Dr. Kathy Whiteman was hired in 2012 to create a university outdoor program and share her GIS expertise as a professor. Since, she has grown the outdoor program from recreational club status to an academic program that includes an on-campus gear rental shop and a field-certified Mustang Search and Rescue Team and also offers regular Wilderness First Aid certification classes plus a minor in outdoor leadership studies.
As of fall 2019, Dr. Whiteman is heading up the university’s Center for a Sustainable Future, serves on the New Mexico Outdoor Recreation Division advisory board, and was chairing the committee hosting the Association for Experiential Education 2020 Rocky Mountain Regional Conference, which was to be held at WNMU in April but is now canceled.
“The outdoors is a huge part of our regional identity. I’m actively working to foster relationships and collaborations with entities that play roles in the outdoor economy,” she said.
Western New Mexico University is celebrating Women’s History Month in March by profiling the female movers and shakers in the Mustang community online and in the Spring 2020 Westerner, themed Women Of Western. To read more about Dr. Whiteman, subscribe to or flip through a digital copy of the WNMU alumni magazine here.