Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 12, 2002

Volume 30, Number 25

Mel Martinez

HUD secretary to visit as a Chubb Fellow

Mel Martinez, U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), will visit the University on Monday, April 15, as a guest of the Chubb Fellowship.

Martinez will present a lecture at 4:30 p.m. in the Luce Hall auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Ave. The talk is free and open to the public.

The Chubb Fellowship will honor Martinez for his work in the public and private sectors, his active involvement in community activities and his understanding of the work of faith-based social service agencies.

As the nation's 12th HUD secretary, Martinez oversees the federal agency that creates opportunities for homeownership; helps develop, rehabilitate and maintain the nation's affordable housing; provides housing assistance for low-income individuals; assists the homeless population; and enforces the nation's fair housing laws. HUD works with local communities to help them meet their development needs, and Martinez has taken a leadership role in the national dialogue on growth management issues.

Under his leadership, HUD is expanding homeownership opportunities, particularly for minority and low-income families, through budget initiatives and partnerships with community-based housing providers. Martinez has undertaken a comprehensive process to empower and protect home buyers, and is working to simplify the homebuying process and reduce its cost to consumers.

Martinez is also working to ensure that HUD improves the quality and availability of public housing. His plan to stimulate affordable housing production by increasing FHA multifamily loan limits represents the first such increase in a decade.

Since assuming office, Martinez has also reactivated the Interagency Council on the Homeless and the joint homeless task force in an effort to end chronic homelessness.

Prior to his HUD appointment, Martinez was the elected chair of Orange County, Florida, in Orlando, and served on the Governor's Growth Management Study Commission. He previously served as president of the Orlando Utilities Commission, on the board of directors of a community bank and as chair of the Orlando Housing Authority.

Born in Sagua La Grande, Cuba, Martinez and 14,000 other children fled to America as part of a Catholic humanitarian effort called Operation Pedro Pan in 1962. Alone and speaking virtually no English, Martinez was placed temporarily at two youth facilities, and subsequently lived with two foster families, with whom he remains close. He was reunited with his family in Orlando in 1966.

Martinez graduated from Florida State University College of Law in 1973. During his 25 years of law practice in Orlando, he was actively involved in community activities.

The Chubb Fellowship is devoted to encouraging and aiding Yale students interested in the operations of government, culture and public service. Established in 1936 through the generosity of Hendon Chubb (Yale 1895), the program is based in Timothy Dwight College. Each year three or four distinguished men and women have been appointed as Visiting Chubb Fellows. Chubb Fellows spend their time at Yale in close, informal contact with students, and deliver a public lecture. Former Chubb Fellows have included Presidents George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter; authors Octavio Paz and Toni Morrison; New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman; and journalist Walter Cronkite.

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HUD secretary to visit as a Chubb Fellow

Visiting architect describes his creative process

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Exhibition features art by 'consummate storyteller'

Peabody receives grant for Machu Picchu exhibit

Difficult quest for black education explored in forum

Noted psychologist Neal E. Miller, pioneerin research on brain and behavior, dies

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Biotechnology companies are thriving in Connecticut with help from Yale science

Lecture to explore how biomaterials 'will change our lives'

Conference on 'God and the Ethics of Belief' pays tribute . . .

Event to explore latest research on mental illness

Gustav Ranis reappointed as Henry R. Luce Director of YCIAS

'Hot Flashes' explores world of womanhood after 50

Museum spearheading annual cleanup of New Haven Harbor

At the powwow

Transatlantic polo

Campus Notes