Odette Piñeiro (born July 28, 1965 in Manatí, Puerto Rico) is the former Secretary of Puerto Rico Department of Education, appointed by Governor Luis Fortuño on December 14, 2009, confirmed by the Senate of Puerto Rico on December 18, 2009[1] and sworn in by Secretary of State Kenneth McClintock on December 30, 2009.
Prior to her confirmation, she had been sworn in under a recess appointment five days before so that she could immediately take office and tackle multiple issues that the United States Department of Education was requiring be resolved by December 31, 2009.
Piñeiro graduated at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez with a Bachelor of Science, and at Penn State University with a Master of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy.
In 1988, she married Jesús Edgardo Colón, the current mayor of Orocovis, Puerto Rico, with whom she has two sons, both college students, one at Penn State and the other in Puerto Rico.
As an educational researcher and consultant, she has worked in Central America, Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico, including a stint as an educational advisor to the U.S. territory's Senate under the presidencies of Kenneth McClintock and Thomas Rivera Schatz.