Last week, President Obama announced his intent to nominate UM Law alumnus Joe Garcia as the director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Minority Economic Impact. Garcia earned his Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctorate degrees from the University of Miami. He is among eight nominees who were named in the President’s July 7 list of intended nominees for key administration posts.

Garcia has a dynamic public service career that spans more than 20 years and consists of a diverse body of work in the fields of energy, foreign policy, and human rights.   As a law student, Garcia directed the Exodus Project, a non-profit refugee resettlement program that reunited over 10,000 families at no cost to American tax-payers.  In 1992, the late Governor Lawton Chiles appointed Garcia to the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC), where he fought for lower utility bills for the people of Florida.  In 1998, Garcia's fellow commissioners elected him as chairman of the PSC.  In that post, Garcia worked across party lines to pass the largest energy rate cut in Florida's history, saving Florida's families more than $1 billion.  In 2001, Garcia was named as the executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, where he served as a tireless proponent of freedom and improved human rights conditions in Cuba and throughout the Americas.  In 2004, Garcia was named executive vice president and director of the Hispanic Project for NDN, a policy research institute in Washington D.C.

posted 13-July-2009

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