Press Releases

WNMU student nurses witnessed and immediately acted to assist those involved in a rollover accident on Silver City’s 32nd Street last week. Student nurses Zaige Perry, Samantha Corral and Lisa Uzueta said they are thankful for the experience they’ve learned from in the WNMU School of Nursing, which prepared them to stay cool and collected while assessing the patients and providing a report to the emergency medical responders who arrived on scene later. The Level III nursing students had just finished volunteering at the COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Gila Regional Medical Center when their senses alerted them to something that wasn’t quite right across the street. “I saw a car. It didn’t look normal. It was riding on this fence and I saw the car roll under the fence,” Perry said. That’s when their training kicked in. So far this semester, they’ve learned through a dozen simulations with high-fidelity manikins that simulation lab coordinator Lorenzo Saenz...

Paige Pinto earned her bachelor’s in accounting from the WNMU School of Business in May and is enrolled in our MBA program now. The Native New Mexican from the fourth corners region started at WNMU directly after graduating from high school. “For me, at first going to college meant getting away from home — just like any other 17- or 18-year-old. As a Native, though, whether a person is successful in college depends on having financial and interpersonal support,” she said. At WNMU, Paige was able to access the necessary support, earning WNMU Foundation private scholarships designated for Native American students, getting hired for student worker positions, and building relationships with mentors and advisors. Paige worked in the WNMU Museum, stepped up to lead the university’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, served as the chapter president of Delta Mu Delta International Honor Society, and recently began a graduate assistantship with the MBA program director....

This fall, Yen Chu received a Student Research and Professional Development funding award to aid her in creating an undergraduate branch of Mimbres Press at WNMU. “An undergraduate arm of Mimbres Press at WNMU will increase opportunities for students to gain experience in skills like editing, modifying their own work, and getting their own work published,” she said. Appointed as a member of the Mimbres Press advisory board in May 2021, Chu was tasked with spearheading the undergraduate branch with the assistance of fellow student Katie DeLong and under the guidance of WNMU Humanities professors Kate Oubre and Dr. Heather Steinmann. “The SRPD grant was given to me because I wanted to give a couple of students an incentive to work with me as editors. Katie is my first ‘hire,’” Chu said. As the ambassador-at-large and chief editor, Chu is currently calling for students to submit their work for possible publication and apply to become student editors. “I want to...

WNMU professor emeritus Dr. Dale A. Zimmerman leaves a legacy that extends globally. The distinguished ornithologist, botanist, lepidopterist, photographer and bird illustrator taught biology, ornithology, zoology and systematic botany at WNMU from 1957 to 1988 while actively studying and maintaining records of birds in New Mexico and across the world. Dr. Zimmerman’s WNMU students and colleagues have played prominent roles in pursuing avian biology. With our herbarium in Harlan Hall being named after him, WNMU continues to honor Dr. Zimmerman’s life work by welcoming students, faculty and researchers in pursuit of botanical studies. Dr. Zimmerman authored over 100 scientific publications primarily on birds but including plants and mammals. The primary illustrator of his books, Dr. Zimmerman is best known for Birds of New Guinea, co-authored with Bruce Beehler and Thane Pratt; The New Mexico Bird Finding Guide; and The Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania, and his...

During a special session Tuesday morning, the Western New Mexico University Board of Regents updated the university’s plan for capital outlay projects and infrastructure and capital projects. Over Zoom, the members of the WNMU Board of Regents, including Regent Chair Dr. Mary Hotvedt, Vice Chair Janice Baca Argabright, Student Regent/Secretary/Treasurer Brenda Hernandez Gonzales, and members Dr. Lyndon Haviland and Dr. Daniel H. Lopez heard from WNMU President Dr. Joseph Shepard and Vice President for Business Affairs Kelley Riddle, who provided context for the changes. “When we decided on our priorities six months ago, we did not know the type of funding that might be available,” Dr. Shepard said. “The state has some high needs. One of those is early childhood.” Reputed as a model early childhood development center and teacher preparation institution with the integrated WNMU Family Counseling Center, being a cornerstone of the success of the WNMU Early Childhood...

Western New Mexico University School of Education Associate Professor of Special Education Dr. Roberta Marquez and her Ukrainian student Tomas Gallegos presented a research paper at last month's 14th Annual Mentoring Conference. “Using InTASC Standards, High-Leverage Coaching Practices, and Technology to Video-Coach a Teacher Candidate Volunteering in a Rural Ukrainian Elementary School” was published in the scholarly, peer reviewed journal known as The Chronicle of Mentoring and Coaching. Gallegos enrolled in the WNMU Master of Arts in Teaching program while serving in a rural village in Eastern Ukraine as a Peace Corps Youth in Development Volunteer. “I began the program to be a more responsive and informed volunteer and to create opportunities to teach around the world after service,” he said. Dr. Marquez said their project’s ties to educators, students, and families in a rural school in Ukraine gives it a “unique and compelling angle that underscores the United...

The WNMU graphic design program was recently rebuilt “from the ground up” and is anchored by faculty member Ed Brandt, an experienced graphic designer and multimedia artist who is represented in Santa Fe galleries and locally. When revamping #WNMU Expressive Arts Department’s two associate degrees in graphic design, Brandt considered the kind of students might be interested in the program and what they will need to know to jump immediately into the profession. Bringing a background that he thinks many students can related to, Brandt said he grew up with artistic inclinations but a societal and familial expectation to get an education he could use to support himself. Graphic design is a path that enables creative minds to embrace their interests while preparing themselves for a career. “You’re showing yourself that arts are valuable, and you’re achieving something,” he said about the WNMU graphic design program. Having run a boutique graphic design business...

WNMU alumnus and former member of the WNMU Native American Club Bill "Cody" Ayon is featured in a PBS four-part documentary series “American Veteran,” which traces the veteran experience across the arc of American history and explores the present-day divide between civilian and veteran communities. Preview the program, which airs on October 26, here. See an in-depth interview with the producer and Ayon...

As part of the Southwest Word Fiesta, WNMU Assistant Professor of English Composition Professor Heather Frankland and her WNMU Rhetoric and Composition Workshop students will be giving a banned books presentation, while her Introduction to College English students will perform their original three-act melodrama. Both presentations will take place in J. Cloyd Miller Library on Friday, October 23, from 2:30-3:30 p.m. Frankland, who is a poet and a Southwest Word Fiesta committee member, said, "Come see the class members continue to build on the work that they did with Miller Library in celebration of Banned Book Week during the last week of September. Watch and be entertained by the other class’s creative work in which students rush to save the book, "The Hunger Games," from being banned at their fictional high school." Students from Rhetoric and Composition Workshop spent time researching why their book was banned and reflecting on how they connect to the book. Jacqueline...