mnica eliana jimnez de la jara born december 25 1940 is a chilean christian democrat politician and former minister of educationjimnez comes from a very political family her father oscar jimnez pinochet was minister of health under president salvador allende while her brother jorge occupied the same position under president patricio aylwin even though she never formally joined the christian democrat party until 2009 she supported it since she was a university student she graduated as a social worker from the universidad catolica de chile in 1981 she obtained a fulbright scholarship that allowed her to complete a postgrade in social work education at the catholic university of america in washington dcjimnez was married to juan barros with whom they had five children and who died in 2002 leaving her a widow she was a member of the national commission for truth and reconciliation which investigated human rights abuses resulting in death or disappearance that occurred in chile during the years of military rule under general augusto pinochet she was also a member of the presidential committee on higher education certification and the committee of the fundacin paz ciudadana jimnez is also the leader of the project university building a nation an initiative that unifies the social work of 13 chilean universities she is also president of the educational corporation aprender which runs two schools for socially disadvantaged childrenduring her professional career jimnez has been dean of social work at the universidad catolica de chile and president of the teachers association of the same university acting as their representative in the directive council before being appointed as minister of education by president michelle bachelet on april 18 2008 she was the president of the catholic university of temuco she replaced yasna provoste dismissed in april 2008 because of her participation in the corruption case known as caso subvencionesin july 2008 during a public debate called dialogues for education and in the context of a manifestation of repudiation by various stakeholders the 14 years old student mara msica seplveda threw her a jar of water to the face to catch the attention of the minister who ignored her while she tried to discuss the violent ways used by the police to expel students from the debate the act was widely rejected by politicians of government and opposition parties but has generated a mixed reaction in the general population the student organisations in particular have openly supported and revindicated maria msicas actsince 2010 she has been the executive director of aequaliswwwaequaliscl forum for higher education aequalis is a pluralistic inclusive and innovative forum where members communicate hear and seek to arrive at a consensus in favour of common purposes in its first stage 20102011 was unanimously considered an innovative and relevant initiative that since civil society helped to analyze and promote policies of higher education members approximately one hundred academics coincide in appreciating that the social movement of the 2011 was a reflection of a situation of greater social significance therefore is should listen meet and discuss their demands and incorporate them in a future scenario also the forum is a space that has made it possible to analyze our reality on the basis of relevant national and international experience in the matter currently aequalis have published eight books with the work they have done from 2010 till 2013