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M A G A Z I N E THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO I ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
Contents 16 THE UNIVERSITY FOR NEW MEXICO
sing UNM smarts to solve U New Mexico problems By Leslie Linthicum
20 SHE WORKS Sustaining our planet is lifelong theme of prolific artist Marietta Patricia Leis By Leslie Linthicum
Marietta Patricia Leis (’85 MA, ’88 MFA) in her studio with studies in red and blue. Photo: Roberto E. Rosales (’96 BFA, ’14 MA)
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LETTERS
5 ALBUM
Keeping current with classmates
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MESSAGE
12 LISTENING WITH COMPASSION Alumni reflect on Agora Crisis Center experience By Leslie Linthicum
From UNM President Garnett S. Stokes
14 TWINS MEET THE ORIOLES
8 CAMPUS CONNECTIONS
Arellano sisters find their professional sweet spot in Major League Baseball By Benjamin Gleisser
What’s going on around campus
24 HOMECOMING EVENTS CALENDAR 26 REUNITED Former Lobos are making an
impact on New Mexico United By Leslie Linthicum
28 SUNNY SIDE UP Meet Alexis Kerschner Tappan, the new Alumni Association president By Leslie Linthicum
30 LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER Curet endowed professorship gives back to UNM By Miranda Fafard
On the cover: That's not a typo. The University of New Mexico is also The University for New Mexico and you can find the story about how UNM helps communities on page 16. Keegan Sutanto (’18 BBA), who is pursuing an MBA at UNM, modeled our one-of-a-kind sweatshirt. Photo: Roberto E. Rosales (’96 BFA, ’14 MA)
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MIRAGE MAGAZINE
Mirage was the title of the University of New Mexico yearbook until its final edition in 1978. The title was then adopted by the alumni magazine, which continues to publish vignettes about UNM graduates and news of the University.
M A G A Z I N E
32 FEEDING HUNGRY STUDENTS New on-campus food pantry debuts
34 SHELF LIFE
41 FROM THE VEEP
Fall 2019, Volume 39, Number 2
A message from Alumni Association’s Dana Allen
The University of New Mexico
42 ALUMNI NETWORK
Books by UNM alumni
Did our cameras catch you at an event?
40 ALUMNI CALENDAR
43 IN MEMORIAM
Garnett S. Stokes, President Dana G. Allen, Vice President, Alumni Relations UNM Alumni Association Executive Committee Alexis Tappan (’99 BA, ’17 MA) President Chad Cooper (’01 MBA) President-Elect John Brown (’72 BBA) Past President Daniel Trujillo (’07 BBA, ’08 MACCT) Treasurer Dana G. Allen Secretary Appointed Members James Lewis (’77MPA, ’17 LHD) Rosalyn Chafey (’03 BBA, ’07 MBA, JD) Jaymie Roybal (’12 BA/BS, ’16 JD) Chad Cooper (’01 MBA) Jim Novak (’96 MBA) Gus Pedrotty (’17 BA) Mirage Editorial Dana G. Allen, Vice President, Alumni Relations Leslie Linthicum, Editor Wayne Scheiner & Company, Graphic Design Address correspondence to MirageEditor@unm.edu or The University of New Mexico Alumni Association, MSC 01-1160, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-0001. You can also contact us at (505) 277-5808 or 800-ALUM-UNM (800-258-6866). Web: UNMAlumni.com Facebook: Facebook.com/UNMAlumni Instagram: Instagram.com/UNMAlumni Flickr: Flickr.com/UNMAlumni
Louie and Lucy are ready to Paint the Town Red for Homecoming 2019! Are you?
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Letters to the editor FROM THE EDITOR:
TO THE EDITOR:
I
think the latest Mirage is the best one I’ve ever seen. You give the reader a deep sense of what the university is really all about — thinking, teaching, advancing knowledge, building a community of thoughtful people of all ages, interests and backgrounds. You show why a university is important to a city and a state. I enjoyed every piece. A brilliant job!
A
t their most basic, universities are places where people gather to sort through information and ideas together. As an alumna or alumnus, you know the exhilaration of examining and challenging assumptions, diving into the past to understand the present and seeing the world in new ways. It’s important work, and in large measure why higher education is such a privilege. But it’s also very much in your head. Anyone who has pursued an intellectual life has heard the rap on that. “Your head is in the clouds.” “Wait until you’re out in the real world.” In this issue of Mirage, I had the pleasure of looking into how UNM transcends the ivory tower cliché of academia and bridges the space between UNM’s campus and the rest of New Mexico. In projects that are practical, collaborative and reciprocal, UNM is all over the state, lending its smarts to community partners to solve problems. The University charges for much of the work — what one researcher called “brains for hire.” Other projects offer free help, advice and planning by making a real-life problem into a class project. New Mexico is a state with a lot of needs, and UNM is a university filled with energy, talent and ideas. What a perfect partnership.
With admiration, V.B. Price (’62 BA) Albuquerque, N.M.
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Leslie Linthicum MirageEditor@unm.edu
MIRAGE MAGAZINE
have a suggestion re the murals in the library. Because there are a few (probably more than a few) of us graduates that remember the murals fondly, and as another aspect of our time at UNM, perhaps the Regents could place a sign notifying those who pass by that the murals, depicting racial harmony, are above them. If they could possibly be upset, then the sign should suggest that they hurry by and DO NOT LOOK UP. Really, what’s next? I was on campus last spring and the Lobo statues were everywhere: by water features, next to trees and rocks, in the grass. My goodness I was startled by them, perhaps even frightened by their ferocious demeanor. If the peaceful and beautiful murals require a shield, can the Lobos be far behind? Regards (and thank you for a great Mirage.)
Patrick Reagan (’65 BS) Tustin, Calif.
A
t 8:32 AM Eastern Time, July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 crew lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop their Saturn V rocket. There were about one million people viewing the launch directly, plus many millions around the world watching the launch on television. My family and I were among the million or so watching from the ground in Florida, and we were privileged to be among the few thousand people on the grounds of the Kennedy Space Center. We had travelled from Houston, where I was working at the Manned Spacecraft Center (later named the Johnson Space Center). I had worked at Sandia for a few years, and got my MS degree from UNM, when I had the opportunity to go to work for NASA in Houston. Then, through a series of lucky breaks, I had become the leader of a small group of NASA engineers who worked directly with the astronauts on one of the most crucial phases of their mission, that of preparing for their historic walk on the moon. In fact Neil Armstrong said at a pre-launch press conference that the most difficult part of their mission was the very part I was working on, getting ready for the walk on the moon, or EVA (extra-vehicular activity). As ours was a small group, I was a hands-on group leader, and I assigned myself to this specific mission. Since this was recognized as a critical mission phase, it was considered essential that training for this phase continue until the last possible moment. Thus I moved to Florida for the month or so before the planned launch, and conducted training with Armstrong and Aldrin quite a few times during that period. So it is with very special feelings that I mark the 50th anniversary of that historic launch, and the remarkably successful mission that followed.
David Schultz (’62 MSME) Taos, N.M.
T
he UNM alumni magazine, Mirage, has been showing up in my mailbox for more than 35 years now. That includes most addresses I’ve lived at, given enough time for the mail system to catch up with me, including Santa Fe, Albuquerque and several islands in the Hawaiian chain. It’s always been a pleasure when Mirage shows up in the mailbox, like an old friend you haven’t seen for awhile. The Album, Campus Connections, and feature articles help to keep me current on the latest trends and news from the UNM community at large. It’s also gratifying to see alums, both young and old alike, who are the best and brightest, at the forefront of our ever-changing world. And yes, I’ll admit to perusing the “In Memoriam” pages, hoping not to find anyone I might know. Besides being your average reader of Mirage, I also look closely and critically at the pages, from cover to cover. With decades in print journalism, I am well versed in the business. And over the years I’ve seen many positives changes to “our magazine,” hence the reason for this letter. When I hold the latest issue in my hands, the paper is substantial — higherend magazine stock — slick and glossy, meant to be read and reread, and yes, stick around on the coffee table for a while. The articles are thoroughly researched and extremely well written. On the whole, the photography is probably the best it has ever been! But words and pictures will not work effectively without a cohesive, creative, and attractive design. The layout and design of its pages are also, probably the best Mirage has ever had. Bottom line, thank you for making Mirage such a pleasure to read and look through!
A
s an alumna of UNM, I was sorry to learn about the plan to cover the Three Peoples Murals in Zimmerman Library with theater curtains. In the 80’s I was a student in "History of the U.S. During WWII" taught by Professors Nash and Szasz, in which we learned about the Works Progress Administration and its affiliated program, the Federal Art Project, the largest of the New Deal art projects. The immediacy of walking into Zimmerman Library and seeing the Kenneth Adams murals and placing them in context of what we just learned about in a lecture was inspiring. Not only are the murals historically important, they are an essential feature of that grand, open study hall. The art depicts a perspective that doesn’t match our modern understanding of race relations, and this is a problem in an educational environment. But it wasn’t meant to be a reflection of life in New Mexico “for all time,” and the murals are a significant example of WPA art. It would be too bad for the UNM community and future patrons of Zimmerman Library to have to imagine what is behind the curtain(s) that is so distasteful that it had to be covered up.
Johanna Bush Christensen (’88 BUS) San Diego, Calif.
Look for a friend on every page! Send your alumni news to Mirage Editor, The University of New Mexico Alumni Association, MSC 01-1160, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-0001. Or better yet, email your news to Alumni@unm.edu. Please include your middle name or initial and tell us where you’re living now. Deadlines: Spring deadline: January 1 Fall deadline: June 1
1950s N. Scott Momaday (’58 BAED, ’01 HOND), Santa Fe, N.M., received the Ken Burns American Heritage Prize.
1960s Katherine Jacobson Kuligowski (’60 BS), Albuquerque, won an American Book Fest Best Book Award for “Let’s Git Outta Here.” Charles M. Atkinson (’63 BFA) retired from The Ohio State University. John R. Cooney (’65 LLB, ’65 BA), Albuquerque, was named a 2019 Top 25 New Mexico Lawyer and recognized by Chambers USA in its 2019 legal rankings for New Mexico in the John R. Cooney Environment, Natural Resources & Regulated Industries practice area. John P. Salazar (’65 BA), Albuquerque, was named in Best Lawyers of the Year for 2019 and recognized as a leader in his field by Chambers USA’s Leading Lawyers for Business.
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M A G A Z I N E THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO I ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
John P. Salazar Sharon Weichman Croker (’69 BA), San Diego, Calif., performs as a pianist/vocalist with her jazz trio for events in San Diego.
Jeff Alexander (’83 BA) Kailua Kona, Hawai’i
Charles Wesley Daniels (’69 JD), Albuquerque, retired from the New Mexico Supreme Court.
Game Changers: Innovation and Discovery at UNM
UNM-019-A-Mirage-Spring-2019-Single-Pages-final.indd 1
2/20/19 11:43 AM
Michael P. Brown (’69 BA), Placitas, N.M., received the 2019 Lubar Spirit of Service Award from the New Mexico Dental Association Foundation.
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Our UNM Legacy
“We have chosen to pay forward the generosity David received by providing for the Presidential Scholarship in our estate plan.” - David Gallegos (BE ‘86, MS ‘87) and Joselyne Gallegos (MS ‘88)
Every gift to The University of New Mexico can change worlds. Joselyne and David are members of the New Horizons Society, a group honoring individuals and families who have included UNM in their estate plan. For more information about how you can create a legacy at UNM or to share that you’ve already done so, please call (505) 313-7610 or email giftplanning@unmfund.org.
Look forward by giving back.
@UNMFund
UNMFoundation
@UNMFund
505-313-7600
Welcome Home 1970s
Dear UNM Alumni –
F
all is upon us, and with it the University turns its focus to welcoming home Lobos of the past and reconnecting them with the current campus community. Homecoming is a time to reflect on all that we’ve done as an institution, while looking forward to the opportunities of the future. It’s a way to continuously revisit that first day of college — the excitement, anticipation and intrigue of new beginnings and the optimism of an educated perspective. During homecoming, lifelong Lobos join me in welcoming the new students and embracing the incoming class. As new students at UNM, they are the representation of our commitment to higher education and to our community. They embody our future, while pursuing the ongoing advancement of our city, state and global initiatives. As the University for New Mexico, UNM’s impact reaches far and wide. But our greatest achievements can be seen most vividly in the lives of the individuals we directly impact and serve. Through the launch of our Grand Challenges initiatives, we are bringing together researchers from across the state to collectively strategize the best ways to address pressing issues in New Mexico. The challenges are anchored in the academic equity built by those working and teaching in the University, but also through Lobos who have left our campus to pursue their own personal charges in New Mexico and beyond. Our alumni continue to generously support UNM’s research initiatives through critical funding to help advance each Grand Challenge we face, and with it, support every student who seeks educational opportunities through the University. In bringing together past and present Lobos, we create opportunities to facilitate growth and new relationships that will be fostered and capitalized upon for years to come. This year’s homecoming theme is “Paint the Town Cherry,” with festivities culminating the week of Oct. 21-26. To the Lobos journeying back to your alma mater this fall, The University of New Mexico welcomes you home with open arms. To alumni who are continually moving forward with us here in the Land of Enchantment, your ongoing presence and stewardship of our state is built on dedication we are proud to mirror. I look forward to seeing you all at homecoming, and let’s go Lobos!
Warmest regards, and Go Lobos!
Garnett S. Stokes President, The University of New Mexico
Rick Beitler (’70 BAED, ’75 MPA, ’79 JD), Albuquerque, was named in The Best Lawyers in America 2019 and recognized as a leader in his field by Chambers USA’s Leading Lawyers for Business.
Rick Beitler
Susan B. Craig (’70 BA), Albuquerque, was inducted into the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame. Enrique R. Lamadrid (’70 BA), Albuquerque, won the Enrique Anderson Imbert prize from the North American Academy of the Spanish Language. Robert Franklin Gish (’72 PhD), Albuquerque, published “Twilight Troubadour: Stories Serenading the American Southwest.” Anne Hillerman (’72 BA), Santa Fe, N.M., received the 2019 Frank Waters Award from the Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District. Lynn H. Slade (’73 BA, ’76 JD), Corrales, N.M., was named a 2019 Top 25 New Mexico Super Lawyer and recognized by Chambers USA in its 2019 legal rankings for New Mexico in the Native American Law and Environment, Natural Resources & Regulated Industries practice areas, and in Nationwide Native American Law. Cisco A. McSorley (’74 BA, ’79 JD), Albuquerque, is head of the New Mexico Probation and Parole Division. Catherine T. Goldberg (’75 JD), Albuquerque, was named one of the Top 25 Lawyers in New Mexico. William A. Maxwell (’75 MS), Los Lunas, N.M., retired as director of engineering at SunPower Corporation. Joy Harjo (’76 BA), a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, is the nation’s 23rd poet laureate, a designation by the Library of Congress. Harjo is the first Native person to be selected for the role. James W. Rende (’77 BAA), Jarales, N.M., was named 2018 Citizen of the Year by the Greater Belen Chamber of Commerce.
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Campus Connections
Paul Holloway
NEW FACES PROVOST After a six-month search, James Paul Holloway, from the University of Michigan, is UNM’s new Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. He replaces Chaouki Abdallah, who left last year to accept a position at his alma mater, Georgia Tech. Holloway has served as a Vice Provost for Global Engagement and Interdisciplinary Academic Affairs at Michigan since 2013, with a portfolio of responsibilities that included global engagement, engaged learning and scholarship and interdisciplinary academic affairs. Holloway earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nuclear engineering from the University of Illinois, and his doctorate in engineering physics from the University of Virginia. He joined the Michigan faculty as an assistant professor for Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences and has
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MIRAGE MAGAZINE
Teresa Costantinidis
also served as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the College of Engineering.
SENIOR VP Teresa Costantinidis fills the position of Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration vacated by David Harris, who retired last year. Costantinidis has budget and management experience spanning more than 30 years at the University of California, San Francisco and UC Berkeley campuses. She comes to UNM from UCSF, where she has been Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer, overseeing UCSF’s financial management activities. Before that, she was the Associate Vice Chancellor for Budget & Resource Management and the Assistant Vice Chancellor — Budget and Resource Planning at UC Berkeley. She holds an MBA from Berkeley and a BS in biological sciences from UC Davis.
