Office of Postsecondary Education: Who is Eduardo Ochoa?
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Eduardo M. Ochoa, a top administrator at Sonoma State University in California, was selected on February 23, 2010, by President Barack Obama to run the Department of Education’sOffice of Postsecondary Education, which administers most of the federal government’s programs for colleges and college students.
Born on November 18, 1950, in Argentina, Ochoa moved with his family to Portland, Oregon, when he was 14 years old. He received his bachelor’s degree in physics and philosophy in 1973 from Reed College in Portland. He and his wife, Holly, made an extended visit to Argentina, but then returned to the United States and he earned a master’s degree in nuclear science and engineering from Columbia University in 1976.
Although Ochoa had originally intended to go back to Argentina and work as an engineer, he did not want to work for the military dictatorship that had taken charge there, so he chose to stay in the U.S.
Ochoa worked from 1976-1977 as an assistant engineer in the Radiation Safety Group at Gibbs & Hill in New York, studying the thickness of walls at nuclear power plants. This was followed by work as an associate engineer in the Applied Physics Group for Ebasco Services from 1977 to 1979.
He returned to academia, but switched to the field of economics. His first teaching opportunity came in 1980 at the SUNY College at Old Westbury as an instructor in the politics, economics, and society program. The following year he relocated to California State