Dr. Joseph Shepard

October 7, 2011

Mustang Statue Unveiling	9:00 am	Branchaeu P.E. Complex
Inauguration Reception for faculty, staff, students and alumni	1:30 pm	Student Memorial Center 3rd floor
Inauguration Ceremony	3:30 pm	Fine Arts Center Theatre
Overflow audience members will be accommodated in the Global Resource Center. A live feed of the ceremony will be available for viewing.

BIO

The Board of Regents unanimously appointed Dr. Joseph Shepard the 15th President of Western New Mexico University (WNMU) on April 27, 2011. Dr. Shepard assumed the office on July 5, 2011. Western New Mexico University is a Hispanic serving university where one out of two students are first generational and one out of two students are non-traditional.

Prior to arriving at WNMU, Dr. Shepard served over 15 years in senior level leadership positions at Florida Gulf Coast University. Throughout his years at FGCU he held the positions of Chief Student Affairs Officer, Chief Business Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Among his many responsibilities, Dr. Shepard was one of the founding leaders in helping to build the State of Florida’s 10th university. When Dr. Shepard arrived at FGCU, there were no students, no classes, no athletics, no on-campus housing, no policies and no infrastructure. By Dr. Shepard’s departure in 2011, FGCU had grown to over 460 faculty with a total workforce of nearly 2,000 that served nearly 13,000 students. 

Dr. Shepard also remains active in the classroom and with research. His teaching areas have been at both the graduate and undergraduate levels in quantitative methods, public finance and business leadership. He has also taught internationally in Mexico. Finally, Dr. Shepard serves as the chairman of the Council of University Presidents, which is the association that advocates for all seven universities in New Mexico. 

Dr. Shepard earned his Ph.D. in Public Administration specializing in public finance from Florida International University. He earned a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance and Banking where he specialized in international finance from the University of North Texas and a Bachelor of Science degree in Math Education from Northern Arizona University. 

He is fluent in Spanish and enjoys mountaineering, backpacking, canoeing, fishing, golfing, and racquetball.