Assata Zerai
VP FOR EQUITY AND INCLUSION Assata Zerai is UNM’s new Vice President for Equity and Inclusion. She comes to UNM from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she served as the associate provost for faculty excellence. Previously, she served as the associate chancellor for diversity, associate dean in the Graduate College, and as director of the Center for African Studies. A professor of sociology, her research interests have included maternal and child health, health activism, safe water and sanitation, as well as diversity and LGBTQI inclusiveness in U.S. Protestant congregations, and making the work of marginalized scholars more accessible.
VP FOR ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT Dan D. García is the new vice president for Enrollment Management,
Dan D. Garcia
replacing Terry Babbitt who moved to chief of staff for President Garnett S. Stokes. Garcia comes to UNM from the University of Texas at Arlington, where he was the associate vice president for enrollment management. Prior to joining UTA, García served as vice president for enrollment management at West Texas A&M University and as associate vice chancellor for enrollment services at the University of Washington Tacoma. Under Garcia’s leadership, UTA reach its highest historical enrollment of new freshmen and West Texas A&M reached the highest enrollment in the institution’s history.
REGENTS
UNM Board of Regents meetings have a new look, as five new Regents joined the board, appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. They are Doug Brown, president; Kim Sanchez
Rael, vice president; Melissa C. Henry, student Regent; and Robert Schwartz and Sandra Begay. They join Robert Doughty III and Marron Lee, who are serving terms through 2020. Brown is a former New Mexico state treasurer. He served as the dean of the UNM Anderson School of Management from 2009 to 2014 and was awarded the title of Dean Emeritus upon retirement. He holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Stanford University. Rael served on the New Mexico State Board of Finance from 2003 to 2009 and is acting president and CEO of SRE Wellness, Inc. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations/Latin American studies from Harvard and an MBA in general management from Stanford University. Begay served on the Board of Trustees of the UNM Foundation from 2008 to 2011. She holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from UNM and a master’s in structural engineering from Stanford University. Schwartz is the Henry Weihofen Professor of Law Emeritus at UNM. He previously served as general counsel for the New Mexico Human Services Department and chair of the New Mexico Health Policy Commission. He holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Student Regent Henry is working on her doctorate in counselor education and supervision with a minor in quantitative methods in education from UNM. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in counseling from California State University, Fresno.
Leslie McCarthy Apodaca (’78 BA), Albuquerque, was listed in the Top 25 Lawyers in New Mexico and in The Best Lawyers in America 2019. Jack L. Fortner (’78 BA), Farmington, N.M., is the San Juan County Commission chairman.
Leslie McCarthy Apodaca
R. Tracy Sprouls (’78 BA, ’81 JD), Albuquerque, was listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2019 and recognized as a leader in his field by Chambers USA’s Leading Lawyers for Business. R. Tracy Sprouls John R. D’Antonio (’79 BSCE), Albuquerque, is the New Mexico State Engineer.
Antoinette Sedillo Lopez (’79 BUS), Albuquerque, was appointed to the New Mexico State Senate, representing District 16. William F. Lang (’79 BA, ’82 JD), Albuquerque, is chair of the New Mexico Ethics Commission.
1980s Carolyn Marie Castillo (’80 BSPH, ’84 MD), Albuquerque, is a board-certified medical provider at Lovelace Medical Group. Kim E. Hedrick (’80 BS, ’97 MEMBA, ’97 MBA), Corrales, N.M., is vice president of business development at TriCore Reference Laboratories. Edward R. Ricco (’80 JD), Albuquerque, was named one of the Top 25 Lawyers in New Mexico. Thomas Franz Blueher (’81 JD), Albuquerque, is of counsel at Pregenzer, Baysinger, Wideman & Sale, PC.
Edward R. Ricco
W. Mark Mowery (’81 JD), Santa Fe, N.M., was selected as a Southwest Super Lawyer. Daniel Edward Ramczyk (’81 BA, ’83 JD), Albuquerque, is a judge in New Mexico’s Second Judicial District Court.
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Campus Connections
PURRFECT ROOMATES
Starting this fall, Tiger, Shadow, Princess or Rex might be curled up in a residence hall on campus. With scientific evidence supporting the health benefits of spending time with pets, UNM’s Residence Life & Student Housing has created two pet-friendly residence halls. Santa Clara Hall, a traditional dormitory, and one of the Student Residence Center apartment buildings are being designated “Pet Permitted Residence Hall Communities” By Leslie Linthicum under a pilot program that will last two semesters. “Being able to bring a pet offers UNM students a different experience, one they can’t get elsewhere,” said Wayne Sullivan, director of UNM Residence Life & Student Housing. “There are many benefits to living in university housing, and offering this option will allow students to take advantage of those benefits while having an important part of their life with them.”
Students are allowed to opt into a Pet Permitted Residence Hall — and the definition of pet is broader than just cats and dog. Small mammals, small reptiles and amphibians are allowed and other animals may be considered for approval. “In addition to the education students receive in the classroom and in their academic endeavors, we believe students also learn a great deal of life skills and personal responsibility while living in UNM Housing,” said Sullivan. “Refining the skills and relationships that pet ownership brings can be a very valuable experience for students.”
PHOTO BOMBSHELL
Raquel Fraga-Encinas, a UNM alumna, was part of the international team of scientists that captured the first-ever image of a black hole earlier this year, a feat that was thought to be impossible. Fraga-Encinas graduated from UNM in 2001 with a bachelor of science in
What’s The
astrophysics. She is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Astrophysics at Radboud University, located in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and a member of the BlackHoleCam project to image, measure and understand astrophysical black holes. One of the scientific challenges of studying black holes, singular points in space where nothing can escape, has been how to capture an image of something that is thousands or millions of light years away and — if nothing can escape — emitting no visible light. Using telescopes around the world synchronized to train on one large known black hole at the same time, the team was finally able to record the black hole silhouette against the light bending around it. Fraga-Encinas’ contribution to the 200-member team was running computer simulations to understand the physics of the hot gas orbiting around the black hole. Fraga-Encinas completed her Honors thesis under the advisement of UNM Department of Physics & Astronomy Professor Richard Rand. “She was one of our best students at that time, very self-motivated and focused,” Rand said. “As with all her work, she was motivated to learn and worked with efficiency. It was an absolute pleasure to advise her.”
IN THE SKY
Big Idea?
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MIRAGE MAGAZINE
UNM’s Institute of Meteoritics is continuing the science legacy of the Apollo missions by studying pieces of the Moon that have been carefully stored an untouched for nearly 50 years.
Cameron Craig Erdmann (’83 MARCH), Albuquerque, is an associate at Studio Southwest Architects.
As one of nine teams chosen by NASA for the $8 million project, UNM researchers will use modern analysis techniques to examine a core sample collected by New Mexico native Harrison “Jack” Schmitt and Gene Cernan in their 1972 Apollo 17 mission. The core, weighing a little less than two pounds, was collected from a landslide deposit, vacuum-sealed on the lunar surface and stored at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas and has never been examined. The UNM-led research team is named the Consortium for the
Leslie Susan Johnson (’83 MD), Socorro, N.M., retired as a pediatrician at Socorro Advanced Analysis of Apollo Samples General Hospital. Thomas E. Lilley (’83 JD), Roswell, N.M., and directed by Charles Shearer, a research scientist at UNM’s Institute is a judge in New Mexico’s Fifth Judicial District Court.
of Meteoritics and a research professor in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences. “We know how a landslide occurs on the Earth,” Shearer said. “But how do these landslide deposits occur on a body that essentially has no atmosphere, limited water and lower gravity? This will be the first detailed examination of a lunar landslide deposit, including what triggered it, when did it occur and how it formed.”
Earl E. DeBrine (’84 BBA), Albuquerque, was recognized by Best Lawyers in America in Oil & Gas and Railroad Law. R. Nelson Franse (’84 BUS, ’87 JD), Albuquerque, was listed in Best Lawyers of the Year for 2019 and was recognized as a leader in his field by Chambers USA’s Leading Lawyers for Business. He was also named a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Andrew Gordon Schultz (’84 JD), Albuquerque, has been named Attorney of the Year by the Albuquerque Bar Association. He was also one of the Top 25 Lawyers in New Mexico and recognized as a leader in his field by Chambers USA’s Leading Lawyers for Business.
Earl DeBrine
R. Nelson Franse
Andrew Gordon Schultz
Casey Anglada DeRaad (’85 BSEE, ’92 MS), Albuquerque, is founder and director of New Space New Mexico. Susan Roehrig (’85 PhD), San Angelo, Texas, received an Outstanding Service Award from the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy. Sandra Karen Begay (’86 ASPE, ’87 BSCE), Albuquerque, serves on the University of New Mexico Board of Regents. (continued on page 27)
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Manning the Phones and Saving Lives By Leslie Linthicum
Thousands of UNM alumni have learned active listening and compassionate response at Agora Crisis Center
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A
round the clock, in shifts lasting four hours, several UNM students sit in a converted two-car garage on Sigma Chi Road answering the phones or clicking to join an online chat. The immediate goal of Agora Crisis Center is to offer supportive listening, referrals and crisis intervention to the thousands of people who contact the hotline each year. And it works. Molly McCoy Brack (’84 BA, ’97 MA), Agora’s director, says the service takes about 40,000 calls and online chats each year and has intervened in hundreds of active suicide attempts. But the residual benefit of Agora — the only crisis hotline in the country manned by a student organization — is to send thousands of UNM graduates out into the world with training in active listening and compassionate response. “People tell me that their Agora experience changed their lives and stuck “ …what they learn and with them their entire lives,” says Brack, practice at Agora makes who started volunteering at the hotline as an undergraduate in the 1980s when the them a better partner, service was fairly new and receiving only a better mom, a better a few hundred calls a year. Many student volunteers go on to son, a better friend.” become mental health counselors, social workers or others in the helping — Molly McCoy Brack professions. “But even if they don’t,” says (’84 BA, ’97 MA) Brack, “what they learn and practice at Agora makes them a better partner, a better mom, a better son, a better friend.”
James Walker (’16 BA) got his first exposure to Agora when he heard a recruiting pitch on campus. Like many other student organizations, Agora works tabling events and sends recruiters to talk about the hotline and look for potential volunteers in psychology classes, offering one class credit for students who complete 40 hours of training and then complete a four-hour shift each week for a minimum of a year. Walker, who grew up in Clovis, was a busy undergraduate — a member of the Student Senate, president of the Residence Hall Association and a member of the Queer-Straight Alliance. So he passed on the offer. But a year later, when his former roommate died by suicide, he thought of Agora and signed up for the training. “That really motivated me to step up and help,” Walker says. “I felt a personal calling.” Walker found the training personally invaluable as a family member and four other people he knew killed themselves over the next few years. And it helped to move him toward a major in psychology and a career as a psychologist. When he graduated in 2016, Walker commissioned into the U.S. Army as an officer and took advantage of the educational delay program, allowing him delay active duty while he does graduate work at William James College in Boston. Three years into a five-year doctoral program in psychology, Walker will begin active duty as a captain and an Army psychologist. Having experience with active intervention as an undergrad gave Walker an edge when applying to grad school, and it is training he still uses with veterans and active duty personnel in his practicum work at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and hospital. “I still use those skills, especially when a client talks about suicide,” Walker says. Now 26, Walker was only 20 when he took his first call at Agora from someone in the midst of a suicide attempt. “He said, ’I’ve already swallowed the bottle of pills and I just want to talk to someone before I die,’” Walker remembers. Relying on his training, he kept the caller on the phone,
“ I don’t think any of us are ever alone in the world, and it helped me remember that.” — Mia Mendoza (’12 BA)
Photo: Roberto E. Rosales (’96 BFA, ’14 MA)
teased from him his location and helped to mobilize help that saved the man’s life. “As a young college student, that’s a lot to hold,” Walker says. Most calls are less dramatic — people who are depressed or anxious and in need of support, or those who are lonely and looking for someone to talk to. During her time at Agora, Mia Mendoza (’12 BA) routinely took a call from the same elderly woman who was isolated and lonely and needed someone to talk to. “We would talk for mostly a half hour to an hour,” Mendoza remembers. “There was something really genuine about that experience.” Mendoza took day and night shifts and often heard from callers or people online who were stressed out, having trouble in their relationships or in more acute
emotional pain. Rather than bringing her down, her shifts helped her to understand her life and the world. “It was more inspiring and humbling,” Mendoza says. “I learned a lot and I realized how much I didn’t know. I don’t think any of us are ever alone in the world, and it helped me remember that.” Mendoza signed up for Agora volunteer training as a freshman. Although she was intending to pursue a major in political science, she was interested in psychology and was looking for an on-campus community, having come to UNM from the small town of Edgewood. “To be completely honest,” Mendoza says, “my experience at Agora shaped the journey of my life.” After serving as a volunteer for two years, Mendoza spent two years in a work-study job there. She changed her major to psychology and returned to do her practicum at Agora while pursuing a master’s degree in counseling. She has stayed a committed Agoran, serving in lecturing and leadership roles since graduating. Mendoza, 29, is the New Mexico program coordinator of a nonprofit called FACES for the Future, which provides a pipeline for high school students from underrepresented and underserved communities to pursue health careers. “I always fall back on the communication skills I learned at Agora — being comfortable with silence, remembering to thank people for sharing their experiences,” Mendoza says. “The experience at Agora really makes you be a better human being — being more present and attentive in everything you do.” ❂ CALLING ALL AGORANS As the Agora Crisis Center marks its 50th year as a student organization in 2020, it hopes to bring together as many alumni as possible to celebrate, reconnect and reflect on the experience. If you would like information about the reunion, email agora@unm.edu, fill out the contact form at AgoraCares.org or call 505-277-7855.
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J. Elena, left, and J. Maria Arellano, Photos: Todd Olszewski – Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Twins Alumnae sisters help Major League Baseball balance the books and stay on schedule By Benjamin Gleisser
I
f birth were destiny, J. Maria and J. Elena Arellano would be working for the Minnesota Twins. Instead, the baseball-loving identical twin sisters work in the front office for the Baltimore Orioles, where Maria (’95 BBA, ’99 MS) is the manager of minor league and international administration, and Elena (’96 BBA) is a senior accountant. The J before both their names is to honor Juana, the sisters’ grandmother, but the two go by Maria and Elena. Maria is older than Elena by five minutes, and she has been on the job with the Orioles three years longer and helped her twin join the franchise. “When an accounting position opened up with the team, I thought my
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sister would be perfect for it,” Maria says from her office in Camden Yards, the Orioles’ home turf. “We always liked baseball, and I knew she thought it would be cool to work for a Major League baseball team.” Maria’s job entails overseeing the day-to-day administration of the team’s international scouting and player development departments, as well as keeping an eye on athletes in the organization’s minor league system. Though a lot of her work is paperwork — such as making sure contracts are handled properly and players and coaches have visas so they can work in the U.S. and Canada — what she loves most is watching players
come up through the minors to the Major League level. “I call them ’my kids’ sometimes,” she says with a laugh, referring to the youngsters throughout the team’s eight minor league and affiliate teams. “This is my twentieth year in the game, and I’ve watched so many players come up
through the Orioles, Angels and Expos systems, knowing they have a special skill that allows them to do what they do. When they make it to the Major League level, I make sure to visit them and congratulate them.” Even though her sister secured a job interview for her, Elena, a former treasury manager for the Professional Golfers Association, wanted to make sure she earned the position on her own merits: “When I later asked the person who interviewed me,” Elena remembers, “she said, ’”Yes, you were the best qualified.’” Elena describes her job with the Orioles as “being on the front lines. Whenever any other department has a question, I’m their first contact.” Besides administering the day-to-day financial transactions for the club, one of her chief duties is helping the corporate partnerships department staff understand their roles in the accounting process for the team and helping establish stable relationships with sponsors. The twins eat lunch together and hang out at work. The Arellano family moved to Hobbs, N.M., from Mexico when the sisters were young. They got their first taste of baseball when they visited an uncle in Houston, who took the pair to an Astros game. “That’s when my love for the game started,” Maria says. “It was the excitement of my cousins and all the fans, and the excitement of the players on the field.” Elena adds, “We pretty much grew up watching baseball. We learned English watching sports — I was a big Dodgers and Braves fan, and was always out with the boys playing basketball, not doing girly things. I guess you could say I was a bit of a tomboy.” After starting at New Mexico Junior College, they transferred to UNM to further their education. The twins are
the first in their family to attend college. Maria found a mentor in Anderson School of Management Professor Robert D. Rogers (now professor emeritus). “He pushed me to my limits,” she says. “He was impressed with how I grasped difficult research concepts so quickly, and selected me to help him on one of his research projects.” Elena credits accounting professors Jack Emmons (now deputy state auditor) and Joni J. Young, who brought hereand-now experience to their classes. “They really helped prepare me for realworld business challenges,” she says. In addition to their studies, Maria tutored players on the Lobos’ football team in English and other subjects, while Elena tutored players taking the entry-level accounting course. “Tutoring those students was one of my happiest accomplishments,” Elena says. “I loved it when I could see in their eyes how they got it.” Adds Maria: “I feel pride today every time I see the Lobos are doing well. I had such a great time at UNM, meeting classmates from all around the world.” In her senior year, Maria interned with the United States Olympic Committee, where she helped promote the Olympic movement. While a graduate student, she interned with the Atlanta Braves, and later went on to work in the player development offices of the Montreal Expos and Los Angeles Angels before joining the Orioles in 2006. Elena began at the PGA in 1999 as a staff accountant, and was then promoted to treasury and investment services program manager, where she helped oversee the organization’s investments and pension plans. She joined her sister at the Orioles in 2009. Though the Orioles have struggled over the past couple seasons, Maria
points to the Houston Astros, which suffered through several 100-plus loss seasons before turning everything around and winning a World Series championship. And through her own personal experience of being part of the 2002 World Champion Angels, she knows it’s only a matter of time until the Orioles find success again. “Baseball is a beautiful game,” she says. “You go through tough times, but if you love the game, you stick with it and help the players whenever you can. My job is to take care of them off the field so they can concentrate on their jobs on the field.” ❂
Maria w ith Bow ie Bayso x minor
league c oaches.
