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Elsa Murano still remembers the plume of rising smoke and the acrid smell of jet fuel that emanated from the Pentagon after terrorists crashed an airplane into the building on Sept. 11, 2001.
A former Texas A&M University professor, Murano had arrived in Washington, D.C., a week earlier to serve as undersecretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Her new office was just two miles from the Pentagon.
"It gave you a sense of resolve," Murano said Friday, standing on the steps of Texas A&M's Administration Building, where the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is based. "If I am going to be here, I'm going to do the best job I can."
It is with similar determination that she said she plans to approach the presidency of Texas A&M University.
Murano -- who is vice chancellor and dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences -- was named Friday as the sole finalist in the running to replace Robert Gates. The former CIA director left his post nearly a year ago to serve as U.S. Secretary of Defense.
State law requires that the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents wait 21 days before formally offering her the job. If hired, she would be the first woman and first Hispanic to lead the conservative-leaning university -- and one of the first in the nation to lead a major college institution.
At 48, she also would be one of the youngest presidents to lead Texas A&M.
"I'm so excited. There is so much to be done and such great potential here. The people are superb," Murano said Friday, just hours after she was announced by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents as the lone finalist.
"We can do great things if we put our minds together, if we work together instead of compete with each other."
A better future
Murano was just 2 when she and her family -- her parents, two brothers and a sister -- boarded a plane and left Cuba. Though she was just a toddler, Murano easily recalls the date: July 4, 1961.
Fidel Castro was coming to power. The family left for political reasons, assuming they would return when balance was restored in their home country. Of course, she said Friday, that never happened.
Her father worked for IBM and transferred to Colombia, which was their first stop. They would move three more times -- to Peru, El Salvador and Puerto Rico -- before finally immigrating to Miami 12 years later. By then, Murano was 14, she spoke no English and her parents were divorced.
With just a high school education and no knowledge of English, Murano's mother worked three jobs to support her four children. Despite her trials, she reinforced the importance of perseverance, hard work and the idea that nothing was impossible.
Education comes first, she always told her children. College was expected, and Murano combined student loans and part-time work to pay for her education.
"She wanted a better future for her kids," said Murano, who described her mother as her inspiration during an A&M commencement speech in August.
Murano graduated from Florida International University with a bachelor's degree in biological sciences. She met her husband -- Peter Murano, an associate professor and director of the Center for Obesity Research and Program Evaluation at Texas A&M -- in Miami, and, upon graduation, the two went to Virginia Tech. There, she earned a master's degree in anaerobic microbiology and a doctorate in food science and technology.
Looking different
Elsa Murano was 31 when she started her career at Iowa State University, where she spent five years as an assistant professor in the department of microbiology, immunology and preventive medicine.
She joined the department at a time when most of her fellow professors were reaching retirement age. She was different than her colleagues and that wasn't easy.
"It was very interesting," Murano said. "Of course, that always motivates me when I'm in a situation where I'm having to work harder than others."
But she did well, she said. And then Texas A&M came calling. The university was in need of a food microbiologist. She said she initially turned down the offer. She talked with her husband and they decided they both had good careers in Iowa.
A year later, A&M tried to recruit her again -- and this time they also were in need of a food chemist, which is Peter Murano's forte. She agreed to an interview. It helped, she said, laughing, that the couple made the trip to from Iowa to balmy College Station in January.
Because Elsa Murano had pushed for the move to Iowa, she decided her husband should make the decision on their next destination. She said he fell in love with Texas A&M as soon as he arrived.
"We just took to the Aggie spirit and traditions," she said. "There is no place like this."
Elsa Murano joined the faculty in 1995 as a professor in the animal science department and associate director of the Center for Food Safety, which is within the Institute for Food Science and Engineering. In 1997, she was named director of the center.
She remained at Texas A&M until 2001, when she was appointed by President Bush to serve as the highest-ranking food safety official in the U.S. government. In that role, she oversaw and directed 10,000 employees and worked to improve public health through the application of science in policy decisions, according to her biography.
Leading and listening
As an appointed official, it wasn't always easy to work with career government employees, Murano said. If they didn't like you, they didn't have to work for you. Rather, she said, they simply could "wait you out."
Murano said she figured the best way to get the employees to work as a team was to show them that she was down in the trenches with them. And so she rolled up her sleeves and got to work.
That is the same approach she took when she returned to Texas A&M in 2005 as vice chancellor and dean, and the same plan of attack she would use as president, she said.
Leaders must listen to their employees and consider their opinions, she said. They set a general vision and then allow people to make decisions. Those same people, however, must be held accountable. Otherwise, she said, the system fails.
"The key of it is, no one person knows everything," she said.
As dean and vice chancellor, Murano said she meets weekly with her top administrators, a group she refers to as her cabinet. She listens to each member and the group debates issues. When there is consensus, decisions are easy to make. When opinions differ, it can be more difficult. That is when a strong leader must consider all information and then make the best choice, she said.
Not everyone will be happy, she acknowledged. But it is important that the opposition feel heard and understand why a different decision was made, she said.
"Reasonable people can be reasoned with," she said.
During her more than three years in Washington, Murano dealt with significant health and safety issues -- including the first case of mad cow disease in America. But ultimately, Washington was an incredibly stressful environment, she said.
She always knew she wanted to return to Aggieland, so when she was contacted about applying for the joint dean and vice chancellor post, she said she thought: "What the heck."
Elsa Murano returned to Texas A&M as the first female and first Hispanic vice chancellor and dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences -- the same distinction she carried in her post at the USDA.
She recognizes that she is breaking barriers with each new position she assumes. Her mother was so proud upon hearing the news Friday that she cried. And one of her brothers sent her an e-mail telling her he was proud to be in her same gene pool, she said.
"This is Texas A&M history," Murano said. "It's important for me to do the best job I can for the people that come after me. We're breaking new ground here."
• Holly Huffman's e-mail address is holly.huffman@theeagle.com.
