Carranza’s career has come a long way
due to hard work, discipline, perseverance
and optimism. Born in Chicago and the
youngest of three, her mother was a
housewife and her dad a foreman at a
factory. At a young age, Carranza took
the lead in setting the example by helping
her parents with matters of life. The first in
her family to move out of Chicago,
Carranza attended college, got married,
had a daughter, Klaudene, and moved
up the ranks - from loading the docks to
the corporate offices of UPS. She served as
President of Latin American and
Caribbean operations and Vice President of
Air Operations in Louisville, KY before
becoming the Deputy Administrator for
the U.S. Small Business Administration
under President George W. Bush.
Fast-forward to today, Carranza is
the highest-ranking Latina in the United
States serving as the U.S. Treasurer.
“I received a call asking if I was interested
in serving. And I said ‘of course’ and that
is what brought me here,” shares Carranza.
With vast experience in corporate
America, the non-profit world, and
community service, today Carranza walks
the halls of the U.S. Treasury serving
as a principal advisor to Secretary Mnuchin,
overseeing operations which include the
Office of Consumer Policy, U.S. Mint,
including Fort Knox. Carranza also serves
as the Secretary’s designee on the
Community Development Financial
Institutions Fund's Community Development
Advisory Board and the Financial Literacy
Education Commission (FLEC). She
is also a key liaison with the Federal
Reserve System.
“Serving the new administration,
especially as a Latina, with the responsibility
for all operations of coin currency production,
overseeing the Office of Consumer Policy,
promoting financial literacy and education,
and Treasury’s mission to maintain a strong
economy collectively provides an important
platform to represent the community
that is such a part of me: the pride, the
entrepreneurial culture, the work ethic
and so much more to offer this country,”
she states.
Secretary Mnuchin, Treasurer Carranza, and Bureau of Engraving and Printing Director
Leonard Olijar at the Treasurer's Swearing-In Ceremony. (June 19, 2017).
Storing the nations gold and managing
operations for the U.S. treasury is a
tremendous responsibility. To explain
her motivation, Carranza tells the story
of living in poverty, meager means,
working two jobs at once while attending
college and being a single mother at a
young age. Despite all these challenges
while growing up she learned to remain
strong and look forward with optimism.
In college, Carranza was intrigued by
several subjects: education, nursing, and
political science. But plans changed
when she went from being an independent
and engaged student in politics to a
single mother.
“When I first started college, I wanted
to be a teacher and I thought that I wanted
to work with young minds and offer
them the schooling that I lacked, always
aspiring to make a difference,” she shares.
“I wanted to have better than what I had,
better than what I was exposed to, and I
knew things could be better, and selectively
set out to improve. I worked at ‘overcoming’
the fear of engaging in pursuit of it.”
Whether it was part-time or at night,
the desire to attend school never stopped.
Carranza felt that if she ever stopped, it
would be much more difficult to launch
or stay focused on her education, so she
always kept involved at some college. “It
was very difficult to go to school and
have two jobs,” she shares. “I always tell
young ladies if you are going to go to
school, commit to attend, stay in school
and finish it fast. If you can attend graduate
Hispanic 100 Inaugural Celebration.
LATINAStyle Vol. 24, No. 1, 2018 www.latinastyle.com 25