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Photos: Roberto E. Rosales (’96 BFA, ’14 MA)
Hailey Heinz (’13 MA) and sons Leo and Orion
The University of New Mexico is also The University for New Mexico By Leslie Linthicum
I
t’s a drive of some 300 miles from UNM’s campus in Albuquerque to the cities of Hobbs and Lovington, a five-hour trip through some of New Mexico’s emptiest open-sky country and right up against the Texas state line. UNM doesn’t have a branch campus anywhere nearby, but the University’s reach can be felt by anyone who goes to the doctor or the pharmacy. A partnership between UNM and the JF Maddox Foundation in Hobbs
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has been bringing UNM medical residents and nursing, pharmacy and physician assistant students to town for their hands-on learning rotations for several years. It started as a phone conversation between Maddox’s CEO Bob Reid and Arthur Kaufman, M.D., vice chancellor for Community Health at UNM’s Health Sciences Center. Lea County was having trouble getting doctors and other health
professionals to take jobs in small oil field towns far from the urban amenities that attract young professionals. Kaufman had a roster of health professionals-in-training who could benefit from experience in rural settings where they could stretch their skills. Once young doctors, nurses and other health professionals got a taste of the clinical opportunities in rural settings — and experienced the open
arms of a small community — Reid and Kaufman bet some of them would come back. And they were right. Five UNM medical residents joined the staff of Nor-Lea Hospital in Lovington, and Lea Regional Medical Center in Hobbs has hired a number of the nurses, medical technicians, pharmacists and other mid-level practitioners who did rotations there. It has helped Lea County solve one of the most endemic problems — access to medical care in rural communities — and built a connection between UNM and Lea County that could grow into other areas. “UNM saw a great opportunity for a partnership and we’ve had a
“There is potential for partnering in ways that could benefit the entire state,” she said at the time. Those partnerships that put the “for” in UNM are popping up all over campus. From helping Albuquerque’s International Balloon Fiesta unfurl its annual traffic jams to offering community plans to tribal communities across the state, from getting veterans in Silver City to medical appointments to providing data to help inform early childhood policy decision, and even designing restroom solutions for Albuquerque’s homeless, UNM students, faculty and an array of alumni are helping New Mexico solve problems.
reviewed academic route, Heinz and her colleagues seek contracts from government entities and non-profits looking for data or data analysis that will help them make better policy. “We are sort of brains for hire,” Heinz says. “There is a lot of research in the world. What we do is try to work with people here in New Mexico to answer questions someone in New Mexico wants answered for a concrete policy reason. It’s really serviceoriented research.” If you put pins on a map of New Mexico, the Cradle to Career Policy Institute’s mark covers it, from Farmington to Hobbs and Clayton to Deming.
Michaela Shirley (’15 MA) and Chelsey Begay (’12 BAEPD)
Theodore Jojola (’73 BA)
great partnership,” says Reid. “We’ve proven we can overcome the distance between us.” IN PURSUIT OF PARTNERSHIPS Even before she had packed up and moved to Albuquerque from the University of Missouri to take her new position as president of UNM, Garnett S. Stokes referred to UNM as “The University for New Mexico.” She wasn’t misspeaking as she tried to learn the name of her new employer. She was describing the kind of outwardfacing relationship UNM scholars and researchers could have with communities well beyond campus boundaries.
BRAINS FOR HIRE Academic research is a foundation of any university, but it’s a long path from proposal to project to paper published — and then even longer for the research to find applications in the world outside of academia. Service-oriented research that helps inform decisions about early childhood education policy in New Mexico is the bread and butter of the Cradle to Career Policy Institute, tucked in offices on the north side of campus. “I call it community-engaged scholarship,” says Hailey Heinz (’13 MA), a policy researcher at the institute. Instead of going the peer-
For the past six years the institute has inventoried home visiting services for new parents and their infants and produced an annual report that tells policy makers who is offering services, what types of support families receive and who is taking advantage of those services in every part of the state. The institute has done similar statewide research on childcare quality and access and on the rate of expulsion in preschools. It also produces an interactive dashboard that shows the range of early childhood services by county. As early childhood becomes an increasing focus of governments
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and nonprofits trying to turn the tide of New Mexico’s poor academic performance and family outcomes, good data is key. For Heinz, using her research skills in this way is a perfect fit. “This kind of research feels like it has a very immediate impact,” she says. “And I live here. I work here. I have two young kids and I study early childhood and I want all this stuff to get better, so it feels to me like very meaningful work.” THE RESTROOM QUESTION One concept of how to harness the smarts within UNM and quickly apply it to New Mexico problems has centered around the social determinants of health — things like transportation,
Looking for solutions to sanitation at Coronado Park and other places in the city where the homeless gather without public restrooms fit perfectly with the mission of the School of Architecture and Planning’s Design and Assistance Program, which matches New Mexico community problems with teams of Architecture and Planning students. Over its 50-year history, the program has offered students practical experience while helping communities in every county in New Mexico. Brandon Rompf (’19 BA) and two other students comprised one of several teams that studied the issues of public sanitation, talked to city officials about site-specific concerns and ultimately offered to the city a possible solution for Coronado Park.
“I really enjoyed this,” he says, “because it was a real local problem.” Rompf ’s design is among seven offered to the city for consideration. PLANNING WITH PURPOSE Zuni Pueblo is on the other side of the state from Hobbs, a 150-mile trip from the UNM campus in Albuquerque and less than 10 miles from the Arizona border. Zuni, along with Nambé Pueblo, Taos Pueblo and several Navajo Nation communities, has sought the help of a unique planning and design institute whose offices sit in the basement of UNM’s School of Architecture and Planning. The Indigenous Design and Planning Institute (iD+Pi) brings culturally responsible planning and Claude Morelli
Brandon Rompf (’19 BA)
nutrition, employment and education that affect people’s well-being. A cross-campus collaboration called HIVE (Health Inclusion Vibrancy and Equity) pulls together disparate departments to tackle local problems tied to those social determinants — something as fundamental as having a clean, convenient and safe place to go to the bathroom and wash your hands. When officials at the City of Albuquerque needed help with sanitation at Coronado Park, a shady spot south of Interstate 40 that is a pick-up and drop-off location for homeless people spending the night at the Westside Emergency Shelter, UNM’s HIVE started buzzing.
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They imagine a landscaped area with a collection of pods made of poured, colored concrete that evoke sandstone bluffs, providing toilets, sinks, changing tables and even dog-height watering stations. “Our big thing was safety and hygiene, but also dignity,” says Rompf, who came to UNM after a 12-year career in the U.S. Air Force. “And we wanted it to be sturdy and long-lasting.” Rompf, who served in Iraq, Qatar and Afghanistan, where a mortar explosion injured his feet and ended his activeduty career, was drawn to architecture and planning for its emphasis on solving community problems.
design practices to projects identified by pueblos and tribes. iD+Pi’s director is longtime Architecture and Planning Prof. Theodore Jojola (’73 BFA). “I’ve always seen this enormous divide between housing and land use planning and Native communities and their own sovereignty and empowerment,” Jojola says. While on loan from UNM to Arizona State University, Jojola developed the idea of serving tribes with a university-based planning program in tune with their needs and community values. In 2011, at UNM, the Indigenous Design and Planning Institute was
formed and began serving tribal clients while teaching indigenous planning. It has served 50 communities from Alaska to Mexico, including many New Mexico pueblos and Navajo Nation communities. “Its mission is to inform community development using the culture and identity of the tribe,” Jojola says. “It’s a public resource that the tribes can use and it’s driven by reciprocity. And it’s helping to change the culture — I call it decolonizing — in the way we think about community planning.” At Nambé, staff and students put together a plan to revitalize the pueblo’s traditional plaza. At Taos, they offered a community development plan. At Tohatchi on the Navajo reservation, they developed a plan for land use and
and so what you see on the built land in a lot of native communities is a reflection of non-Native values.” PROBLEM SOLVER FOR HIRE A lot of exciting research happens inside the Centennial Engineering Center on Redondo Drive. In Claude Morelli’s corner of the third floor, the focus isn’t on building mechanical systems, fine-tuning spacecraft or designing complex computer codes. He solves transportation problems. With a background in planning and public transportation, the research scholar recently took on one of the more vexing and high-profile transportation issues in Albuquerque — the morning mega jams of people trying to get to the Albuquerque
If it does, one half of his mission will be fulfilled. The other half of the mission is to give students, who sometimes come from engineering, economics, management and even psychology, hands-on experience dealing with real clients and real problems. “We’re training the future generation of transportation professionals,” he says. Another of Morelli’s current projects originated with the HIVE. Health Sciences became aware of military veterans in rural Grant County having trouble getting to doctor’s appointments and clinics far from their homes. He hopes his team of students can develop better ways to get veterans from their homes to services and that lessons from that project might impact rural transportation in general.
UNM alumni serve New Mexico, from executive suites to nonprofit boards, and in leadership roles in just about every profession. And in 2019, Lobos are represented in dizzying numbers in all branches of government. New Mexico’s governor, elected in 2018, is Michelle Lujan Grisham (’82 BUS, ’87 JD). She returned to her alma mater to deliver the 2019
commencement address. Lobos hold three of five seats representing New Mexico in Congress: U.S. Sen. Tom Udall (’77 JD), U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland (’94 BA, ’06 JD) and U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small (’15 JD). The list of Lobos elected in 2018 to statewide offices includes New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas (’01 JD), State Auditor Brian Colon (’01 JD),
New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver (’01 BA, ’05 MA), and State Treasurer Tim Eichenberg (’89 BA). And the chief justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court and the chief judge of the New Mexico Court of Appeals are both alumnae — Chief Justice Judith Nakamura (’83 BA, ’89 JD) and Chief Judge M. Monica Zamora (’87 JD).
development. And at Zuni, the project involved the pueblo’s bid to win a Main Street designation. Using the UNMdeveloped proposal, Zuni became the first Native American Main Street community. It is now working with iD+Pi to develop signage for the route. Michaela Shirley (MA ’15), a Diné from Kinlichee, Ariz., majored in planning at ASU with the intention of using her skills to help her community. Now a program specialist with iD+Pi, she is putting her skills to work for many tribes. “It’s about using the planning process but with indigenous values,” Shirley says. “We’ve been told how to plan and design our tribal places
International Balloon Fiesta mass ascensions every October. “I get excited about solving problems,” says Morelli. “It’s totally what I’m about.” The balloon study happened as most of his projects do. He learned about a problem through media coverage, reached out to offer help, assembled a small team of other faculty and students and started the process of analyzing the problem and devising solutions. Morelli believes his plan — a customer-focused approach to queue management and moving people to and from Fiesta events faster in parkand-ride buses — will start to show benefits this October.
Morelli is always scanning the headlines for new challenges that might allow UNM to team with a new community partner. “The stereotype of a university is the ivory tower: people thinking great thoughts but not knowing how to get things done in ’real world’ settings,” Morelli says. “But UNM has the stature and the credibility and the resources to do really practical things. It’s an intellectual challenge, but also you live here and you want to make your community a better place.” ❂
GRADUATING LEADERS
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Photos: Roberto E. Rosales (’96 BFA, ’14 MA)
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,
Essence
,
Reduced to its
Marietta Patricia Leis contemplates the planet in blues and greens and grays
S
By Leslie Linthicum
ummer visitors to the Palazzo Mora in Venice, Italy, have encountered a 60-footlong shimmering scroll, swooping from the palazzo’s beamed ceiling down two stories and draping onto a staircase landing. At first sight, the three-foot-wide drape looks like burnished steel. At closer inspection, it is revealed to be a thin sheet of polyethylene fiber, every square centimeter of which has been covered with graphite paint and burnished to a glimmering dark gray. “The Silent Road” is the first work by Marietta Patricia Leis (’85 MA, ’88 MFA) to be included in Venice’s storied Arte Biennale presented by the European Cultural Center. It coincided with another international exhibition, a solo show of her art at the Mark Rothko Centre in Daugavpils, Latvia. At a vibrant 81, Leis has never been busier. “I think artists live long because there’s always something else we want to do,” she says. Leis is standing at a large worktable in the modern, light-filled studio
behind her house in the Ridgecrest neighborhood of Albuquerque. Wooden salad bowls are stacked in a corner, waiting for an upcoming project that imagines a dystopian future. An easel in the corner awaits her next painting project. And there are still remnants of Tyvek sheets from the arduous making of “The Silent Road.” Leis used steel wool to burnish all 60 feet of the scroll that hangs in Venice until the end of the Biennale in November. “I didn’t mind 60 feet of burnishing,” she says. “I loved seeing that texture and the beauty. It was very gratifying. I like to have my hands in something — it’s a quiet zen activity.” Over a career that has spanned six decades, Leis has rarely not had her hands in something. Her body of work includes photography, video installations, sculpture and an extensive series of blue, green and gray saturated paintings. Much of Leis’s inspiration comes from the natural world and specifically her immersion in nature experienced in artist residencies across the world.
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Infinite space
The inspiration for “The Silent Road” percolated from a residency in Iceland. After spending time in Finland during a summer, Leis sought out an opportunity to live through the dark months of a Nordic winter. “Dark matter has always interested me and I wanted to experience how the dark and light plays,” she says. She was there for about four days before she put her finger on a particular oddness: There were no trees, and she could see the curvature of the earth on the horizon, eliciting a feeling of being at the end of the earth. When she returned to Albuquerque she began a series of graphite paintings on formed wood, channeling Iceland’s volcanic landscape and mysterious skies. “The Silent Road” finds its direct inspiration in a photograph she made of a dark ribbon of seemingly endless highway reaching toward a moody gray sky. Another residency — at Crater Lake in Oregon — inspired a dive into blue paintings that lasted from 2000 to 2004. “I was doing blue on paper, blue on canvas. It was blue, blue, blue,” Leis says. During those years, Leis developed what has
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become her signature: deep color block paintings she achieves by a process of layering color, sanding smooth and layering again. She calls them “reductive” and the analogy of a reduced sauce comes to mind — cooked down until the concentrated essence remains.
Leis with The Silent Road Photo: Stefan Jennings Batista
In the blue series Leis began to form the answer to a complicated question: When making a monochromatic painting, how do you know when it’s finished? “It’s a perplexing question. It takes a lot of practice. It takes years to know when to leave something alone, even when you think you could make it better. What I had to learn was to save things for the next piece. Not to feel I had to put everything into one painting.” The paintings are deep and immersive and beautiful, for which Leis makes no apologies. “I love beautiful things,” she says. And if beauty can entice people to think about the planet’s future, that’s all the better. “My work is about planet Earth and its sustainability,” Leis says. “But I have never been an artist that tries to be didactic and hit you over the head. I try to make my work beautiful, to seduce people. I feel if they are drawn into beauty they might contemplate other concepts. The idea is to inspire people to think about well-being of our planet — how a tree, a body of water or the air we breathe are critical to our own well-being and why it’s essential to preserve these priceless resources.”
