Astrid S. Tuminez Keynote Speaker

Dr. Astrid S. Tuminez (pronounced too-MEE-nez) was appointed the seventh president of Utah Valley
University in 2018. Born in a farming village in the Philippine province of Iloilo, she moved with her
parents and siblings to the slums of Iloilo City when she was 2 years old, her parents seeking better
educational opportunities for their children.

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

Before UVU, President Tuminez was an executive at Microsoft, where she led corporate, external, and
legal affairs in Southeast Asia. She also served as vice dean of research at the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy, National University of Singapore. She has worked in philanthropy and venture capital in
New York City and is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She serves on the boards of Carnegie Corporation of New York and Cambia Health Solutions, and on the advisory board of Zions Bank.

She is the author of Russian Nationalism Since 1856: Ideology and the Making of Foreign Policy
and many other publications. In her spare time, she enjoys running, dancing, and traveling.