Jovita Carranza sworn in as 44th U.S. treasurer; 7th Latina to hold post
WASHINGTON — Jovita Carranza has been sworn in as the 44th Treasurer of the United States and the 16th woman to hold the job.
Carranza was sworn in Monday by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. She started at United Parcel Service as a night-shift box handler in the 1970s and worked her way up to be the president of international operations at UPS in Latin America. After leaving UPS, she served as a deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration in the George W. Bush administration.
As treasurer, Carranza will oversee the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which produces the nation’s paper currency, and the Bureau of the Mint, which producers U.S. coins.
Both Mnuchin and Carranza will have their signatures on the nation’s currency. The first bills featuring both names are expected to go into circulation later this year.
Since President Harry Truman selected the first woman treasurer in 1949, all of those who have followed have been women. Carranza succeeds Rosie Rios, who served in the Obama administration. She is the seventh Hispanic woman to hold the position.
Mnuchin has already submitted his signature to be reproduced on the currency, and Carranza is expected to do so shortly.
Mnuchin’s neat signature is a significant improvement in legibility over that of his predecessor, former Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew. Lew’s loopy scrawl was so bad that then-President Barack Obama joked that Lew had better work on his penmanship or run the risk that he would “debase our currency.”