Be A Maverick. The University of Texas at Arlington
Political clout
When Jim Wilkinson needs to counsel the nation’s top economic policymakers, he draws on a source that’s a little off the wall. Or more precisely, off his shelf.
He pulls down the textbook from his UT Arlington statistics class, a course that, he says, “has been of more use to me than any class I’ve ever taken.”
It comes in handy since Wilkinson (‘93 BBA, Finance) is chief of staff to Henry Paulson, President Bush’s treasury secretary. He had been Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s senior policy and communications strategist, a deputy assistant to the president and the deputy national security adviser for communications before moving to his current job in July 2006.
Many consider Wilkinson, 37, to be one of the Republican Party’s top advisers. He was a member of the team that helped arrange Bush’s visit to ground zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Early in the war, he was chief spokesman for Gen. Tommy Franks (another UT Arlington alumnus).
Wilkinson has been communications director at the National Republican Congressional Committee. He oversaw political communications for the House of Representatives, worked in Congress for former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and has held a host of other positions, including legislative assistant, political director, director of member relations, deputy floor assistant and press secretary.
While a student at UT Arlington, Wilkinson was a resident adviser in Pachl Hall, a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and a regular at Mavericks basketball games. And it was in UT Arlington classrooms that he discovered the power inherent in statistics and economic theory-principles he’d take all the way to the Treasury Department.
“I love statistics, and I always have, starting with sports box scores,” he said. And, as he learned, box scores and ballot boxes aren’t so different.
“In politics you have quantifiable questions and generalizable questions with no answers. Using stats, you can get to the core of the issues. That changed the way I viewed the world. ... My best, most relevant, most useful experience has been my educational experience at UTA.”
In many ways, Wilkinson, who returned to campus April 17 as the keynote speaker at the President’s Academic Excellence Convocation, remains a Maverick. Besides consulting the old textbook, he wears his UT Arlington class ring. He considers his professors his mentors, and his classmates and dorm buddies his lifelong friends.
“I love UTA. I want to be a resource for UTA,” he said. “I want to help in any way I can.”