Rosa Gumataotao Rios (born July 17, 1965) is an American academic. She served as the 43rd Treasurer of the United States and is a visiting scholar at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Early life and education Rios was born the sixth of nine children in Hayward, California. Rios' mother, an immigrant from Mexico, raised all nine children on her own and with the support of their church, sent all of her children to Catholic schools and off to college. All nine children worked at a young age. Rios worked beginning in her freshman year of high school at the office headquarters for the Alameda County Library System. Rios stated that she "had won the lottery with this job" as she had access to any book she ever wanted to read and that her experience and reading during this period led in part to her acceptance to Harvard University. Rios graduated from Moreau Catholic High School in 1983, before attending Harvard, where she graduated with high honors. She received the Dean’s Award as the founder of Cultural Rhythms and is one of the few U.S. recipients of the Silver Medal Award from the Royal Society of Arts in Britain. Rios was hired by General Reinsurance Corporation as a Commercial Property Underwriter to analyze the risks of commercial investments. She later pursued her MBA at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Public career Rios was hired in 1994 by the City of San Leandro as a Development Specialist. She developed strong roots in business and government in Northern California and became an expert in economic development and redevelopment for the cities of Union City, and Fremont before moving on to Oakland in 2003 as the Director of Redevelopment and Economic Development for the City of Oakland. Consulting career In 2003, Rios became a principal partner at Red River Associates, a consulting firm specializing in economic development and project management. While at Red River, she teamed with the Assistant General Manager of Infrastructure to restructure the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission in preparation for the seismic retrofit of the Hetch Hetchy water system, one of the nation’s largest capital improvement programs. Robert Bobb, who was now at that time was serving as the City Administrator for Washington DC, recruited Rios to assist with the recruitment of the Montreal Expos to become the Washington Nationals in 2005 including