After the blue period, Leis did a residency in northern Thailand and dived into a series of reductive green paintings. The paintings span the spectrum of green found in the natural world.
’A good place to hide’
Leis floats around her studio in tennis shoes and black track pants, her white hair hanging free. Signs that say “Stay Relaxed” hang on the knobs of doors that lead into Leis’s studio and office. A tattoo on her wrist reminds her to “BREATHE.” As a child growing up in East Orange, N.J., she made art from as early as she can remember, but it was dance that captivated her. She trained from age 7 and as soon as she graduated from high school she took a bus to New York City. "My first apartment was $11 a month in Hell’s Kitchen, a fifth floor walkup,” she says. She danced and painted and took advantage of free admission to the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as the gallery scene that was simmering with abstract impressionism.. “That was a very fertile time in art and a very lucky time to be in New York,” she says. Leis then moved to Los Angeles, where she acted and continued to paint and exhibit. She earned college degrees in psychology and took college classes in studio art and art history, but it wasn’t until her children had grown that she considered getting a formal art degree. Drawn by
its reputation as rigorous and academic, she enrolled in UNM’s art program and received an MA and MFA. “I thought I’d just be moving through, but as it came to be, I liked New Mexico,” Leis says. “It’s a good place to hide out. You can be quiet about your work and you don’t have to be influenced by a lot of outside activity.” Leis is represented by galleries in Denver, Albuquerque and Del Mar, Calif. She also exhibits at universities, art centers and museums throughout the U.S. and abroad. This fall New Mexicans have the opportunity to see her work at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe in the museum’s annual “Alcoves” show. Merry Scully (’99 MFA), head of curatorial affairs at the museum, selected components of Leis’s larger exhibit “Engrained: Ode to Trees,” that contains photographs, sculpture and color block paintings. “All of her work has a kind of stillness to it that, depending on the color and surface, can have different connotations,” Scully says. “Even her small monochromatic paintings, they have a lot of power to them.” Leis, who spent part of the summer lecturing, participating in a U.S. Embassysponsored panel and teaching in Latvia and Venice, is back in her Albuquerque studio, reinvigorated, moving on to the next idea. “Here,” she says simply, “I work. It is my bliss.” ❂
The artist on The Silent Road In today’s noisy world, we can become distracted, numb to our deepest natures. The road to authenticity is by its very nature traveled in solitude. It is an internal road that, with patience, can lead deep into the core of our being. As we each embark on the journey to this rich and fertile place, we can discover a common thread of the shared humanity that binds us.
The artist on her reductive style It is in our everyday life to slow down, but I am committed to this process in creating my art. My paintings have since grown progressively reductive and more monochromatic as I pare down the concerns in my work to their essence. Restraint is a key factor in my work as I include only what is essential for the optimal taste and visual experience.
The artist on the theme of her career Traveling and frequently immersing myself in different locations deepens my concern and love of our Earth, all of which substantially informs my work. I worry about our incredible blue and green planet’s survival. The expression of these concerns frequently expands my work to installations that include other mediums such as woodcut, painting, video, photography, sculpture, drawing and poetry.
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PAINT THE TOWN <<<
CHERRY
UNM HOMECOMING WEEK 2019 ACTIVITIES RUN FROM OCT. 21 THROUGH OCT. 26. Updates to the schedule of events, merchandise orders, registration details and deadlines can be found at UNMAlumni.com/homecoming. ALL WEEK Community Service Project – Support hungry Lobos! The Lobo Food Pantry needs nonperishable food and toiletries. Easy parking and drop-off on the west side of Hodgin Hall Alumni Center. See page 32-33 for details.
immerman Tower Tours – Guided tours Z limited to 10 people each. Register soon at goto.unm.edu/tower.
tudent Activities – Check Lobospirit. S unm.edu for details on fun student events during Homecoming Week.
NM Bookstores – Homecoming U specials all week at all locations. See store, or bookstore.unm.edu for hours and details. upport Homecoming week activities S by joining the Alumni Homecoming Club at UNMFund.org/fund/alumnihomecoming-club.
MONDAY, OCT. 21 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Pet Away Your Worries! Southwest Canine Corps volunteers will be wagging tails, healing hearts and kicking off Homecoming week! Smith Plaza and Health Sciences Library Informatics Center. 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. S’mores Roast – with President Garnett S. Stokes and Jeffrey Younggren, University House. TUESDAY, OCT. 22 11:00 a.m. - 1 p.m.
11:00 a.m. - noon
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ll Faculty & Staff Homecoming Lunch A – Enjoy $5 red chile or traditional Frito Pie at Hodgin Hall, prizes and a gift for all faculty, staff and alumni. Staff Council and UNM Athletics will be serving ice cream for all faculty and staff. ealth Sciences Simulation and H Anatomy Lab – Tour the state-of-the-art learning environment. RSVP required: UNMAlumni.com/homecoming
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5 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. “Drones, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of Mapping” lecture by Geography and Environmental Studies Chair Christopher Lippitt. Reception followed by lecture at new PAIS building. 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Daily Lobo and Student Publications Alumni Happy Hour – Red Door Brewing, 1001 Candelaria Rd NE. 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Native American Alumni Happy Hour – Bow & Arrow Brewing Co., 608 McNight Ave. NW. 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Latin American Institute 40th Anniversary Lecture & Reception – Hodgin Hall. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 23 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Hidden Collections” – a behind-the“ scenes tour of Maxwell Museum of Anthropology archives. Space is limited and RSVP required, 277-1400 or mhermans@unm.edu.
5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Latin@ Hispan@ Alumni Chapter Happy Hour – Wednesday, Canvas Artistry, 3120 Central Avenue SE. 5:30 p.m. - 8 p.m.
obo Living Room celebrates L UNM Press 90th Anniversary, Albuquerque Museum.
THURSDAY, OCT. 24 noon - 2 p.m.
obo Fun on Fitz Plaza – Grab some L popcorn, decorate a bandana and enjoy a break with fellow Lobos for HSC Homecoming.
5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. T he Institute of Meteoritics – 75th Anniversary Celebration. Reception, Lecture and Open House at Northrup Hall. 5:30 p.m.
lack Alumni Chapter Awards Ceremony B – Hodgin Hall.
6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
ollege of Fine Arts Open Studios C with music, food, performance art and more! Mattox Sculpture Center – 1516 Copper NE and Art Annex next to Hodgin Hall.
FRIDAY, OCT. 25
SATURDAY, OCT. 26
9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
he Institute of Meteoritics symposium T celebrating its 75th anniversary – Northrop Hall.
9 a.m.
eritage Club and Class of ’69 Reunion H – Campus tour and brunch, Hodgin Hall.
10 a.m.
NM Class of 1969 Alumni U Reunion & Brunch, Hodgin Hall.
3 p.m. - 5 p.m.
History Homecoming Lecture sponsored by History Alumni Chapter with Dr. Paul Hutton presenting in the History Department Common Room, Mesa Vista Hall 1104.
3:30 p.m. - 5 p.m. College of Education research showcase and alumni reception, Travelstead Hall. 5 p.m.
ollege of Pharmacy Reunion – C Reception and dinner for classes of 1994 and 2009, Seasons Rotisserie and Grill. Registration required.
5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
obo Women’s Soccer vs San José L State Tailgate – Free event hosted by the UNM’s Global Education Office, Women’s Resource Center, Athletics Department and the UNM Alumni Association at the Stadium North Parking Lot.
5:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.
iner en Rouge – Show your Lobo D pride with your best red outfit and don’t forget Cherry & Silver table decorations. We’ll paint Zimmerman Library’s West Wing cherry while enjoying music, entertainment and drinks. Boxed dinners available for advance purchase for $15 or pack your own tasty meal. Reservations required: unmalumni.com/homecoming. $20.00 per person.
6 p.m. School of Medicine Reunion – Immersive dinner, Electric Playhouse, 610 Central Ave., SW.
8 a.m.
obo Relay Race – UNM HR Wellness L invites all alumni, staff, faculty and students to form a team and join us at the North Golf Course. Registration required: hr.unm.edu/wellness.
8 a.m.
chool Of Medicine Reunion – Tours S and Brunch with the Dean.
9 a.m.
ll University Breakfast – Presentation A of the Zia, Lobo and Inspirational Young Alumnus awards at the Hyatt Regency. $25 per person. Registration required: UNMAlumni.com/homecoming.
11 a.m. - 1 p.m. College Enrichment Program – 50th Anniversary Celebration Reunion Weekend tailgate, Dreamstyle Stadium. 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Honors College Alumni Reception and new building tour, Honors College. 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
omecoming Tailgate – Everyone is H welcome at the biggest tailgate event of the season at Dreamstyle Stadium. Alumni, members of Lobo Club and all Lobo fans are invited to gather for food, drinks, music and fun!
2 p.m.
omecoming Football Game – Lobos H vs. Rainbow Warriors, Dreamstyle Stadium. Discount tickets for alumni and guests, $15 per person. Purchase through UNMAlumni.com/homecoming.
6 p.m. School of Medicine Reunion – Awards banquet, Sandia Casino. 6 p.m. UNM Volleyball vs. Air Force For more information about events, updates to the Homecoming 2019 schedule, RSVP and ticket information, please visit UNMAlumni.com/ homecoming or call 505-277-5808.
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Reunited Three former Lobos find a home on New Mexico’s winning pro soccer team By Noah Seligman
A jubilant Chris Wehan (’16 BA) gets a lift from fellow former Lobo Devon Sandoval.
N
ew Mexico United soccer fans have embraced the classic “march to the match” tradition for the United Soccer League franchise. An hour before home kickoff, fans make a boisterous parade: Flags waving, drums banging, voices chanting — a muddled melody navigating the short jaunt from the UNM Soccer Stadium parking lot across Avenida Cesar Chavez to Isotopes Park. A trio of former Lobos — Devon Sandoval, Chris Wehan (’16 BA) and Josh Goss (’16 BBA) — has traveled that same path, from UNM and back to Albuquerque with New Mexico United, albeit each with a unique, indirect route.
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Sandoval, 27, was the first player New Mexico United signed, recruited by owner Peter Trevisani in Spring 2018. When he was introduced at the club announcement celebration, it was a homecoming for the former Eldorado High School star, who regularly attended Lobo soccer camps during Albuquerque summers and eventually tallied 28 goals and 17 assists in three seasons with UNM. “[United] wanted me here and I wanted to be back,” Sandoval said. “This is the place that shaped me into the person I am today. The timing was right to come home. It’s a fresh slate, an opportunity to be a part of something bigger than me.”
Photo: New Mexico United
In addition to prepping him for the pros, UNM is where Sandoval met his wife, Lobo softball outfielder Kristin (Anderson) Sandoval (’15 BA), at an athletes’ study hall. Sandoval, who left UNM in his senior year in pursuit of professional soccer, recently met with an academic advisor to figure out how to finish his degree. “UNM was special to me,” he said. “I wouldn’t be here without my time at the University of New Mexico.” Sandoval wasted little time putting his stamp on the team in its inaugural season. He scored the first-ever club goal, a bullet 25 minutes into the debut match. Sandoval also scored in the
James Bernard Foy (’86 JD), Silver City, N.M., is a judge in New Mexico’s Sixth Judicial District Court.
team’s first-ever win over Tulsa on March 20th. “What was happening at that moment was special. I took it all in,” Sandoval said. “Very much appreciative of where I’d been, where I’d come from. That I could call that my home.” Wehan, 25, met his fiancé Holly Van Grinsvena (’16 BA), a UNM track athlete, in the freshman orientation class for student athletes, so finding a spot on the United roster is also a homecoming for the couple. “I’m just really enjoying the fact that I’m back here in a familiar city and a city that’s treated me and my fiancé so well,” Wehan said. Wehan played 80 games at UNM, with 31 goals and eight assists. He was the USL rookie of the year in 2017 for Reno 1868, leading the league in assists (12) and scoring eight goals. He played in six games with the San José Earthquakes in Major League Soccer in 2018. With United, Wehan has proven himself valuable leading the forward line or in a deeper midfield role directing traffic. He’s enjoyed reacclimating to the desert. “I was really fortunate to play soccer at UNM,” Wehan said. “The level of education is very high at UNM. There are some incredible programs I wish I had tapped into. People don’t always see everything this state has to offer. I hope I can use my platform to give back to the community.” Goss, 24, played in 16 games for UNM, scoring twice and adding nine assists. He spent two seasons in USL League 2, including in 2018 with the Albuquerque Sol. Goss took a longer route to the United roster, traversing the open tryout
in November 2018, a special invite-only tryout in December 2018, and impressing in preseason camp in early 2019 to earn his first pro contract. “It was crazy, super fortunate to have this chance,” Goss said. “I wanted to be a part of this organization,” Goss said. “I had basically given up soccer. Everything I get to do now, I just feel lucky to be here.” Goss has made a few appearances for United thus far, but figures to see more time during the long season, given his ability to line up in a variety of positions. “No matter what happens, what you do every day is something bigger from yourself — that’s what always drew me to the Lobos and New Mexico United,” Goss said. “It’s an expectation we need to set for ourselves and Albuquerque and the state as one.” The three Lobos are strong ambassadors for their school, says Jeremy Fishbein, the head men’s soccer coach for 17 of his 18 years with UNM. “It’s a program that’s about excellence, it’s a culture of excellence — academic, social, athletic,” Fishbein said. “The role of collegiate athletics, especially at a public institution, there’s an educational mission. The culture of the program demands that of the student athletes. We’ve been fortunate to do that.” He emphasizes the role of collegiate sports in community outreach and athletes as role models. “All three of them define what a Lobo student athlete should be,” Fishbein said. “Three outstanding young men — they make everybody proud they went to the University of New Mexico. These guys are going to make Albuquerque, New Mexico, a better place.” ❂
Charles J. Vigil (’86 BBA), Albuquerque, was listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2019, received the Justice Minzner Professionalism Award from State Bar of New Mexico, and was elected to serve on the Charles J. Vigil Board of Governors of the American Bar Association. He was also recognized as a leader in his field by Chambers USA’s Leading Lawyers for Business. Anthony Casados (’87 BSED), Chama, N.M., was inducted into the New Mexico Activities Association’s Hall of Fame. Damara Lee Kaplan (’87 BA, ’92 PhD, ’96 MD), Albuquerque, is a urology provider at Presbyterian Hospital. Catherine Marie Pino (’87 BA), Bethesda, Md., is founder and CEO of D&P Creative Strategies. Michael James Athens (’88 BA), Gallup, N.M., is president and chief executive officer of Rio Grande Credit Union. Christopher P. Muirhead (’88 BA, ’93 JD), Albuquerque, was recognized by Chambers USA in its 2019 legal rankings for New Mexico in the Corporate/Commercial practice area. Stuart R. Butzier Christopher P. Muirhead (’89 JD), Albuquerque, is vice president of Modrall Sperling. He was also named a 2019 Top 25 New Mexico and was recognized by Chambers USA in its 2019 legal rankings for New Mexico in the Environment, Natural Resources & Regulated Industries practice area. Lisa Ann Joynes-Carrillo (’89 BA, ’92 JD), Albuquerque, is president of the New Mexico Women’s Bar Association. Michael E. Kaemper (’89 BA, ’99 JD), Albuquerque, was listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2019.
