Maria Echaveste, former senior White House official and president of The Opportunity Institute, will discuss "The Future of American Democracy" in a conversation with Chancellor Nathan Brostrom on Nov. 5 at UC Merced.
To RSVP, click here.
November 4, 2019 - American democracy is an evolving force, one on the edge of peril, and the future of our government depends on how — and whether — individual Americans choose to be part of it, says Maria Echaveste, a distinguished public policy advocate and former senior White House official.
“The Future of American Democracy” is the theme of a conversation set for Tuesday, Nov. 5, at 7 p.m. when UC Merced Chancellor Nathan Brostrom welcomes Echaveste to the campus.
“People forget what an experiment American democracy is,” she said. “It was an effort to create a system of checks and balances so that people, regular people, would be in charge of their government.”
“What’s at stake right now is enormous. There is a movement underway to create apathy and disillusionment: That could be a disaster for our country if it were to prevail. Americans should not lose faith in democracy.”
The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Echaveste was born in Texas then moved to the San Joaquin Valley town of Clovis and worked with her family harvesting crops. After attending high school in Oxnard, she earned a scholarship to Stanford, which she accepted despite her father’s initial reluctance. Echaveste graduated with a bachelor’s in anthropology and later earned her law degree from Berkeley.
While practicing corporate law for 12 years, public policy and politics remained her passion.
From 1998 to 2001, Echaveste served as Assistant to the President and Deputy White House Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton. In that position, her areas of focus included immigration, civil rights, education, finance, Mexico, and Latin America.
In 2009, Echaveste was appointed special representative to Bolivia. She later served on the board of the U.S.-Mexico Foundation, where she initially focused on the foundation’s Mexican-American Leadership Initiative. In 2013, President Obama nominated her to be ambassador to Mexico; she withdrew eight months later having been denied a confirmation hearing.
Echaveste co-founded the Nueva Vista Group, a Washington-based strategic and policy consulting firm, and is president and CEO of The Opportunity Institute , a Berkeley-based think tank promoting educational opportunities to address poverty and racial inequality.
“We are excited to welcome Maria to UC Merced for this important conversation,” Brostrom said. “Her personal history with the Valley and her many professional accomplishments are certain to be of profound relevance to our greater campus community.
"Discussion about the direction of our nation is one that becomes more important each day and we are fortunate to be able to learn from Maria's vast experiences in Washington and beyond.”
Echaveste said she recognizes that her own story “gives credence to the myth of the American Dream — that you can come from nothing and, through hard work, you can succeed.
“But, I’m also very conscious that the American Dream was not fully possible for everyone.”
For example, she said, look at the inequality in education. Even in technology-rich California, only 39 percent of high schools offer computer science courses and only 14 percent offer Advanced Placement Computer Science A. That’s according to a June 2019 report from the Kapor Center, which found that schools in low-income or rural areas were far less likely to have such programs.
“Every child is born with a potential and I believe society should do everything possible within the system to realize that potential. … We’re leaving behind a lot of young people who are not able to get onto that on-ramp.”
Inequality also finds its way into politics, where monetary power is fueling a sense of elitism and resentment which lead to division, she said.
“We, as Americans, need to be even more vigilant in asking ourselves, ‘Am I falling into that Us vs. Them mentality?’ We need to get out of our comfort zones and engage with people who are different from ourselves — if only to see the basic humanity in one another,” she said.
“We are dealing with some pretty strong forces that are seeking to divide us and getting people to back into their own corners,” she said. “I have been fortunate to have worked and traveled all across our country and to have met people from all backgrounds. And, I am astounded that, at our core, we all have the same desires and wants — safe neighbourhoods, good schools for our children, and opportunities to succeed.
“When it comes down to it,” Echaveste said, “we are much more alike than we realize.”
“The Future of American Democracy,” a conversation with Chancellor Nathan Brostrom and Maria Echaveste, will be held on Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. in the Arts & Computational Sciences Building Room 120. The free event is open to the public and parking in the Scholar’s Lot is available at no charge. To RSVP, click here.
Source: UC Merced
