Clare is a Content Manager for ExcelinEd. In this role, she develops and edits content that supports the organization’s work to advance student-centered policies.
Tallahassee, Fla. – Governor Jeb Bush, founder and chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd), announced the addition of Susana Martinez, former Governor of New Mexico and the nation’s first Hispanic female governor, to the organization’s board of directors.
Susana Martinez implemented bold education, spending, and economic reforms during her two terms as New Mexico’s governor, from 2011 to 2018. Through strong fiscal discipline and leadership, she overcame an inherited and unprecedented state budget deficit, and by the time she left office, New Mexico was enjoying a $2 billion budget surplus and a 12-year high in employment growth. Governor Martinez also raised academic standards, turned around struggling schools, expanded high-quality early childhood programs, and increased the state’s graduation rate by ten percentage points to an all-time high.
Governor Martinez’s ability to build consensus in advancing diverse and challenging policy reforms earned her a place on Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People in the World, as well as an award for Outstanding Achievement in State Tax Reform from the non-partisan Tax Foundation. Prior to becoming governor, she served as a prosecutor for 25 years along New Mexico’s southern border with Mexico, specializing in cases that involved the physical and sexual abuse of children. For more than 10 years during that time, she was the elected district attorney in Las Cruces, New Mexico and was twice named “Prosecutor of the Year.”
Governor Martinez earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at El Paso and her juris doctorate from the University of Oklahoma School of Law, where she was recently inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame.
For more information about ExcelinEd’s Board of Directors, visit ExcelinEd.org/About.