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ON THE BRIGHT SIDE
Double alum brings a sunny nature to Alumni Association role By Leslie Linthicum
A
lexis Kerschner Tappan’s Albuquerque looks pretty inviting. On @EverythingABQ, the Instagram account for her communications and marketing business, there are photos of live bands, green parks, rich avocado toasts, juicy banh mi sandwiches and lots and lots of creamy coffees and frothy, cold craft beers. Tappan (’99 BA, ’17 MA) is a busy 42-year-old — raising a 6-year-old son, Paul, with her husband, corralling a dog, two cats and a coop of chickens, running a business and chairing two boards —
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Explora, and starting in July the UNM Alumni Association. Where does she find the time to curate that lazy, lovely Albuquerque idyll? “It’s not really that time-consuming,” Tappan says with her signature smile. “I really just take pictures of what I do, which is why there’s a lot of coffee and food and craft beer. And that’s one of the things that I love about Albuquerque. It’s easy to live here and do things.” Tappan is passionate about Albuquerque’s charm and potential, but hers is not a wideeyed love affair. It’s more of a long, strong
marriage — one that recognizes faults, resists ruts and still finds sweet surprises. “I think this place is truly special, but because the special things aren’t the things that are just there for everyone to see, to experience that, you have to do some work,” she says. “It requires some time and effort. You kind of have to meet it halfway.” Tappan moved to Albuquerque from Columbia, Md., when she was 15 and a sophomore in high school. Her mother, Helen Kerschner, came to Albuquerque for a job at UNM and when it was time for Tappan to go to college, the free tuition benefit for university employees made UNM a simple choice. Despite her community reputation today as Albuquerque’s biggest cheerleader, Tappan wasn’t sold on Albuquerque or UNM until two events in her sophomore year. “There was a class that I took my sophomore year that sold me on New Mexico,” she says. “Sacred Sites of Northern New Mexico,” an Honors seminar taught by Professor Ned O’Malia, took students on a tour of places like Ghost Ranch, a Buddhist temple in Santa Fe and the Dar al Islam mosque. “That was kind of it for me,” Tappan says, “and I’ve been here ever since.” That same year, Tappan was looking for a campus community and asked a friend from high school, Dan McKay (’99 BA), about his work at the Daily Lobo. The Lobo gave her a story to do as a tryout and everything clicked. “There were parts of it that really appealed to me — the writing and the storytelling and being able to talk to people. But also it gave me my college community,” she says. “It’s the way I really understood my time at UNM. It continues to be a really positive experience for me. It chose my major and in many ways my career path.” Tappan majored in journalism and mass communication and when she graduated in 1999 she went to The Albuquerque Tribune as an intern. As much as she loved writing feature stories, she found she didn’t have the stomach for the critical side of journalism. “That is the most precious and valuable part of journalism,” Tappan says, “and I realized I should leave it to people who can do that.”
She spent the next year at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, a positive and also a humbling experience. “I learned a ton about myself and how you have to pay your dues and start somewhere and wash cars,” Tappan says. She then landed at Albuquerque ad agency Rick Johnson & Co., where she stayed for eight years, learning the business from Rick (’65 BA) and Debbie Johnson (’73 BAED) — ad pros and pillars of the community. “Lucky is not enough of a word for it,” Tappan says. “I was the beneficiary of a lot of time and work with Rick and Debbie and I got this amazing education from them. They were focused on giving back, spending time, energy and money on the community. That’s really translated to me today.” Wanting to see the marketing business from the client side, Tappan moved to Central New Mexico Community College, where she was director of marketing and then special assistant to President Katharine Winograd (’07 EDD). While at CNM, Tappan went back to UNM for a master’s degree in organization, information and learning science, and she joined the Alumni Association board. She started her own marketing and communications agency, AKT Communications, in 2016 with a company policy of working only for clients that benefit Albuquerque or New Mexico. And with friends Annemarie Ciepiela Henton and Emily Howard, she launched a positivity campaign called “Stop Bagging, Start Bragging.” The idea is not to whitewash problems or challenges, but to tweak the tone of the conversation about Albuquerque away from the negatives toward the positives. “Language matters,” Tappan says. “I choose to not ignore what we’re facing, but know that I also in my life have the opportunity to choose how I talk about it. And it’s a place full of potential where now my family and I can live and can thrive.” Tappan is humbled by the Alumni Association president’s role, citing luminaries in the community who have served before her.
“I truly believe that this is me taking the reins of something precious,” she says. In her year as president, she says, “There are a few things that are really important to me. The first is to support the University in its goals, especially around student recruitment. UNM is facing declining student enrollment and I think alumni have a huge role in telling the story of why UNM was a great choice for them. “I certainly can’t tell a student right now why UNM would be a good choice for them from a student experience perspective. I’m pretty far away from that. But I do think there’s a place to say, ‘I’m 20 some years out of this and UNM was still the best decision I could have made for my career and my life and my family.’” Her other goal is to help UNM remind Albuquerque of how it benefits from UNM. “Not just employment,” Tappan says, “Popejoy, the pool, the hospital and the endless and enormous benefits of having a research university smack dab in the middle of Albuquerque.” Tappan also wants to bring some cheerleading sunshine to the role. “I think it is easy to get consumed in the challenges,” she says. “You can’t ignore them. It all has to be dealt with. But we have to keep reminding ourselves what a wonderful place this is and how we have been beneficiaries of this amazing affordable education at this amazing place that has informed the rest of our lives. And who better than alumni to tell that story?” ❂ • Tappan has a thing for space and science fiction, which inspired the names of the family’s pets — dog Astro and cats Mewtrino and Heliopaws. Also in the menagerie are backyard chickens. • Tappan, husband Alex, an explosives chemist at Sandia National Laboratories, and son Paul practice karate together in a traditional Japanese dojo. • She always wanted to be a grocery checker and is delighted by the trend of self-checkouts. “As you might suspect I can now selfactualize on that childhood desire.”
Seth L. Sparks (’89 BA, ’94 JD), Albuquerque, was listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2019.
1990s Bryan Paul Biedscheid (’90 BA, ’96 JD), Santa Fe, N.M., is a judge in New Mexico’s Sixth Judicial District Court. Maria O’Brien (’91 JD), Albuquerque, was recognized by Chambers USA in its 2019 legal rankings for New Mexico in the Environment, Natural Resources & Regulated Industries Water Law practice area. She was also named a 2019 Southwest Super Lawyer. Deana M. Bennett (’92 BA, ’94 MA, ’07 JD), Albuquerque, was recognized by Chambers USA in its 2019 legal rankings for New Mexico in the Native American Law practice area. Elaine Lynette Clanon (’92 BSN, ’05 MSN), Corrales, N.M., is a provider at Presbyterian Medical Group. Steven Charles Garcia (’92 BUS), Albuquerque, is business development director in New Mexico for Brycon. Katherine E. McKinney (’92 BBA), Albuquerque, was recognized by Chambers USA in its 2019 legal rankings for New Mexico in the Corporate/Commercial practice area. Gregory P. Casaus (’93 ASPE), Rio Rancho, Katherine E. McKinney N.M., is on the Association for Talent Development of New Mexico’s board of directors. Jeffrey M. Croasdell (’93 JD), Albuquerque, was selected as a Southwest Super Lawyer. Jonathan E. Lackner (’93 MD), Albuquerque, is a urology provider at Presbyterian Hospital. Christopher David Van Dyck (’93 BAA, ’96 MARCH), Albuquerque, is a registered architect at Greer Stafford/SJCF Architecture. Brenda M. Saiz (’93 BA, ’03 JD), Albuquerque, was listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2019 and selected as a Southwest Super Lawyer. Kathleen Ash-Milby (’94 MA) is the new a curator of the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. Previously, she was an associate curator at the National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian Institution) in New York City.
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UNM PEOPLE CHANGING WORLDS
A Legacy of Love Father, Daughter Contribute to UNM School of Medicine’s Endowed Professorship in OB/GYN By Miranda Fafard
Dr. Myriam Curet and her father, Dr. Ben Curet, enjoy an outing at a San Franciso Giants game.
F
athers leave lifelong imprints on their children in many ways. Imagine following in your father’s professional footsteps and one day being able to honor the imprint he not only left on you, but also on the medical profession. That is precisely what Dr. Myriam Curet has done with a
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gift in her father’s honor to The University of New Mexico’s Dr. Ben Curet Endowed Professorship in OB/GYN. In August 2018, Ben, professor emeritus in UNM School of Medicine’s Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, was recognized for his outstanding
contributions to the school and to celebrate the newly created endowed professorship, which was funded by gifts from his colleagues, students and family. “The main purpose of this professorship is to provide funds for an individual who merits it, to conduct research in the area of maternal-
fetal medicine,” he explained. “I am very excited and happy for the department.” More than 30 years ago, Ben helped build the OB/GYN department at UNM. In addition, Ben also developed research programs for, and treated expectant mothers dealing with, substance abuse, pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes in New Mexico. He also spent 20 years traveling with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to Central and South America to improve education for medical residents and fellows, and to care for underserved patient populations. Ben is also a devoted father, having inspired his daughter, Myriam, to become an accomplished surgeon and clinical professor. She reflects fondly on her childhood, during which, after church on Sundays, the family would go to the hospital and wait for her father while he worked. As she began studying medicine, Myriam worked on research projects with her father and they even published papers together. “He was my role model for a successful academic career,” she said. “I think very few people have the opportunity to also have a professional relationship with their parents, so it was incredibly meaningful.” After receiving her M.D. from Harvard University and completing both her internship and residency at University of Chicago Hospitals, Myriam completed a fellowship at the UNM School of Medicine and was on its faculty for six years. After leaving UNM, she became a professor in the Department of Surgery at Stanford University. She now serves as the executive vice president and chief medical officer of Intuitive, a California-based company that creates innovative, roboticassisted systems to help make surgery less invasive. Despite leaving UNM, she has kept in touch with colleagues here and shows her appreciation by regularly
making gifts to the school, most recently in her father’s name. “After arriving in New Mexico, my father used his ability to look at what was needed and then go about improving the care of patients,” said Myriam. “It’s not just taking care of [patients’] routine needs; it’s having an innovative vision and accomplishing it. He’s made a huge difference in the lives of many. It’s just so inspiring to me.” In turn, Ben is inspired by Myriam. “As a parent, the greatest reward you can have is to have your offspring follow your footsteps and be better than you,” he said. The Dr. Ben Curet Endowed Professorship in OB/GYN is a permanent research position that will continue to enrich the academic environment at the School of Medicine and push the frontiers of research. It is the highest academic award, and tribute, that a university can bestow on a faculty member, as well as an honor to the named holder of the position. “I’ve been in academic medicine all my life,” Ben said. “Teaching and research are very important. It feels great knowing that what I’ve done for the department and for my colleagues merited creating this professorship.” Both Ben and Myriam have the same hope for the future of the professorship— that others are inspired by the work done at UNM so that patients’ lives are improved every day, and that the holder of the professorship uses this opportunity to make a difference at another level. “My father is my idea of what a hero really is, and what I hope all of us would aspire to be,” said Myriam. “To have that appreciation in the form of this professorship is touching.” ❂
Jennifer A. Noya (’94 JD), Albuquerque was named by Super Lawyers as a 2019 Southwest Super Lawyer.
If you’d like to contribute to the Dr. Ben Curet Endowed Professorship in OB/GYN, please contact Megan Dugan at Megan. Dugan@unmfund.org or (505) 328-6529.
Jackie J. White (’97 BA), Corrales, N.M., is cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
Daisy Thompson (’94 EDSPC, ’14 PhD), Albuquerque, is the director of Indian Education for Albuquerque Public Schools and creator of the APS Indian Education Plan. Lisa Chavez Ortega (’94 BA, ’97 JD), Albuquerque, was listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2019. Michael J. Brescia (’95 BA, ’99 JD), Albuquerque, was listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2019. Steven Mark Osborn (’95 BAA, ’99 MARCH), Albuquerque, is an associate at Studio Southwest Architects. Diane M. Vallejos (’95 MA), Los Lunas, N.M., is superintendent of Belen Consolidated Schools. Rebecca Kay Rowley (’96 PhD), Clovis, N.M., is president of Santa Fe Community College. F. Kiko Torres (’96 MD), Corrales, N.M., is chief medical officer for True Health New Mexico. Jocelyn C. Drennan (JD ’97), Albuquerque, was selected as a Southwest Super Lawyer. Debra Eileen Garcia y Griego (’97 BAFA), Santa Fe, N.M., is cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. Benjamin Harrison Gardner (’97 BAA, ’01 MARCH), Albuquerque, is CEO of Dekker/Perich/Sabatini. Melissa A Gonzales (’97 BBA), Albuquerque, is Senior Depository Officer of the New Mexico Commercial Banking Division of Washington Federal. Joshua Rutledge Granata (’97 BA, ’11 JD), Santa Fe, N.M., is general counsel for Santa Fe Public Schools. Craig Joseph Johnson (’97 BA, ’00 MBA), Santa Fe, N.M., is assistant commissioner for commercial resources for the New Mexico State Land Office. John Manuel Lopez (’97 BSND), Albuquerque, is president of the 2019 Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors.
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I
Nourishing Success By Leslie Linthicum
t’s been part of the college experience for as long as there have been dorms and off-campus apartments: You’re hungry after a long day of classes, you find both your wallet and your fridge empty and you skip a meal. “Students have always struggled with this,” says UNM’s Dean of Students Nasha Torrez. “I think you could talk to most alumni and they could remember times when they were hungry and they were low on cash.”
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With tuition and the cost of groceries and toiletries rising, it’s even more common for students to need a hand with filling the grocery basket. Since 2014, UNM has partnered with the Roadrunner Food Bank of New Mexico to offer a monthly mobile food bank, giving away produce and other fresh foods and nonperishable food in the UNM South Parking Lot on the southwest corner of Avenida Cesar Chavez and Buena Vista SE.
This semester, students have another choice as the Campus Lobo Food Pantry opens in the basement of the University Advisement and Enrichment Center on campus. The new pantry, open twice a week to students who show a UNM ID, operates just like a grocery store. Students grab a basket and shop the aisles, choosing from shelves of canned goods, pastas, cereals, snacks and toiletries and household goods like laundry detergent and diapers. The
Olivia Elizabeth Padilla-Jackson (’98 BBA), Albuquerque, is cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration. William George Wagner (’98 MA, ’09 PhD), Albuquerque, is founder and executive director of Centro Sávila. Judd West (’98 JD), Dallas, Texas, is of counsel at Holland & Hart LLP.
difference is, there’s no checkout line and everything is free. Like the mobile pantry, everything offered by the campus Lobo Food Pantry is donated or purchased with cash donations. Supporting the pantry is the Alumni Association’s 2019 Homecoming community project — and numerous ways for alumni to help are listed in the box below. Lisa Lindquist, director of LoboRESPECT Advocacy Center in the Dean of Students office, says the Dean’s Office began to hear from students having trouble affording food several years ago
and started to look for ways to tackle food insecurity. With both the mobile and on-campus pantries, Lindquist says, UNM wants to help students feel comfortable seeking help. And, Dean Torrez adds, the pantries are open to all students regardless of income. “What we want is for students to succeed,” Torrez says. “If a student can work a few hours less at their job and spend that time studying because they were able to use the pantry, perfect. If a student can reduce some of their worry, perfect. When students’ needs are met, they can succeed better.”❂
WAYS TO GIVE Make a cash donation Go to UNMFund.org/fund/lobo-food-pantry Drop off food, toiletries and household goods at the Hodgin Hall Alumni Center. Parking and drop-off are easy! Just pull into the parking on the West Side of the building, ring the bell and come in the back door for quick drop off. Monday through Friday 8 to 5 Sophie Shemas, program coordinator at the advocacy center, suggests food items that can be made quickly and easily in a dorm room or an off-campus apartment. Currents needs include: Pasta/rice Cereal/oatmeal Quick microwaveable or boxed meals Canned fruit/beans/vegetables (except green beans and corn) Snacks (granola bars, popcorn, etc.) Baby items (diapers, formula, etc.) Mini laundry detergent bottles Bath items (shampoo/conditioner, bar soap) High protein foods like protein bars, nuts, canned beans, tuna, chicken and peanut butter
Mariana Dolores Padilla (’99 BSED, ’10 MWR, ’10 MCRP), Albuquerque, is director of the New Mexico Children’s Cabinet. Felicia Rivera (’99 BA, ’05 JD), Albuquerque, is a Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court judge. Jeremy Stalla (’99 BA), Dulles, Va., received an award for investigative work on passport, bank fraud case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont. Elisabeth Valenzuela (’99 BSED, ’01 MA, ’09 PhD), Albuquerque, is coordinator for the Regional School Partnership.
2000s Zachary Arthur Ives (’00 JD), Albuquerque, is a judge on the New Mexico Court of Appeals. Hongyou Fan (’00 PhD), Albuquerque, received the MidCareer Researcher Award from the Materials Research Society. Taryn Elizabeth Goff (’00 BA), Albuquerque, is a provider at Presbyterian Medical Group. Luis G. Carrasco (’01 BA), Los Lunas, N.M., a director at Rodey Law Firm, is included in Albuquerque Business First’s 40 Under Forty List of New Mexico’s most dynamic, successful and community-minded young business leaders for 2019 and he has been included in its list of the Top 100 Influencers in Law.
