The Honorable Rosie Rios, Chair of America250, to Give Founders’ Day Address • Sweet Briar College

Sweet Briar College will welcome the Honorable Rosie Rios, Chair of America250, the United States Congressional Commission that has been coordinating celebrations of the 250th Anniversary of the nation, as the keynote speaker at its annual Founders’ Day Convocation on Friday, Sept. 18.

Rios was nominated by President Barack Obama to be the 43rd Treasurer of the United States and was sworn into office in 2009. She served as the CEO of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the U.S. Mint, and initiated and led the efforts to place a portrait of a woman on U.S. currency for the first time in over a century. Following her tenure, she was appointed as a Visiting Scholar at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, where she launched an organization called Empowerment 2020.

In 2018, Rios was named as a member of the bipartisan United States Semiquincentennial Commission, and in 2022, President Joe Biden appointed her as chair of the Commission. She was also a member of the 2020 presidential transition Agency Review Team for President Biden, supporting components of the transition involving the United States Department of Treasury. Rios is currently the CEO of Red River Associates, an investment management consulting firm specializing in economic development and project management.

Rios was a double major at Harvard University earning Bachelors degrees in Sociology and Romance Languages and Literatures. Her Founders’ Day address comes at a time when both Sweet Briar College and our nation celebrate important milestones and look ahead to the future.