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