Tuesday, January 28, 2014 (Bronx, NY) - Recognized again as an important advocate and leader in higher education Eugenio María de Hostos Community College President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez has been named to New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito’s transition team. President Matos Rodríguez was also named to City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s Transition Committee this past November.
Speaker Mark-Viverito’s is the first Puerto Rican and Latina to hold a citywide elected position. She represents the 8th District, which includes El Barrio/East Harlem and the South Bronx.
“It is truly an honor to serve on teams that will help shape the new administration. Supporting and expanding education opportunities for all students is something we are passionate about at Hostos, and I look forward to facilitating Speaker Mark-Viverito’s transition team in any way I can,” President Matos Rodríguez said.
Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Speaker Mark-Viverito worked for over two decades in local activism, nonprofit organizations and labor before being elected to the City Council in 2005, as the first Puerto Rican woman and Latina to represent her district in the Council.
In 2009, she was elected to her second term in the City Council, during which she served as Chair of the Committee on Parks and Recreation, the founding Co-Chair of the Progressive Caucus and as a member of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus. In 2011, she was one of four Council Members to pioneer the first-ever Participatory Budgeting process in New York City.
Speaker Mark-Viverito was elected to her new role, a role that is widely regarded as the second most powerful political post in New York City. She is a graduate of Columbia College at Columbia University and Baruch College, City University of New York, where she studied Public Administration through the National Urban Fellows Program.
About Félix V. Matos Rodríguez
Félix V. Matos Rodríguez took office as the 6th President of Eugenio María de Hostos Community College of The City University of New York (CUNY) on July 1, 2009.
Dr. Matos Rodríguez served as Secretary of the Department of the Family for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico from 2005-2008. As Secretary, he formulated public policy and administered service delivery in the following programs: Child Support Enforcement, Adoption and Foster Care, Child and Elderly Protection, Food Stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Child Care, and Head Start. Managing an annual budget of $2.2 billion, Dr. Matos Rodríguez oversaw nearly 11,000 employees. Earlier, he had served as Senior Social Welfare and Health Advisor to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Dr. Matos Rodríguez is a graduate of Colegio San Ignacio High School in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His undergraduate studies were at Yale University, where he graduated cum laude in Latin American Studies. He received his Ph.D. in history from Columbia University.
While at Hostos, Dr. Matos Rodríguez is on leave from his tenured position at Hunter College of CUNY, where he teaches courses on Caribbean, Latin American, and Latino history. He has also served as director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter, which is one of the largest and most important Latino research centers in the United States.
Prior to his work at Hunter College, Dr. Matos Rodríguez was a Program Officer at the Social Science Research Council in New York City and a faculty member at Northeastern University in Boston. He has also held visiting and adjunct teaching appointments at Yale University, Boston College, City College (CUNY) and the Universidad Interamericana--Recinto Metro.
Dr. Matos Rodríguez is a member of Council of Foreign Relations and is currently serving as a Board Member of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), the Bronx Chamber of Commerce, New York Association of Community College Presidents, Phipps Houses, and FedCap. Dr. Matos Rodriguez is also part of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) Liberal Education Editorial Advisory Board, HACU’s International Education Commission, and the Achieving the Dream Institutional Change Advisory Committee.
Dr. Matos Rodríguez has an extensive publication record in the fields of Women, Puerto Rican, Caribbean, and Latino Studies and Migration. He is the author of Women and Urban Life in Nineteenth-century San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1820-1862 (University Presses of Florida, 1999; Marcus Weiner, 2001); co-author of “Pioneros”: Puerto Ricans in New York City, 1896-1948 (Arcadia Publishers, 2001); editor of A Nation of Women, An Early Feminist Speaks Out: Mi opinión sobre las libertades, derechos y deberes de la mujer by Luisa Capetillo (Arte Público Press, 2005); co-editor with Gabriel Haslip Viera et al. of Boricuas in Gotham: Puerto Ricans in the Making of Modern New York City (Marcus Weiner, 2004); co-editor with Matthew C. Gutmann, Lynn Stephen, and Patricia Zavella of Blackwell Reader on The Americas (Blackwell Publishers, 2003) and co-editor of Puerto Rican Women’s History: New Perspectives (M.E. Sharpe Publishers, 1998).
About Hostos Community College
Eugenio María de Hostos Community College is an educational agent for change that has been transforming and improving the quality of life in the South Bronx and neighboring communities since 1968. It serves as a gateway to intellectual growth and socioeconomic mobility, as well as a point of departure for lifelong learning, success in professional careers, and transfer to advanced higher education programs. The College's unique "Student Success Coaching Unit" provides students with individualized guidance and exemplifies its emphasis on student support services.
Hostos offers 29 associate degree programs and five certificate programs that facilitate easy transfer to CUNY's four-year colleges or baccalaureate studies at other institutions. The College has an award-winning Division of Continuing Education & Workforce Development that offers professional development courses and certificate-bearing workforce training programs. Hostos is part of The City University of New York (CUNY), the nation's leading urban public university, which serves more than 480,000 students at 24 colleges.