David Brewster
Ana Mari Cauce has just been tapped as new UW president. I learned from her that her original career aspiration was to be a journalist, and she started majoring in journalism and English, later switching to psychology. It was the days of Watergate, after all. She still prefers to write her major speeches and has a great rapport with the media, who like her wit and candor and straight-shooting. Her dad was minister of education in Cuba, before the family fled after the revolution. That meant talking about education issues most nights with the family, even as her mom and dad could only find work at first in a shoe factory. Note, too, that she tapped as her interim provost a beloved figure from the journalism school, Jerry Baldasty. Check in a few years from now to see how she still feels about the press!