Edith Sayre Auslander
Edith Sayre Auslander is a native Tucsonan who graduated from the University of Arizona in 1961 with a bachelor's degree and in 1975 with a master's degree. She has had a long career in newspaper work as a reporter and section editor for The Arizona Daily Star. She also has been an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Arizona. She left the UA faculty in 1984 when she was appointed by Gov. Bruce Babbitt to the Arizona Board Regents for an eight-year term the first Hispanic woman to serve on the board. She was elected president of the Board of Regents for the 1989-90 academic year. During her term as president, she initiated the system-wide study on the status of women. Her employment from 1984 through 1999 was as vice president of human resources for Tucson Newspapers the Arizona Daily Star and the Tucson Citizen. In 2003 Dr. Peter Likins appointed her as UA Vice President and Senior Associate to the President with responsibilities that include coordinating the University agenda for diversity and acting as the president's "point person" for Hispanic issues. As a member of the University's leadership team, she was given a position on the President's Cabinet. This may have been the first appointment of a Hispanic woman as a UA Vice President. Auslander is one of 15 founders of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She has been listed in the Hispanic Business magazine as one of 100 influential U.S. Hispanics and in Replica magazine as one 25 Hispanic Women of the Year. She has been active in several national organizations including the Editing Program for Minority Journalists and the Multicultural Management Program. She was elected to the board and served as president of the national Media Human Resources Associations. She is a past president of the UA Hispanic Alumni Club and of the Hispanic Professional Action Committee. Auslander has won many writing awards and has been active in a variety of organizations that focus on the needs of women and minorities. She was named Tucson's Woman of the Year in 1986 and received an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Arizona in 1997. She was honored six times nationally for her human resources work and she earned the certification of Senior Professional in Human Resources. She has been named to the halls of fame of the UA Student Media Foundation and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. She has received the Women on the Move and the Iris Dewhirst awards from the YWCA.