Bush aide for a decade is now Cabinet Secretary

High school friends of Albert Hawkins had no idea after he received a master's degree at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas that he would wind up as a White House aide to a Republican President.

But that is what happened to the 1971 graduate of Paschal High School in Fort Worth, TX.

From 1994 to 2000, the ambitious Black man was the State Budget Director for then Texas Governor George W. Bush.

In that capacity, he served as the chief advisor to the governor on state fiscal issues, oversaw the development of the governor's state budget, and represented the governor before the legislature on budgetary matters.

In a detour from his career, he served as a deputy campaign manager for the Bush-Cheney Presidential Campaign.

His responsibilities included financial planning, strategic management of campaign resources, and supporting the policy development process.

After Bush took over as president, Hawkins immediately joined the senior staff President Bush appointed him Assistant to the President and Secretary of the Cabinet. In this position, he serves as the liaison between the White House and the Cabinet.

His duties include advising the President of Cabinet activities and issues affecting Cabinet departments; facilitating effective Cabinet involvement with the White House policy development efforts, and communicating White House plans and policies to the Cabinet members.

A respected budget authority, he has received many awards, including the 2001 Distinguished Alumnus of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, Outstanding Texas Leader (1998) and Texas State Administrator of the Year (1998).

With the avalanche of publicity surrounding National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell, Hawkins remains unknown in many political circles. The silence doesn't bother him. After all, he is the closest Black to the president now and during the last decade.

Hawkins earned a bachelor's degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975. He received a master's degree of public affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in 1978.