Luis Carrasco
Denise M. Chanez (’01 BA, ’06 JD), Albuquerque, was named a Top 100 Influencer in Law by Business First. She was Denise Chanez also listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2019 and honored by the Mexican American Law Student Association.
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Shelf Life
Books by UNM Alumni
Quill and Cross in the Borderlands: Sor María de Ágreda and
Technology played a significant role in World War II, and in the
the Lady in Blue, 1628 to the Present (University of Notre Dame
years that followed automation and computer and communication
Press, 2018) by Anna M. Nogar (’00 BS) is an exhaustive study of the
technologies expanded at a rapid rate. In Techno-Modern Poetics
17th century Spanish nun who miraculously appeared to tribes in
(University of Iowa Press 2018), Todd F. Tietchen (’99 MA) examines
colonial-era New Mexico and taught them the Catholic faith — while
how technology influenced the work of avant-garde 20th century
never crossing the ocean. Nogar is an associate professor of Hispanic
American writers. Tietchen, who teaches English at the University of
Southwest studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at
Massachusetts, Lowell, looks at Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Frank
UNM. While the Lady in Blue’s apparition has been written off as
O’Hara and other members of the Beat Generation at the dawn of the
fantastical, Nogar focuses on the nun’s spiritual writings, which have
Information Age and finds in their work a spirit of excitement and a
been overshadowed by her folklore narrative.
push to democratize the information economy.
Traditional pueblo pottery, with its dynamic geometric painted designs,
In her introduction to Your Birth Plan (Rowman & Littlefield 2019),
is instantly recognizable and much loved and collected. In Painted
doula Megan Davidson (’99 BA) dispenses with what her book isn’t.
Reflections: Isomeric Design in Ancestral Pueblo Pottery (Museum
It’s not an endorsement of any particular childbirth method, and she’s
of New Mexico Press, 2018), Joseph Traugott (’94 PhD) and Scott
not going to tell women what to eat or think or want during pregnancy.
G. Ortman explore what they perceive as the key to pueblo pottery’s
Instead, she says, “I want you to have a good experience of childbirth.”
appeal — “spatial illusions and optical reversals that spring from the
That includes considering where and how to give birth, who should be
surfaces of these vessels and into the minds of viewers.” They call this
with you and what you want “free from judgment.” So Davidson navigates
“isomeric design” after “left-handed” and “right-handed” chemical
through choosing where to have a baby, working with doctors, midwives,
bonds with mirror-image structures. In isomeric designs, background
doulas and other birth team members, birth plans and labor strategies
becomes foreground and straight lines appear zigzagged. This is a
and having a vaginal birth or a caesarean birth. Davidson wants families
large-format book with large photographs of 50 pieces of pottery, each
to make informed choices and their own choices about how to welcome a
with a description of the visual tricks played by its painter. Ortman is
child into the world. She calls it “birthing unapologetically.”
an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder and Traugott, a former curator at the New Mexico Museum of Art, is an independent art historian, curator and author.
“There’s always something going on out here in Indian Country, always a subtext,” says Sage Johnson, the blonde FBI agent working out of Farmington, N.M. Well, yes there is, and Anne Hillerman (’72 BA)
Robert Franklin Gish (’72 PhD) invites readers to approach his
juggles plots, twists, family connections, historical context, seemingly
dozen new short stories set in Albuquerque when 78s spun in the
unrelated events and intrigue masterfully in her fifth installment of the
jukebox and kids did yo-yo tricks as either love songs or laments.
Navajo mystery series she took over after the death of her father, Tony
Rory John Strayhope is the character who ties together the “soul stories”
Hillerman. The Tale Teller (Harper 2019) features married Navajo cops
in Twilight Troubador (Sunstone Press 2019). Rory moves
Jim Chee and Bernadette Manuelito along with retired Lt. Joe Leaphorn,
from roaming along ditches and alfalfa fields and playing with
who is taking a case as a private investigator while still recovering his
classmates at Five Points Elementary School to fighting with
speech due to a brain injury. Parallel plots involve a young woman
pachucos and stompers at Albuquerque High. Layers of ethnicity
trying to put her past behind her, burglaries of old Indian jewelry and a
and social class and grownup brushes with abortion and an accidental
missing dress made and worn by the wife of Manuelito during the Long
shooting death carry this coming of age series.
Walk. As always there are tender descriptions of reservation scenery and hints of witchcraft.
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MIRAGE MAGAZINE
Peter Abraham Headley (’01 BS), Rio Rancho, N.M., is a urology provider at Presbyterian Hospital. James David Lackey (’01 BSME), Hobbs, N.M., is manager of Community and Economic Development at Xcel Energy.
“Tribal sovereignty is a complicated idea, with different meanings depending on whether the federal government or the tribes are defining it.” So write Malcolm Ebright and Rick Hendricks (’85 PhD) in their case study, Pueblo Sovereignty: Indian Land and Water in New Mexico and Texas (University of Oklahoma Press 2019). Ebright, the director of the Center for Land Grant Studies, and Hendricks, New Mexico State Historian, previously combined on Four Square Leagues: Pueblo Indian Land in New Mexico. Here they dig into the histories of four pueblos — Pojoaque, Nambé, Tesuque and Isleta in New Mexico and Ysleta del Sur in Texas — to examine how these communities, over centuries of attack, have protected and withstood their sovereignty and protected lands and water rights. Brandale Mills (’07 BA), a faculty member at Central New Mexico Community College’s Communications Department, trains her scholarly eye on the stereotypical portrayals of blacks’ romantic relationships in film — as sexual, angry and unloving. What, she asks, is the influence of black female film directors on that narrative? In Black Women Filmmakers and Black Love on Screen (Routledge 2019), Mills examines the most common stereotypes (black women as emasculating matriarchs or sexually aggressive and black men as cheaters) and finds that having black women behind the camera results in more diverse images of black women but does not radically change the image of romantic love. Thanks in large part to Francisco Franco, who criminalized its use when he took over Spain in 1939, the Catalan language was in deep decline until its reintroduction as the official language of Catalonia in the 1980s. Kathleen McNerney (’69 MA), professor emerita of Spanish at West Virginia University, has put her Catalan expertise to use in Silent Sounds and Other Stories (The Modern Language Association of America 2018), a translation of the works of Caterina Albert i Paradis, who lived from 1869 to 1966, and was a groundbreaking chronicler of Catalan political and social change. Writing most often under the pen name of a man, Victor Catala, Albert was able to free herself to explore darker elements. McNerney translates one of Albert’s early plays and 10 short stories. Viola Burnette (’82 BSED, ’85 JD) was born and raised on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota during the 20th century — a time when parents were adjusting to reservation life and children were forced to attend boarding school and punished for speaking their Lakota language. Confessions of an Iyeska (The University of Utah Press 2018) chronicles Burnette’s personal journey as an “Iyeska” or mixed-race Indian. An engaging writer, Burnette welcomes readers into her life and offers an inspiring narrative that helps non-native readers better understand the effects of government policies on families. After graduating from UNM’s School of Law, Burnette provided tribal legal services and became the first attorney general for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.
Arsenio Romero (’01 MA), Deming, N.M., is the National ALAS Superintendent of the Year. Lynn Ann Trujillo (’01 JD), Bernalillo, N.M., is secretary for the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department. Garry Wicka (’01 BBA, ’03 MBA), Arlington Heights, Ill., is vice president of marketing for LG Business Solutions. Cristin M. Heyns-Bousliman (’02 BBA), Albuquerque, launched Human Resources Experience. Jenica L. Jacobi (’02 BS), Albuquerque, is on the board of directors at Rodey Law Firm. Lauren Elizabeth Tobey (’02 BA), Albuquerque, is the owner of Meltdown Studio.
Jenica L. Jacobi
Monica F. Torres (’02 PhD), Las Cruces, N.M., is president of Doña Ana Community College.
Andrés Calderón (’03 MBA) completed his second two-year consular assignment in the Foreign Service at the U.S. Embassy in Accra, Ghana. He is now at the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria, on a three-year assignment as the immigrant visa chief. Jesse Alan Herron (’03 BBA, ’05 MBA), Albuquerque, is co-owner of ABQ in a Box. Noreen L. Richards (’03 BFA, ’06 MARCH), Albuquerque, is a principal at Verdacity, LLC. Shakib Seyed Banihashemi (’04 BBA), Albuquerque, is the residential estimator at Santa Fe Stucco & Roofing. Jessica L. Bundy (’04 BBA), Albuquerque, is a principal at REDW LLC. Jonathan James Clark (’04 BBA, ’06 MBA), Albuquerque, is deputy secretary of the New Mexico Economic Development Department.
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SHOW YOUR PRIDE ON YOUR PLATE!
New Mexico motorists, get your Lobo license plate today! $25 from each plate is donated to the University.
INFO: www.unmalumni.com/license-plate
The University of New Mexico
Alumni Memorial Chapel A P L AC E TO C E L E B R AT E
ARE YOU A
LO BO? MAKE YOUR WEDDING HISTORIC
BEAUTIFUL NEW MEXICO LANDMARK NONDENOMINATIONAL LOCATED ON MAIN CAMPUS
505-277-5808 Visit www.unmalumni.com/chapel to take a virtual tour and book online
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MIRAGE MAGAZINE
Shirley Ann Heying (’04 MA, ’12 PhD), Albuquerque, received the Online Teacher of the Year by the UNM Center for Teaching Excellence. Erik Johnathan Mease (’04 BAA), Albuquerque, is a principal at SMPC Architects. Margaret Morris (’99 PhD), a former senior research scientist at Intel and now a researcher at Amazon, is also a clinical psychologist, and so she brings to the discussion of runaway technology a balance and understanding that is welcome in a world where battle lines seem drawn between those who fear technology is ruining society and those who think technology is the answer to any problem. In Left to Our Own Devices (The MIT Press 2018), Morris tells a series of stories of real people’s experiences with various technologies — a smart scale, a mood tracker, even Tinder. Her message is that once users hack (get creative with) technology, they can actually strengthen social connections and well-being. The subject of He Did Not Fear (Gorgias Press 2018) is Xusro Parviz, or Xusro II, who author Keenan Baca-Winters (’08 BA) helpfully describes to neophytes of antique history as “King of the kings of the Sasanian Empire.” An entry in the Gorgias Studies series on the GrecoRoman world, this is a footnoted biography of a man who Baca-Winters notes, “nearly brought Constantinople to its knees” and conquered the Roman Empire. Baca-Winters was introduced to Xusro II in the late Thomas Sizgorich’s “Byzantium and Islam” class at UNM. He attempted to paint a more complete picture of a powerful ruler in the late antique period. While he was pursuing his PhD in health education from UNM, Clyde P. Sanchez (’87 PhD) focused his dissertation on the relationship between the physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions of wellness. A family nurse practitioner, he has written Lessons From the Body: From Physical Illness to Spiritual Wellness (WestBow Press 2018) with his wife, Jo Sanchez, a nurse midwife and school nurse. “In this book,” they write, “we will be looking at the physical body and considering ways it is like the spiritual body.” With chapters that focus on some of the most common illnesses and apply treatment or prevention strategies to Christian faith, the couple concludes that paying attention to the body can help people understand how to grow spiritually. You might not guess that a biography of a horse would run more than 300 pages — and that it would be an interesting read. But Leo Pando (’70 BAFA) has pulled it off in Trigger: The Lives and Legend of Roy Rogers’ Palomino (McFarland 2019), a second edition of his 2007 book, An Illustrated History of Trigger. Why write a book about a palomino stallion that’s been dead and stuffed for more than a half-century, Pando asks? “Trigger was a horse I fell in love with as a little boy,” is his answer. It’s probably not a spoiler to reveal that singing cowboy Roy Rogers rode many “Triggers” during his TV and film career. But it might surprise readers to learn that Trigger received hundreds of fan letters a month. ATTENTION PUBLISHED ALUMNI AUTHORS: We would like to add your book to the alumni library in Hodgin Hall and consider it for a review in Shelf Life. Please send an autographed copy to: Shelf Life, UNM Alumni Relations 1 UNM, MSC01-1160, Albuquerque, NM 87131
Valerie Nicole Peyton (’04 BBA, ’06 MBA), Albuquerque, is financial operations manager in the Controller Operations Group at Sandia National Laboratories. Randall Thornton Trask (’04 BBA, ’05 MBA), Albuquerque, is on the Nusenda Credit Union Board of Directors. Steven Jerome Alano (’05 BAA, ’12 MARCH), Santa Fe, N.M., is president of Greer Stafford/SJCF Architecture. Jeremy K. Harrison (’05 BA, ’08 JD), Albuquerque, was named a “Southwest Rising Star” by Southwest Super Lawyers. Mai Ngoc Luu (’05 BS, ’12 MD), Suisun City, Calif., is a primary care provider at Presbyterian Medical Group.
Jeremy Harrison
Melanie Elizabeth Moses (’05 PhD), Albuquerque, is a 2019 Women in Technology honoree. Jennifer R. Penner (’05 BAA, ’13 MARCH), Albuquerque, is an associate at Studio Southwest Architects. JT Willie (’05 AAPBA, ’06 AASGS, ’08 BBA ’14 MPA), Gallup, N.M., is executive director of the Navajo Nation Division of Economic Development. Daniel M. Alsup (’06 BA, ’09 JD), Albuquerque, is on Modrall Sperling’s executive committee. He was named a “Southwest Rising Star” by Southwest Super Lawyers® and was recognized by Chambers USA in its 2019 legal rankings for New Mexico in the Corporate/Commercial practice area. Stefanie F. Vigil-Cordova (’06 BSED), Pittsburgh, Pa., is director of community health at True Health New Mexico.
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“Life’s persistent and most urgent question is “What are you doing for others?”” – Martin Luther King Jr.
At The University of New Mexico, each of us defines all of us. This is seen by the diversity of our students, faculty and staff who come to UNM with hopes, expectations, and goals just as diverse as the individuals they represent. It is also seen by the generosity of donors, like you. Your generosity helps UNM provide top tier education, research and programs that support our students, faculty, and staff who are making a difference and achieving their dreams. At UNM, every gift can make a difference, and every gift can change a world.
Whose World Will You Change? Visit unmfund.org to make a gift today. @UNMFund
UNMFoundation
@UNMFund
505-313-7600
Jaren P. Gravagne (’06 BSN), Cedar Crest, N.M., is a urology provider for the Presbyterian Hospital. Jason M. Jaramillo (’06 JD), Albuquerque, is senior assistant county attorney for Bernalillo County. Jonathan D. Lewis (’06 BA), Albuquerque, is president at McKee Wallwork. Heroism in battle and during confinement in prison and concentration camps are common in historical records of World War II. Less common are the tales of bravery of the European men and women who helped Allied soldiers and airmen trapped behind enemy lines escape occupied territory. So Close to Freedom: A World War II Story of Peril and Betrayal in the Pyrenees (Potomac Books 2019) by Jean-Luc E. Cartron (’95 PhD) tells in gripping detail the story of Jean-Louise Bazerque, known as Charbonnier, who operated in Toulouse in southwestern France. Charbonnier led many successful missions guiding servicemen across the Pyrenees. But Carton chooses the more complicated tale of the one unsuccessful mission when German troopers captured the band of passeurs and their Allied airmen fugitives. Carton teaches in UNM’s Biology Department, but he has a direct connection to the subject matter. His grandfather was a member of the French Resistance. The word “wind” can conjure up a gentle breeze or the relentless buzz saw of moving air on New Mexico’s prairies, which can turn a good man bad and a sane man mad. Prairie Madness: Conspiracy at Fort Union (Random Horse Press 2018), the first novel by Edwina Romero (’99 PhD) features the latter definition in a murder mystery set in the New Mexico Territory. When Infantry Sgt. Sean Flannery is found dead, his betrothed, Mary Margaret Keenan, the Army company’s laundress, takes hold of the mystery. The bodies pile up and the wind blows as Mary Margaret’s trail of clues leads her through military ranks and into danger. Action Research for English Language Arts Teachers, Invitation to Inquiry (Routledge 2019) is a text for teachers using classroom vignettes to help educators promote student growth in English language arts. Mary Buckelew (’99 PhD) is a professor of English at West Chester University and co-author Janice Ewing is an adjunct professor of graduate education at Cabrini University. This is a practical guide to help teachers adopt what the authors call “an inquiry stance” and transform classrooms into places of inquiry, reflection and connectedness. J. Michael Orenduff (’69 MA) is back with another in his series of “Pot Thief ” mysteries, which means Hubert Schuze is back with more quips and predicaments — and margaritas, extra salt. The Pot Thief Who Studied Edward Abbey (Open Road 2018) could just have well been titled, “The Pot Thief Who Works in UNM’s Art Department.” We find Hubie taking a job as an adjunct professor in the art department and joining a fractious, petty staff with at least three murder suspects. Hey, it’s fiction. And it’s fun to read about real-life haunts and even some real-life people. Orenduff name checks Hodgin Hall, Raymond Jonson, Lobo basketball and the university arborist, among others.
