Rosa Gumataotao Rios was the 43rd Treasurer of the United States, serving under President Obama. She now chairs America250, a nonpartisan initiative working to engage every American in commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. She recently talked to us about her background, the goals for the program and her efforts to normalize the government’s use of authentic — rather than allegorical — depictions of women in leadership.
Rosa Gumataotao “Rosie” Rios remembers the bicentennial like it was yesterday. She was an 11-year-old kid in the Bay area, watching the tall ships coming through the New York and Boston Harbors on her family’s black and white TV. She also remembers taking a fifth-grade field trip to the American Freedom Train in Oakland, California. She still has her bicentennial quarter from 1976, and she carries it with her everywhere to this day.
“July 4, 1976, in Hayward, California. It was a cloudy night, but those fireworks were never brighter. I was never prouder to be an American than that evening. It was just a really fabulous moment.”
Rios’s parents had come to the United States from Mexico in 1958, landing in her hometown of Hayward, California. Her father was a seasonal migrant worker and worked at the Hunt’s tomato factory. But he was also abusive, and her mother ended up raising all nine of the children herself — and sent all nine of them off to college.
Her mother should be on United States currency. Indeed, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing once gave Rios a rendering of her mom on the $10 bill. And although her mother has passed away, she feels that she’s as alive as ever because she’s the one who keeps her going with the work she’s doing.
Advocating for Depictions of Real Women
When Rios was on the United States Treasury transition team at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, she doesn’t remember sleeping or eating — she was focused on figuring out how to put the economy back on track.
One of the first things George Washington did when he became President in 1789 was to appoint Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury. That enabled the new government to produce currency, of course, but also things like postage stamps, savings bonds, military payment certificates and food stamps.
The Treasury Resource Center houses a wide array of these historical documents, renderings, concepts and drawings — and that’s where Rios took her breaks. And in that state of stress-induced heightened awareness, surrounded by depictions of historical figures, she noticed something about all the women in the pictures.
“Every single image of a woman was not a real woman — they were allegorical, like the Statue of Liberty,” she said. “But every single image that I came across of a man was a real man, a Founding Father, a President, a cabinet secretary… and I just thought to myself, ‘Well, this is odd.’”
Dozens of countries had women on their 2008 currency, but the United States wasn’t one of them. When Rios was recommended for a permanent appointment in the Obama administration, she had this project in mind, and when she became the 43rd Treasurer of the United States, she continued to advocate for depictions of real women on government documents. She also held that position for eight years, making her the longest serving senior treasury official in the administration. Note the signature in the bottom left of this dollar bill:
Planning the Country’s 250th Birthday Party
Ready for a new word? The semiquincentennial.
As Rios think about 2026, she wants young Americans to be able to visualize the United States as the land of opportunity all over again. That, she says, can happen through education. “If you look at how they feel right now, a lot of them are a little cynical,” she said. “They had to live through the pandemic. They, you know, perhaps aren’t very trustful at the moment. We need to show them their future.”
America’s Field Trip will be more than just a fireworks show on July 4, 2026. Rios describes it as a journey to become that more perfect union, a journey that she hopes will continue long past 2026. Most of the programming for America250 is visual and interactive, designed to connect people and help them regain the vision of a bright future that may have been lost during the pandemic.
Recognition, Connection, Inspiration
“This is as much about recognizing the past, connecting the dots to the future and to the present, and then inspiring the next generation of leadership,” she said. “That’s exactly the way I think about recognition, connection, inspiration.”
America250 is a nonpartisan initiative celebrating the 250th anniversary of Declaration of Independence, formed by 24 people who were appointed by the House and Senate majority and minority leaders who, she said, have all said a variation of three things.
- No party politics allowed. Political ideology has not been part of any of the conversations.
- We can’t fail. There’s obviously no extension or do-over.
- How can we help?
The primary goal, Rios said, is to provide opportunities for Americans to pause and reflect on the nation’s past, honor the contributions of all Americans, and look to the future we want to create for the next generation and beyond.
She’s especially excited about the fact that this project starts with students, educators and schools in partnership with Discovery Education, a leading company in the K-12 edtech space that designed toolkits for educators and interactive resources to deepen students’ understanding and engagement with U.S. history as they developed contest submissions, answering the question: What does America mean to me?
And connecting the dots means giving each individual an understanding of where they come from and how they fit in. “We’re a nation of nations,” Rios said. “Alaska was Russia. Hawaii was its own kingdom. California, where I was born and raised, was Mexico. Texas at one point had six different flags flying over it.”
Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Rosa Gumataotao Rios
When Rios was involved in the public engagement process in 2015, asking Americans who should be considered for our currency, she received an email from her high school history teacher, Mr. Wilder. He wrote to congratulate her for what she and her team were trying to do, but also to thank her for something.
He had seen her interview on CNN and realized that in his 30-plus years of teaching American history, he never had the image of a woman on his classroom wall, and that had to change. He invited Rios back that fall, and when she walked into the same classroom she learned in as a teen, there on the walls were Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony and Rosa Gumataotao Rios.
“It really dawned on me,” she said. “If one teacher or 100 teachers or 1,000 teachers did the same thing, can you imagine what that does for our girls and our boys?”
Learn more at America250.org
