The Public Relations Society of America, Counselors to Higher Education Section, presented its 2020 Advocate for Higher Education Award to Utah Valley University President Astrid S. Tuminez during its Summer Symposium on July 9.

The Advocate for Higher Education Award is given to a leader annually who effectively and strategically uses communication and public relations to advance the mission of higher education. As part of the symposium, Tuminez gave the Patrick Jackson Lecture after receiving the award.

“Now more than ever, communication plays a vital role in the overall success of any organization, including higher education institutions,” Tuminez said. “It is about understanding people from diverse backgrounds and connecting and engaging around important causes. I am humbled to have my work and that of Utah Valley University honored in this way.”

Past award recipients include Angel Cabrera, president, George Mason University; G.P. “Bud” Peterson, president, Georgia Institute of Technology; Freeman A. Hrabowski II, president, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Walter M. Kimbrough, president, Dillard University; Mary Sue Coleman, president emerita, University of Michigan; and Teresa A. Sullivan, president, University of Virginia, among others.

Tuminez was appointed the seventh and first full-time female president of Utah Valley University in 2018.

Before assuming her current position, President Tuminez was a leader in technology and political science, most recently serving as an executive at Microsoft, where she led corporate, external, and legal affairs in Southeast Asia. Tuminez is also the former vice dean of research and assistant dean of executive education at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. 

Born into a farming village in the Philippine province of Iloilo, Tuminez moved with her parents and six siblings to the slums of Iloilo City when she was two years old, as her parents sought better educational opportunities for their children. 

Her pursuit of education eventually took her to the United States, to Brigham Young University where she graduated summa cum laude in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in international relations and Russian literature. She earned a master’s degree from Harvard University in Soviet Studies (1988) and a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in political science (1996). 

She and her husband, Jeffrey S. Tolk, have three children. In her spare time, she enjoys running, dancing, and martial arts.