“She was always very calm, professional, and poised in nature,” he said. “She displayed tremendous leadership in race relations...[and] worked very closely with me on creating something that was unique to Harvard at the time.”

Natalie S. Manzo ’87, who was one of Rios’ closest friends, said that it “makes sense” Rios would have helped organize Cultural Rhythms given her “polite and professional” manner and “really genuine” personality.

“People always really like her,” she said.

‘WINNING THE LOTTERY’

Rios juggled her extracurricular commitments with formidable academic and work-related obligations.

“I still had to send money home,” said Rios, who worked for an average of 20 to 25 hours a week.

Rios held a job at the Institute for Educational Management at the Graduate School of Education, and, echoing her high school position as a library aide and bookmender in her hometown library, she also worked at Widener Library in her freshman year and at the Winthrop House Library for the next three years.

“To go from the county library in my hometown of Hayward to Widener Library [at Harvard] was like winning the lottery,” she said.

In addition, Rios was one of the College’s first students to pursue a joint concentration in Sociology and Romance Languages and Literatures.

Rios wrote a senior thesis that traced the evolution of Mexican identity in different literary works.

Though enduring evaluations by both departments was “very difficult,” Rios said that she found the experience “very cathartic” as well.

‘A PURPOSEFUL WALK’

Upon her graduation from Harvard, Rios returned to California, where she split her time roughly equally between positions in the public and private sectors, serving as director for economic development for the City of Fremont and working as a principal at the consulting firm Red River Associates.

Victor MacFarlane, managing principal of MacFarlane Partners, the real estate investment management firm where Rios worked before joining the Treasury, wrote in an email that Rios “took her responsibilities as a key contributor and leader very seriously.”

“She wanted to succeed and to succeed at a high level,” he wrote. “While very competitive, she always had a smile on her face and was willing to help someone whenever she could.”