Jaime P. Gutíerrez was appointed to the AARP Foundation's board of directors in 2012. Born and raised in Tucson, Ariz., Gutíerrez is currently the University of Arizona's vice president for external relations and also serves as the university's associate vice president for community relations.
Previously, Gutíerrez was assistant vice president and special assistant to the president of the University of Arizona. From 2004 to 2010, he served on the Arizona State Retirement System board of trustees, where he chaired the External Affairs Committee. In 2010 he was appointed to serve as cochair of the Tucson CORE Budget Committee, and before that he was president of the Tucson Industrial Development Authority. For 14 years, Gutíerrez was an Arizona state senator serving in a variety of leadership positions including minority whip and assistant minority leader. During his final two years, he was appointed chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, chair of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee and chair of the Senate Ethics Committee. In a survey conducted by the Arizona Republic, his peers named him one of the top 10 Arizona state legislators. Earlier, Gutíerrez worked for more than seven years at the Pima County Juvenile Court Center, starting as a juvenile probation officer in 1971 and ending in 1978 as deputy director of court services. He received a B.A. in political science from the University of Arizona in 1971.
Gutierrez has received numerous awards from civic organizations for his community involvement including the Victoria Foundation Award for Distinguished Leadership in Higher Education.
