Whitmire to Leave RIPA for Junior Achievement Presidency

Contact: Michael Cinelli
Phone: (713) 527-4807

Whitmire to Leave RIPA for Junior Achievement Presidency

Kathryn J. Whitmire, director of the Rice
Institute for Policy Analysis (RIPA), has been named president and
chief executive officer of Junior Achievement Inc. effective Sept.
6, 1994.

Whitmire joined the Rice faculty in January 1992 as the Tsanoff
Lecturer on Public Affairs and as director of RIPA. Prior to coming
to Rice she served five terms as Houston mayor. She has served on
the board of Junior Achievement since June 1992.

Rice president Malcolm Gillis said the post to which Whitmire
has been named "is important to the future of our nation’s youth."

"Kathy Whitmire’s appointment to the Junior Achievement post is
well deserved and recognizes her outstanding accomplishments in
public service and education," Gillis said. "She will be missed at
Rice. She has been very important to the university in helping
promote our interests in internationalization particularly through
RIPA’s close involvement with the large consular corps in Houston."

RIPA’s activities will remain important to the university,
Gillis said, and will be enhanced by the emergence of the James A.
Baker III Institute for Public Policy and its programs.

"The future of RIPA is obviously an important part of the
discussion of how the Baker Institute evolves during the next year,"
Gillis said.

Dean of Social Sciences James Pomerantz praised Whitmire’s
tenure as RIPA director, citing four essential contributions she
made to the university.

"First, Kathy Whitmire has been an articulate and forceful
spokesperson for Rice both inside Houston and beyond," Pomerantz
said. "Second, she has moved RIPA forward in new and important
directions and built momentum that will prove very valuable to Rice
in the future.

"Third, she has been one of the leading designers of the Baker
Institute on both the academic planning side and as a member of the
search committee for the director," he added. "Fourthly, she has
made timely and important contributions to the university’s
undergraduate curriculum, such as in the increased visibility of
women in politics."

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