2012 Entrepreneurial Spirit Award Honorees
Dr. Harriett Romo
Harriett Romo is a Professor of Sociology at The University of Texas at San Antonio and the Director of the Child and Adolescent Policy Research Institute (CAPRI) and the UTSA Mexico Center.
She earned her PhD in Sociology at the University of California, San Diego and has Master’s degrees in Education from UCLA and in Sociology from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She did a Post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University at the Center for the Study of Families, Youth and Children.
Her research has focused on immigrant children, how infants acquire language in bilingual homes, and Mexican American students’ success in school. She is currently directing a federal grant project that helps Head Start teachers earn degrees and improve the instruction in Head Start programs and one that focuses on the impact of transnational lives on well-educated Mexican immigrants and their adolescent children.
She received two grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development which have funded collaborations with Edgewood School District to enhance the Cardenas Child Development Center and San Antonio Independent School District to build a child development center at the Navarro campus. She has evaluated Early Reading First projects working with the Community Action, Inc. The Head Start agency in San Marcos and students in her classes have evaluated projects on parent involvement in schools in San Antonio and family financial security initiatives on the Westside, Southside and Eastside of San Antonio.
She was an associate professor at UT Austin before coming to UTSA in 1999. At UTSA she teaches courses on the Sociology of Childhood, Language and Society, the Border, Race and Ethnic Relations and Qualitative Research Methods.
She and Ricardo have two children, a daughter, Anadelia, who teaches Latin American History at Texas State (married to Tim O’ Sullivan who is a Trinity University professor), and a son, Carlos, who is an attorney at Baker Botts Law Firm in Austin (married to Lynsey, a graduate student at UT Austin.
Dr. Ricardo Romo
Ricardo Romo became the fifth president of The University of Texas at San Antonio in May 1999. As President, he leads one of the fastest-growing institutions of higher education in Texas and the nation. UTSA, under his leadership, is now poised to become the state’s next premier research university.
During President Romo’s tenure, UTSA’s enrollment has grown 53%, and the University has added numerous programs and facilities to enhance student life. The number of doctoral degree programs has increased from three to 21.
A native of San Antonio’s West Side, President Romo graduated from Fox Tech High School and attended The University of Texas at Austin on a track scholarship. Romo was the first Texan to run the mile in less than four minutes, and his mile record lasted 41 years. He earned a B.S. degree in education (1967).
He holds a master’s degree in history from Loyola Marymount University (1970) and a Ph.D. in history from UCLA (1975). A nationally respected urban historian, Romo is the author of “East Los Angeles: History of a Barrio,” which is now in its ninth printing (one in Spanish).
Romo has received many honors during his academic career. In November 2007, he was recognized with the Isabel la Catolica award, the highest award given to non-Spanish subjects, bestowed upon him by King Juan Carlos of Spain. In October 2008, Romo received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Texas Exes Alumni Association.
President Romo is married to Dr. Harriett Romo, a Professor of Sociology at UTSA. She also serves as Director of UTSA’s Mexico Center and the Bank of America Child and Adolescent Policy Research Institute (CAPRI). They have one son, Carlos, who earned degrees from Stanford University and The University of Texas School of Law. Their daughter, Anadelia, a graduate of Princeton University, received a doctoral degree from Harvard University and presently teaches at Texas State University.