Texas Association of Colleges and Universities.
After moving to Maryland in 2003, she worked with the Association of Community College Trustees in a variety of ways, including helping to recruit qualified candidates for college presidencies. She served as faculty on leadership programs for minority women, such as the Kaleidescope Leadership Institute, and facilitated workshops at colleges and universities throughout the country that focused on management of diverse students and staff, ways to best serve immigrant populations, developing multicultural curricula, managing conflict, and developing international exchange programs. Locally, she became a member of and chaired the Montgomery County Coalition for Adult English Learners and has served on several Maryland state Board of Education committees.
Dr. Burgos-Sasscer is the recipient of numerous awards, including an honorary degree, Causa Doctorate in Education, from the University of Puerto Rico in 1997. She was inducted into the Hispanic Women in Leadership Hall of Fame in 1998, and selected in 1999 by a panel of national educational leaders and editors as one of the 58 most influential college presidents of the 20th century (Black Issues in Higher Education). Harry S. Truman College (Chicago) offers the "Ruth Burgos-Sasscer outstanding Woman Award" to an outstanding employee each year.
Dr. Burgos-Sasscer has given over 200 presentations (keynote speaker, panelist, workshops) within the U.S. and abroad. For example, in 1980, she participated on a panel on "Growing older female: An international perspective" sponsored by George Washington University at the Mid-Decade United Nations Conference for Women, Copenhagen, Denmark. And, in 1988 she was asked to speak about "Puerto Rican women and the constitution" at a special convention on women and the constitution commemorating the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution held at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta.
She has published over 100 articles on a variety of topics in professional and business journals and newspapers and has co-authored, contributed to, or edited at least nine books. One of the co-authored publications is Exploraciones Chicano-riguenas (a book of readings for 2nd year college level Spanish students about the experiences of Mexican and Puerto Rican migrants in the U.S.) New York: Random House, 1981). Another is a chapter "Reform and Quality Assurance in British and American Higher Education" co-authored with a colleague from the U.K., included in Dimensions of the Community College; International. Intercultural, and Multicultural Perspectives (Garland Publishing, Inc. New York and London, 1996).
Interestingly, as a young woman she had planned to become a minister and actually began working toward a theological graduate degree at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. When she realized that her religious denomination would not ordain a woman at that time, she transferred to Columbia University for an academic degree. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Maryville College (TN), in 1953, when (prophetically?) at the time she graduated she was listed in "Who's Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities." She completed a Master of Arts in religion and philosophy at Columbia University in 1956, and later received a Doctor of Philosophy at Florida State University.
Dr. Burgos-Sasscer is a celebrated Marquis listee. She has previously been featured in approximately 30 editions of Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Education, Who's Who in the South and Southwest, Who's Who in the World and Who's Who of American Women.
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