“Being regent is a very good job for me. It brings together my academic experience and my experience at Western with my political knowledge of the state and my in-depth knowledge of the community,” says Mary Hotvedt, Ph.D., the newest member of the WNMU Board of Regents.
As an anthropologist and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Dr. Hotvedt was in private practice as a counselor, researcher and consultant for 24 years. Plus, she’s been a teacher in various forms all throughout her life, having worked in academia for institutions worldwide. She became an adjunct professor at WNMU in 2010 and stepped down when New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan-Grisham appointed her to serve as a member of the WNMU Board of Regents last March.
Dr. Hotvedt prioritizes education above all else at WNMU. “The most important thing to me about the university’s success is that it has to be academically of the best standard — demanding the best of the faculty and of the students. I’m hard-nosed about it,” she says.
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 a full Q&A with Regent Hotvedt, subscribe to or flip through a digital copy of the WNMU alumni magazine here.