Brenda Dann-Messier, longtime president of the state’s largest adult education center and an ardent advocate for low-income families and immigrants, has been confirmed as an assistant secretary of education by the U.S. Senate.

Dann-Messier, 60, of East Greenwich, starts her new job in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. She will oversee community colleges, adult education, career and technical education and will work closely with Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Under Secretary Martha Kanter. One of seven assistant secretaries of education, Dann-Messier’s annual salary is $153,000.

Dann-Messier stepped down as president of Dorcas Place in Providence and resigned her board positions, including serving on the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education.

President Obama nominated her for the post in June. The Senate approved her Oct. 5 and Mr. Obama signed the confirmation the following day.

Johan Uvin, Rhode Island’s director for adult education, called Dann-Messier a leader in the field, someone eager to help the most challenging students and pioneer new programs.

“Brenda has always advocated for literacy services for adults at the lowest level of literacy, students that some programs perhaps won’t serve because they require so many resources. And we are severely resource restrained in adult education,” Uvin said. “But that goes to who she is as a person. She cares deeply about making sure that each person has access to programs, so they can get skills and prosper.”

The appointments of Dann-Messier and Kanter, the first community college president to hold the position of under secretary, highlight the Obama administration’s commitment to often-marginalized areas of education. Mr. Obama has pledged $12 billion to improve the nation’s two-year colleges, is encouraging more Americans to pursue a year or two of post-secondary education and wants to strengthen job-training programs.

“It’s thrilling,” Dann-Messier said. “President Obama, Secretary Duncan and Under Secretary Kanter all believe that everyone deserves the chance to improve their skill level. To be able to have a voice is extremely exciting for me.”

Dann-Messier is the daughter of Jewish immigrants who fled Nazi Germany and Italy in the late 1930s and settled in Warwick, searching for a better life. Now deceased, her father, Frank Dann and her mother, Germana Carpi-Dann, reared Dann-Messier and her two brothers to “believe change was possible for everyone,” a belief that has defined Dann-Messier’s professional life.

“Education is the key to all of our opportunities, especially for low-income folks,” Dann-Messier said. “With the state of our economy today, adult ed, career and technical ed and community colleges are all so essential to make sure we have an economy that is functioning full speed. We need to make sure that all of our residents have access to job training and higher education so they can secure good-paying jobs and take care of their families.”

Dann-Messier earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Rhode Island College and a doctorate in educational leadership from Johnson & Wales University.

She took the job at Dorcas Place in 1999 and is widely credited for improving and expanding the center’s programs. When she arrived, just 100 low-income women were served at the center each year. Today, 1,000 adults take a wide array of classes, including basic literacy, GED, workforce education, college preparation and comprehensive family literacy.

She started a Welcome Center that helps foreign professionals, particularly in the health fields, retrain for good-paying jobs in the United States. So far over 150 immigrants have participated in the language and cultural training program, she said.

Dann-Messier also proved to be an effective fundraiser, securing several state and federal grants, leading a $2-million capital campaign and supervising the construction of a new facility on Elmwood Avenue.

Prior to serving as president of Dorcas Place, Dann-Messier worked for educational opportunity programs for low income students at RIC and the Community College of Rhode Island for two decades. She worked for the federal Department of Education during the Clinton administration, serving as a regional representative in Boston from 1993-1996.

“I don’t think anyone is better qualified to do adult education work,” said Jack R. Warner, Rhode Island’s former higher education commissioner, who worked with Dann-Messier for three years. “Not only is she a leader in adult literacy in Rhode Island, but she runs an operation that is ranked at the top of performance. She runs effective programs that help adults become more literate.”

Dann-Messier and her husband Daniel Messier, a retired teacher, will move to a townhouse on Capitol Hill. They intend to keep a home in Rhode Island and visit when they can. The couple have two grown sons, Dana, 30, a pilot who lives in St. Louis, and Curtis, 27, who is pursing a master’s degree at Hunter College in New York.

The students she has met and their struggle to improve their lot in life will guide her in her work in Washington, Dann-Messier says.

“It’s about jobs,” Dann-Messier said. “If you ask the students at Dorcas Place or CCRI why they are there, they will say they want to make a way for themselves and their families. They want to get good-paying jobs. It’s powerful.”

jjordan@projo.com