Carmen R. Samora (’06 MA, ’11 PhD), Albuquerque, is a board officer on the Hispanic Women’s Council. Terry H. Babbitt (’07 EDD), Albuquerque, is chief of staff to UNM President Garnett S. Stokes. Sanjar A. Hekmati (’07 BS, ’13 MA), Albuquerque, is Teacher of the Year for Belen Consolidated Schools. Shammara H. Henderson (’07 JD), Albuquerque, is an attorney with Freedman, Boyd, Hollander, Goldberg, Urias, & Ward PA. Corinn Melissa Sadler (’07 MD), Albuquerque, is a provider at Presbyterian Medical Group. Katharine W. Winograd (’07 EDD), Albuquerque, retired as president of Central New Mexico Community College. Joshua A. Allison (’08 JD), Albuquerque, is a judge in New Mexico’s Second Judicial District Court. Matthew Beck (’08 BA, ’12 JD), Albuquerque, chairs a new practice area, Investigations and Criminal Defense Practice, at Rodey Law Firm. He also received the United States Attorney’s Award for Extraordinary Professional Achievement.
Matt Beck
David J. Fitzgerald (’08 BS, ’15 MD), Albuquerque, is a provider at Presbyterian Medical Group. Michael J. Graczyk (’08 BA, ’18 MS), Albuquerque, is assistant coach and director of goalkeepers for New Mexico United. Max A. Jones (’08 BA, ’13 JD), Albuquerque, is shareholder/director at Miller Stratvert, P.A. Anna E. Knackstedt (’08 BA), Albuquerque, is a urology provider for the Presbyterian Hospital.
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Alumni Events Calendar SEPTEMBER
19
21-26 ATIVE AMERICAN ALUMNI N CHAPTER MEETING
Hodgin Hall Alumni Center, UNM, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
HOMECOMING WEEK he Homecoming calendar is chock full of reunions, T tours, games, tailgates and other events. Check them out on pages 24 - 25 and to get the most up-to-date schedules, locations and other details — as well as registration links — visit UNMAlumni.com/homecoming.
19
LOBO LIVING ROOM
New Mexico Courts: The Bar, Bench & Backroom,” “ UNM Law School, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
NOVEMBER
21
NORCAL CHILE ROAST AND PICNIC
hase Park at Moffett Field, Mountain View, Calif., C 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
27
SAN DIEGO CHAPTER HAPPY HOUR
Embassy Suites Hotel, 5:30 p.m.
On the Border, Mission Valley, Calif., 5:30 p.m.
UNM VETERANS DAY CELEBRATION
28
OLLEGE OF PHARMACY/NM SOCIETY OF C HEALTH-SYSTEM PHARMACISTS
11
Isotopes Stadium, NM United vs. Phoenix Rising, 5:00 p.m., tailgate, 7:30 p.m. kickoff
OCTOBER
1
and Education” by Roberta Lavin, PhD, FNP-BC, FAAN, UNM Hospital Room 2ACC, 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
4
5
16
COLLEGE OF NURSING LECTURE Public Health Preparedness: Research, Practice and “ Education” by Roberta Lavin, PhD, FNP-BC, FAAN, HSC Domenici Auditorium Lobby. 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
16
18
7
15
15
16
DECEMBER
ATLANTA CHAPTER CHILE ROAST COLLEGE OF NURSING
4
Hodgin Hall Alumni Center, UNM, 5:00 to 8:30 p.m.
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AWARDS BANQUET
niversity of New Mexico Alumni Memorial Chapel, U 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
PHOENIX CHAPTER HAPPY HOUR Il Bosco Pizza, Scottsdale, Ariz. 5:30 p.m.
SAN DIEGO CHAPTER HAPPY HOUR Second Chance Brewery, Rancho Bernardo, Calif. 5:30 p.m.
LAS VEGAS CHAPTER BREWERY MEET-UP Trustworthy Brewery, Las Vegas, 3 p.m.
MEETING
L obos at San Jose State University football game social, San Jose, Calif., 7 p.m.
Outside Square Pub, Decatur, Ga., 5 p.m.
GRAD PHOTOS AT THE U
21 NATIVE AMERICAN ALUMNI CHAPTER
NORCAL CHAPTER
2019 Alumni & Clinical Educator Awards Reception,
COLLEGE OF NURSING LECTURE
“Hospital Preparedness for Nurses: Research, Practice
3
6
8
at Hodgin Hall Alumni Center, UNM, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
GRAD PHOTOS AT THE U Hodgin Hall Alumni Center, 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
COLLEGE OF PHARMACY ALUMNI RECEPTION merican Society Of Health System Pharmacists Midyear A Meeting, Las Vegas, Nev., 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Albuquerque Museum, 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
12
YOUNG ALUMNI GRAD BASH
OLLEGE OF ENGINEERING ALUMNI C AT NEW MEXICO UNITED
Hodgin Hall Alumni Center, UNM, 5:30 p.m.
13
UNM FALL COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY
Isotopes Stadium, 7:30 p.m.
Dreamstyle Arena, Albuquerque, 6:00 p.m.
UNM SCHOOL OF LAW
Distinguished Achievement Award Dinner, UNM SUB, 6 p.m.
14
USTIN ALUMNI HOWLIDAY CELEBRATION A AND WHITE ELEPHANT GIFT EXCHANGE ome of Barbara McCollum, Austin, Texas, 5:00 p.m. H to 10:00 p.m.
Go to UNMAlumni.com for updated information on alumni activities and events. Events, dates and times are subject to change. You can also contact the Alumni Relations Office at 505-277-5808 or 800-258-6866 for additional information.
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MIRAGE MAGAZINE
From Dana’s Desk
H
ow the time has flown! It is hard to believe that we are once again gearing up for Homecoming at UNM and challenging all Lobos to Paint the Town Cherry! Our home here in Albuquerque is a special one and truly allows us an opportunity to connect with the city around us to make our celebration one that involves alumni, students and the community at large. While you may not see us literally with paint cans and tarps, I know that during the week of Oct. 21-26, UNM pride will be on display all around us. I hope that you are able to join and reconnect with your alma Dana Allen mater and see all that is new while enjoying fond remembrances of the past. I also want to make a special request for those of you who aren’t able to join us here in the ABQ to take an opportunity to paint your particular area cherry as well. We have numerous chapters across the country that work hard to bring Lobo pride to you — wherever you are — and are always looking for new participants, volunteers and ideas on great ideas that will help reconnect and grow the Lobo Nation. On page 40 of this Mirage you can see a calendar of events that were available at time of publication. And, for the most up-to-date listing, you can always visit unmalumni.com and check out the current lineup. While you’re there, don’t forget to update your information so that we know where you are! Of course, this issue also carries a profile of our new Alumni Association President Alexis Tappan. You’ll learn more about her pride and passion for Albuquerque and her goals for the coming year. You can also read about the impact UNM makes around the state, addressing the issues important to communities large and small. And of course, the city and state has developed an instant connection to the New Mexico United Soccer Team — and the former Lobos who now wear United colors — painting the town in yellow and black to show their support. It’s another example of a bragging point to celebrate. I challenge all alumni after reading this issue to take a moment to share with someone a point of pride you feel about UNM. Better yet, send those in to us as well! We always welcome letters to the editor, great comments on our Facebook page, or even a few words in an email to alumni@unm.edu. Your stories truly paint the full picture of UNM year-round and not just at Homecoming. (But if we’re going to see you then, let us know that too!)
Linking All Lobos —
Dana Allen Vice President for Alumni Relations
Tiffany E. Dowell Lashmet (’09 JD), White Deer, Texas, was recognized by the American Bar Association for her podcast “Ag Law in the Field.” Matthew Nelson (’09 MA), Golden, Colo., received the 2017 Outstanding Resident of the Year Award in Family Medicine from the American Osteopathic Foundation. Brittany Maldonado Malott (’08 BA, ’12 JD), Albuquerque, is a Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court judge. Christina C. Sheehan (’09 JD), Albuquerque was named a “Southwest Rising Star” by Southwest Super Lawyers®. LisaMarie C. Turk (’09 BSN, ’11 MSN), Albuquerque, is governor representative of student members for the Western Institute of Nursing. Noell E. Sauer (’11 BA, ’18 JD), Albuquerque, is an attorney at Rodey Law Firm. Jordan Olivas (’12 BBA), Albuquerque, is CEO of Dev505.
2010s Kevin P. Archibeque (’10 BA, ’13 MACCT), Albuquerque, is assurance manager at Pulakos CPAs. Melissa A. Kennelly (’10 JD), Arroyo Hondo, N.M., is a judge in New Mexico’s Eighth Judicial District Court. Ryan C. Montaño (’10 BA), Tijeras, N.M., completed and released his latest album, “Truth Journey.” Angela M. Poss (’10 BA), Albuquerque, is assistant commissioner of communications for the New Mexico State Land Office. William H. Carver (’11 BA), Albuquerque, is vice president of marketing and technology at HB Construction. Elijah G. Esquivel (’11 BBA), Albuquerque, is assurance supervisor at Pulakos CPAs. Aaron Isaac Silverblatt-Buser (’11 BBA, ’16 MBA), Corrales, N.M., received the Rust Award for Excellence in Ethical Business Practice. Marchell R. Woodruff (’11 BS, ’14 MS), Albuquerque, is a provider at Presbyterian Medical Group. Christina Marie Hannah (’12 BA, ’18 MS), Albuquerque, is a physician assistant at Rio Rancho Family Health Center.
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Alumni Network Snapshots from Alumni events
The Honors College Alumni Chapter New Grad Happy Hour at Hollow Spirits Distillery.
Los Angeles chapter members, from left, Michael Curry ('09 BBA), Tracey Weisert, Brian Piatek ('82 BAFA, '86 MBA) and Patrick Conroy ('71 MATSP), show Lobo pride at the 2019 Cinco de Mayo celebration.
Class of 1969 Golden Grads at Spring 2019 Commencement.
From left, N.M. Rep. Derrick Lente (’03 BA, ’06 JD), President Garnett S. Stokes and N.M. Rep. G. Andres Romero (’10 BA, ’15 MA) at the 2019 Legislative Appreciation Reception.
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Coleman Travelstead (’69 BAED), left, hands the Higher Education Distinguished Service Award to N.M. Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (’96 JD, ’98 MBA ) at the 2019 Volunteer Reception.
Jim Fisher (’78 BA), left, and Daven Quelle (’95 BA), chair of the Daily Lobo & Student Publications Alumni Chapter, at the 2019 Daily Lobo Barbecue and Awards Ceremony.
In Memoriam We remember alumni who recently passed away.
1930 - 1939 Jane Alice (Hall) Fehr, ’36 Abraham Franck, ’39 ’40 1940 - 1949 Albert G. Simms, ’41 Betty-Mae (Meyer) Hartman, ’42 Ernest D. Mascarenas, ’42 Lois H. (Hagland) Jackson, ’43 Roy E. Burris, ’44 ’48 Orlando G. Ortiz, ’45 Joann C. (Breech) McClendon, ’47 ’71 Gordon C. Modrall, ’47 ’57 ’71 Helen W. (Watson) Rhett, ’47 Margaret (Valliant) Snow, ’47 Owen G. Bennett, ’48 ’54 Jeanne Hawley (Harris) Bruck, ’48 William F. Kalhorn, ’48 Thomas J. Maxwell, ’48 June Brewer Perovich, ’48 James H. Foley, ’49 ’79 1950 - 1959 Shepard Levine, ’50 James H. Mitchell, ’50 Albert E. Brion, ’51 John S. Catron, ’51 Donald D. Eklund, ’51 Martin Roeder, ’51 Mary Elizabeth (Scanlan) Slasor, ’51 Lee A. (Arnett) Young, ’51 Bernadine (Milton) Bowling, ’52 Phyllis Anne (Briggs) Colvin, ’52 Thomas A. Donnelly, ’52 Michael Martinez, ’52 Elliott Mozee, ’52 Warren Foster Reynolds, ’52 ’61 Walter J. Toothman, ’52 Annabelle (Richards) Wells, ’52 Noma F. (Misterek) Wolf, ’52 Albert John Barbieri, ’53 Farrell Baron Brumley, ’53 Greta Jean (Moody) Emanuel, ’53 Leonard M. Greenspan, ’53 William Reese Hattabaugh, ’53 ’71 Philip H. Landes, ’53 Joann K. (McNay) Painter, ’53 Richard Roy Renner, ’53 Dorothy (Peters) Bolton, ’54
Shirley A. (Burton) Einarsson, ’54 Fred H. Jordan, ’54 Roberta S. (Swire) Zucker, ’54 Doug G. Arundale, ’55 Frank L. Barking, ’55 Richard F. Chandler, ’55 William R. Cutter, ’55 Joaquin A. DeVargas, ’55 John L. Humphrey, ’55 Richard L. Koogle, ’55 Lois J. (Purinton) Stephens, ’55 John G. Ward, ’55 Thomas T. Dickerson, ’56 Myra Teresa (Cummins) Moulds, ’56 Richard A. Novaria, ’56 Pete F. Schram, ’56 Priscilla Elizabeth Vigil, ’56 Sidney R. Ash, ’57 ’61 Carroll Deane Beaman, ’57 John C. Cheek, ’57 Elizabeth (Heggie) Davis, ’57 Reldon R. Jackson, ’57 Irene Marie Kerich, ’57 Jimmie J. Rutherford, ’57 Richard H. Williams, ’57 ’61 Herbert R. Dieterich, ’58 Hal Arthur Finch, ’58 Jose R. Luna, ’58 ’58 Gail (Hatchell) Maio, ’58 Larry E. Williams, ’58 ’60 Gilbert R. Williamson, ’58 L. Wayne Davis, ’59 Arlene Leone (Rollie) High, ’59 Jim R. McCullough, ’59 John H. Schaub, ’59 Carlton L. Smith, ’59 1960 - 1969 William S. Banowsky, ’60 James Richard Coughlan, ’60 Yvonne R. Lucero, ’60 Edward A. Samberson, ’60 Patricia Irene (Pick) Snead, ’60 Narosonia M. (Muller) Spatz, ’60 Donald W. Thayer, ’60 Tayla Dyan Bowland, ’61 Glen Wade Driskill, ’61 Dawn (Peterson) Gastaldo, ’61 Homer E. Milford, ’61
Charles D. Joslin (’12 BAEPD, ’14 MCRP), Albuquerque, is owner/CEO of New Mexico Development Solutions. Christa Marie Wagnon (’12 BSN, ’17 MSN), Albuquerque, is a provider at Presbyterian Medical Group. Moses B. Winston (’12 JD), Rio Rancho, N.M., was been named to The ALS Association New Mexico chapter’s board of directors. Joel P. Ames (’13 BA, ’17 JD), Albuquerque, is an associate attorney at Swaim, Danner & Carlow.
