Carlos Albizu Miranda

Carlos Albizu Miranda (16 September 1920 – 6 October 1984) was a Puerto Rican educator. He is the first Hispanic educator to have a North American university, Albizu University, renamed in his honor and one of the first Hispanics to earn a Ph.D. in psychology in the United States. Albizu Miranda and his family returned to Puerto Rico and he enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico where in 1943 he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in education with a major on psychology and a minor in history.

Albizu Miranda joined the United States Army as a 1st Lieutenant upon the outbreak of World War II and served overseas. After he was honorably discharged from the military, Albizu Miranda went to work for the Veteran's Administration, first as a psychometrician and later as Chief of the Vocational Rehabilitation and Education Center in Puerto Rico.

Carlos Albizu Miranda died on 6 October 1984. He was survived by his wife Ermida Albizu Garcia and four children, Carmen Albizu García, Sonya Albizu Garcia, Carlos F. Albizu Garcia and his youngest daughter, Teresa Albizu-Rodriguez. Carlos Albizu Miranda was buried at the Puerto Rico National Cemetery in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. In a memorial article in the Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, Marion A. Wennerholm wrote:

"Dr. Albizu had an exceptional ability to dream great dreams and then convert them into realities. His enthusiasm was contagious and he was able to stimulate and motivate his colleagues by sharing his dreams with them and involving them in carrying them out. Through his tireless efforts and despite times of great adversity, his dream of a professional school of psychology became a reality."

On January 1, 2000 the Board of Trustees of the Caribbean Center for Advanced Studies, which includes the Miami Institute of Psychology, renamed the two-campus institution "Carlos Albizu University".