Moses B. Winston
Peter M. Kelton (’13 MBA, ’18 JD), Corrales, N.M., is an attorney at Rodey Law Firm. Jordan L. Kessler (’13 JD), Santa Fe, N.M., is assistant commissioner for Mineral Resources at the New Mexico State Land Office. Trevor Ketner (’13 BA), Albuquerque, launched Skull + Wind Press. Katherine E. Kleinsteuber (’13 MSN), Carlsbad, N.M., is a board-certified nurse practitioner at Lea Regional Medical Group. David M. Martin (’13 BLA), El Prado, N.M., is a clinician at the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps Learning Lab and the Taos Cyber Magnet School. Analicia C. Coca (’14 BA), Santa Fe, N.M., is a mental health therapist at the Santa Fe Community Guidance Center. Patrick Coronel (’14 BA, ’17 JD), Albuquerque, is on the board of directors of the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association. He was also listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2019. Kyle K. Maestas (’14 BSN), Dulce, N.M., is a provider at Lovelace Health System. Paola V. Jaime Saenz (’14 BA, ’17 JD), Los Alamos, N.M., is on the board of directors of the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association. Joshua B. Wishart (’14 BAA, ’16 MARCH), Albuquerque, is principal at Verdacity, LLC. Ryan D. Berryman (’15 BBA, ’16 MBA), Albuquerque, is associate athletic director at UNM.
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In Memoriam Alfred Alexander Valdez, ’61 Eleanor H. Herrera, ’62 Richard S. Sanchez, ’62 ’75 ’90 Samuel S. Blackman, ’63 Murray L. Crosse, ’63 Dale V. Hawk, ’63 Roy A. Holle, ’64 Gary Ness, ’64 ’66 John Pinto, ’64 Robert Klein Rowe, ’64 Edwin James Schodorf, ’64 ’73 Russell R. Branyan, ’65 Roger G. DiCamillo, ’65 Theodor W. Galdi, ’65 Charles W. Lewis, ’65 William Robert McGee, ’65 ’71 Kenneth R. Miller, ’65 ’70 Arthur Mindes, ’65 Donna (Dalbey) Ness, ’65 Abbott G. Saks, ’65 Richard A. Beattie, ’66 Anita Joyce Bradley, ’66 Jessie S. (Shepard) Inouye, ’66 Van R. Jackson, ’66 Ruth (Efferson) Orem, ’66 ’69 Joseph H. Saiers, ’66 ’70 James E. Sanderson, ’66 Gary J. Scrivner, ’66 Evyenia L. (Terzioglu) Triandafilidis, ’66 ’73 Sarah Hutchison Almy, ’67 Ira Duncan Bowerman, ’67 Albert J. Herrera, ’67 Walter R. Parr, ’67 Donald Fay Post, ’67 Amos E. Shasteen, ’67 David B. Bogie, ’68 John M. Coyne, ’68 J. Darrell Gibson, ’68 Catherine P. Maestas, ’68 Don J. Sandstrom, ’68 Paul N. Sonnenburg, ’68 Daniel Fue Wong, ’68 Don R. Fisher, ’69 Marian Bradley (Hussey) Hoge, ’69 ’76 Martha Mcgarry, ’69 Catherine Mary Zacharias, ’69 1970 - 1979 Brian Craig Blacklock, ’70
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Donald E. Dixon, ’70 Gerald C. Frieberg, ’70 Ronald L. Harvey, ’70 F. Alvin Jones, ’70 Marjorie Lee (Stanko) Jumper, ’70 Arnold W. Melbihess, ’70 ’73 Betty Lynn (Page) Naylor, ’70 John Michael Perrine, ’70 ’74 Lou Ann Shurbet, ’70 Benjamin Baca, ’71 ’81 Fred Acker Beatty, ’71 Richard Thomas Bressan, ’71 Oren Ray Cordrey, ’71 Felipe de Ortego y Gasca, ’71 Stant S. Johnson, ’71 Mark W. Langendorf, ’71 Eileen L. Marino, ’71 ’05 Ila R. Sanderson, ’71 Christopher L. Schmille, ’71 Mario L. M. Baca, ’72 ’83 Sarah Lee (Bowsher) Bergman, ’72 John F. Cullinan, ’72 Lawrence Lee Frank, ’72 ’75 Marsha Susan Lee, ’72 Felipe Milan Martinez, ’72 Michael Charles Nolan, ’72 Joseph Edward Svoboda, ’72 Carl Ray Turnley, ’72 ’85 Barbara Sue (Welsh) Albin, ’73 ’77 Mary Alison Lusk Clark, ’73 Bruce Thomas Garrett, ’73 Joel Max Hiebert, ’73 Fred B. Laureta, ’73 Betty R. E. (Thorsgaard) Magnuson, ’73 Graydon Richard McVay, ’73 Muriel Latham Pfeifer, ’73 David Michael Post, ’73 ’83 Milton A. Whitham, ’73 Jeanne Gooden Burkhardt, ’74 Shannan L. Carter, ’74 ’77 ’77 Virginia M. (McKinney) Henderson, ’74 John W. Justus, ’74 Detlef Zern Phillips, ’74 ’78 Daniel John Ritter, ’74 Anthony Eugene Romero, ’74 Ambrosio Sanchez, ’74 David W. Schreck, ’74 Kenneth Ray Walston, ’74 James C. Wilhelm, ’74
Richard Lee Diller, ’75 Marjorie R. Keeler, ’75 ’76 Albert S. Pat Murdoch, ’75 ’78 Ruth Elizabeth Adams, ’76 Kenneth Dale Ashton, ’76 Melvin M. Eisenstadt, ’76 Richard G. Johnson, ’76 Allan Ben Kirschner, ’76 Andrew Paul Moss, ’76 Thomas James Smith, ’76 Leroy Duarte, ’77 ’83 Mary Carolyn (Adcock) Duggins, ’77 ’92 Bruce D. Grannemann, ’77 Lourdes Maria Monserrat, ’77 ’89 Judy Gay Pendleton, ’77 ’78 Randall Benton Smith, ’77 Will John Spencer, ’77 Carol L. Ansley, ’78 Stephen A. Rush, ’78 Michael Anthony Varela, ’78 Mark Alan Brown, ’79 John Kendall Cannizzo, ’79 Denise Harriet (Porter) Kemper, ’79 Richard A. Pabon, ’79 Judith Ann (Bova) Stinebaugh, ’79 ’82 James Allan Stoeckel, ’79 Marilyn T. Toler, ’79 Ruth Bryant Wood, ’79 1980 - 1989 Mary Frances (Malone) Campbell, ’80 Jane Robin Cholerton, ’80 Sharon K. (Deatherage) Davis, ’80 Jack Duane Kee, ’80 William L. Mansker, ’80 Ramon D. Mondragon, ’80 Bertha D. (Desiderio) Muskett, ’80 Anne Bard Thomas, ’80 ’83 T. J. Allard, ’81 Joan Ullrich Andersen, ’81 Jeffrey E. Kunzman, ’81 Faith Marie Herman Lee, ’81 Margaret Ann Galassini, ’82 Timothy O. Hartman, ’82 Patrick Casey O’Brien, ’82 Gerald Steven Tabet, ’82 Pat Andrew Trokan, ’82 Edwin Charles Walker, ’82 Kurt H. Faber, ’83
In Memoriam Donna Lynn Gary, ’83 Willow Roberts Powers, ’83 ’86 ’97 James M. Rivera, ’83 Tony Jen-Pin Chiang, ’84 Kramer Eugene Woodard, ’84 Carolyn Robichaud Beske, ’85 Martin Daniel Dautenhahn, ’85 ’91 Mary Louise Wilkerson, ’85 ’88 Barton Johnson Brooks, ’86 Satyra F. Brown, ’86 Dorothy Helen Ford, ’86 Phillip Frank Auth, ’87 Ronald Adolph Franquero, ’87 Joseph Louis Baca, ’88 Sallie Susan Hunt-Amstadt, ’88 Jennifer Lynn Jarpe, ’88 Christine M. Messenger, ’88 Richard Harris Price, ’88 Julia Louise Ransom, ’88 Nita Davis, ’89 Linda Susan (Santee) Lonsdale, ’89 Andrew Atanacio Romero, ’89 David Nelson Rosner, ’89
Urbano Zea, ’91 Barbara J. Wahlert, ’92 Charles David Bowman, ’93 Jeffrey Kenneth Kelemen, ’93 ’97 Timothy G. Luna, ’93 ’96 Rina May Ouellette, ’93 Rosita Pickle, ’93 Pete Sanchez, ’93 ’94 Rocky Duane Walker, ’93 Elizabeth C. Bennett, ’94 ’98 Luis Fernando Arvizu, ’95 Greta L. Cox, ’95 Jonathan Reid Mowrer, ’95 ’97 Rodney Merle Ludington, ’96 Annette D. Armijo, ’97 Amy Darden Estelle, ’97 Lorina T. Gutierrez, ’97 Terry Len Littleman, ’97 Stephen Richard Meyer, ’97 Valerie Rose Adams, ’98 Dylan Arli Wilkes, ’98 Stephen Gerard Lussier, ’99 Virginia Maclovia, ’99
1990 - 1999
2000 - 2009
Theodore Flores ’90 Peter Daniel Newell, ’90 Joan Evans Ritchie, ’90 ’93 Matthew John Sandoval, ’90 Lorraine Anne Natati Vigil, ’90 Guy Clarence Vogel, ’90 Judy B. Hensley, ’91 Kimberleigh J. Lowman, ’91 LouDelle Pongetti, ’91
Derek Wayne Brumfield, ’00 Molly Kathleen Malerba, ’02 Andrew L. Marsanick, ’03 Jose Flores, ’04 ’05 Yvonne Ann (Fay) Foss, ’04 Patrick C. Kellerman, ’04 Erica Marie Nilsen, ’04 Michelle Anne Peterson, ’04 Myles Lawrence Sanchez, ’04
Patricia J. Aldaz (’16 BSN, ’18 MSN), Carlsbad, N.M., is a certified family nurse practitioner at Carlsbad Family Health Center. Elizabeth Ashley Bates (’16 BS, ’18 JD), Albuquerque, is assistant district attorney for the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office. James L. Burton (’16 BBA), Albuquerque, placed first in the graduate competition of the Daniels Fund Ethics Consortium Case Competition. Isaac A. Montoya (’16 BBA), Albuquerque, is owner/operator of a Cheba Hut and Anytime Fitness. Adriel Daniel Orozco (’16 JD), Albuquerque, received an Emerging Leader in Ethical Excellence award. Christopher Michael Wehan (’16 BA), Laguna Niguel, Calif., is a midfielder for New Mexico United. Kelsey Rader (’16 JD), Albuquerque, is the City of Albuquerque’s first-ever sustainability officer. Diana L. Cervantes (’18 BFA), Albuquerque, is a staff writer for the Rio Rancho Observer. Franklin Boyd (’18 AA), Gallup, N.M., is the chief of police for the Gallup Police Department. Francine M. Briones (’18 BBA), Albuquerque, placed first in the graduate competition of the Daniels Fund Ethics Consortium Case Competition. Tess J. Houle (’18 MLA), Albuquerque, is a landscape designer at MRWM Landscape Architects. Elise E. Lopez (’18 BA), Santa Fe, N.M., is La Reina in the 2019 Fiesta de Santa Fe celebration.
Have a Good Howl
Bayard Roberts IV (’18 JD), Albuquerque, is an attorney at Modrall Sperling.
Our monthly email newsletter, The Howler, keeps Lobos up-to-date with Alumni Association news and events, as well as additional alumni profiles not published in Mirage. You can read it online at UNMAlumni.com/howler or subscribe to the email version by sending a request to alumni@unm.edu.
Bayard Roberts
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In Memoriam Daniel Josue Sanchez, ’04 Christopher Reagan Harrell, ’05 ’07 Ryan Ray Daw, ’06 ’08 Dick C. Gerdes, ’06 Raymond Lyle Waggerman, ’06 ’08 Susan Garcia, ’07 ’10 Deedra A. Hodges, ’08 Peter Anthony Quintana, ’08 Adam M. Padilla, ’09 2010 - 2019 Patrick Ryan Golden, ’11 Stephanie K. Wimmer, ’12 Karen M. Glaser, ’13 Megan M. Jannings, ’13 Chrisy Lomako Kamm, ’13 Ferman Silago, ’13 Dieon Lamar Bordy, ’15 Juvenal Castillo, ’15 ’17 Gregory D. London, ’17 Gregory P. Brunson, ’18 Anita Quintana, ’18
OTHER ALUMNI Albert E. Arrigoni, Barbara Ann (Bruce) Bell Stephen Caminiti Fernie A. (Bernstein) Caplan Freddie J. Foster Virginia Gangwer Rowena E. (Lane) Hewitt Marvin L. Hillger William D. Houston Susan Harrison Kelly Herbert A. Lewis Carolyn Laird Martin Garth E. Massingill Patricia Ann McCamey Patsy Jean (Briggs) McGill James Paxton “Corky” Morris Janet (Wespe) Norrod James David Pankey Barbara Young Simms Jeffrey Carl Somers
Rosemary Stastny Sandra Gale Strong Lloyd N. Strosnider FACULTY AND STAFF Joan C.U. Anderson Joanna W. Bartlett William Charles Buss David Darling Henry C. Ellis Karen McKee Glaser Sharel King Peri Mori Don Schlegel Alexander Paul Stone Mimi Swanson John R. Vande Castle
Pack Your Bags The UNM Alumni Association gives Lobos with wanderlust the opportunity to continue their education by traveling the world through the Alumni Travel Program. With a number of unique trip opportunities in 2020 — from Cuba to Cairo — the Alumni Travel Program sets you up for success by handling all the travel plans and arrangements for you while offering amazing discounts too. To view Alumni Travel Program options and book, visit UNMAlumni.com/travel. Israel – Land of Cultural Treasures January 26 – February 4, 2020 Tel Aviv to Old Jerusalem
Celtic Charms – Oceania Cruises July 2 – 13, 2020 London to Dublin
Legends to Lagoons – Oceania Cruises March 5 – 15, 2020 Papeete to Raitea
Cruise the Rhine River July 19 – 27, 2020 Amsterdam to Basel
Spain – Andalucia in a Parador April 16 – 24, 2020 Antequera
Forests & Fjords of Alaska – Oceania Cruises July 30 – August 10, 2020 Seward to Vancouver
Cruise Provence and Burgundy April 26 – May 4, 2020 Avignon to Lyon
Imperial Splendors of Russia September 9 – 18, 2020 Moscow, St. Petersburg
Riches of the Emerald Isle June 29 – August 9, 2020 Ennis to Dublin
Fall Splendors of Canada & New England – Oceania Cruises September 26 – October 6, 2020 New York to Montréal
Tanzania Safari – The Plains Of The Serengeti June 29 – July 10, 2020 Tanzania
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Medieval Sojourn – Oceania Cruises October 5 – 16, 2020 Barcelona to Athens
My
ALUMNI STORY
My family is originally from the Diné communities of Window Rock, Ariz., and the Thoreau, N.M., area. I grew up in Twentynine Palms, Calif., and picked up the cello when I was 12 years old. Even though I graduated from UNM with a degree from the Department of Theatre & Dance, I had the chance to play with the UNM Symphony Orchestra while I was at UNM.
®
Today, I am an actor and director and the executive director of Two Worlds, a Native American theater and performing arts organization whose mission is to promote Native writers, directors, actors and filmmakers in theater, film and educational projects. And I still am actively involved in UNM’s theater scene. This year I joined a cast of all-local Native actors in 1n2ian (“Indian”), a play by Jay B. Muskett, a third-year student in UNM’s MFA in dramatic writing program. After graduation, I also felt a calling to help the community. I’m a co-founder of Native Women Lead, a group that promotes Native women entrepreneurs and Native women who might one day start their own business. I am also honored to serve as vice-president of the newly formed Native American Alumni Chapter, one of the many chapters of the UNM Alumni Association. It is a great way to stay engaged with the University and help create a difference in our communities by engaging and building supportive social circles, well-being projects and an active alumni presence for Native American graduates. With Chapter President Ervina Castillo (also Diné ), Secretary Jason Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo/Tewa) and Treasurer Levi Bowman (Diné and Laguna Pueblo), we are building a network of Native American alumni while honoring our cultures and traditions and supporting Native American students. I’m a proud Lobo for life. Kim Delfina Gleason (’05 BA) Stay in touch with your Alumni Association at UNMAlumni.com. Click on “Connect.”
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If you would no longer like to receive a paper copy of the Mirage magazine in the mail and would prefer an emailed version, please let us know by visiting UNMAlumni.com/Mirage and completing the digital opt-in form. Simply confirm your email address and the next edition will be sent directly to your email inbox and not your curbside mailbox. If you opt for the electronic version only, rest assured you will see the same magazine — great color photos, engaging articles, news of alumni events and updates on your classmates — only in a digital format with easy-to-use page-turning features.