Notables
Ted
A. Garcia, General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of
public television station KNME-TV, Channel 5 (PBS), is one of
only six business and media executives from across the nation
named to a newly-created team of 19 advisors - the 2020 Vision
Committee of the Southern Illinois University (SIU). The committee
will help upgrade education and improve the images of the two
main campuses of SIU - Edwardsville and Carbondale. Garcia is
an alumnus of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.
Technological and distance learning advances, which come about
as a result of this committee, will be shared with the University
of New Mexico (UNM).
"The
expertise these individuals will bring to the table will be
invaluable in developing a set of recommendations that will
keep SIU at the forefront of changing educational policies and
enable us to meet the needs of those we serve," Walker
said.
"It
is an honor to be asked to serve on the 2020 Vision Committee,"
said Ted A. Garcia. "My inclusion within this committee,
made up of individuals from across the nation, underscores the
increasingly important partnership between education and public
television, especially in light of advances in digital technology.
We will be looking into not only upgrading education at SIU
in the near future, but also looking ahead as to how the basic
delivery of an education may
be evolving. We will have the opportunity of exploring many
new technological avenues of distance learning, and anticipating
and meeting the needs of tomorrow's students. I intend that
my association with this committee, and the knowledge gained
there, will benefit not only SIU, but also the University of
New Mexico and the students and citizens of this state."
Naming
these committee members, after a nationwide search, is the first
step in a plan outlined by SIU President James Walker in September.
The committee members, also include former Illinois Sen. Paul
Simon as Chairman, three other politicians, and nine educators,
including: Constantine "Deno" Curris, President of
the American Association of Colleges and Universities, J.W.
"Jack" Peltason, former President of the University
of California system, James A. Rosser, President of the California
State University - Los Angeles, Kenneth A. Shaw, President and
Chancellor of Syracuse University, and Molly Corbett Broad,
President of the University of North Carolina.
Walker
will introduce the committee to the SIU board of trustees at
it monthly meeting on April 9 in Edwardsville. He and the chancellors
of the Edwardsville and Carbondale campuses will be ex-officio
members of the advisory committee.
In addition
to being the General Manager and CEO of KNME-TV, Garcia also
sits on the Technology and Distribution Committee for the Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS) in Alexandria, VA. Prior to coming
to KNME-TV in 2001, Garcia was the Executive Vice President
and Chief Operating Officer of KETC / Channel 9 (PBS) in St.
Louis, Missouri. He initially came to KETC in 1981 as the Director
of Operations. In 1992 he was promoted to Senior Vice President.
Prior to working within the non-commercial, PBS arena, Garcia
held numerous creative and management positions with the Television
Stations Division of CBS at KMOX-TV in St. Louis. Garcia's career
in broadcasting includes positions as a contract sports producer
director for Raycom Sports, consultant in video field production
for the U.S. Dept. of Defense and manager of audience promotion
for KMOX-TV.
Recently,
Garcia acted as a consultant for Ana. G. Mendez University in
San Juan, Puerto Rico, assisting that institution in strategic
planning of the implementation of digital broadcasting, distance
learning, and potential commercial applications for their two
public television channels and ITFS network.
A native
of East St. Louis, Illinois, Garcia holds a Bachelor of Science
degree in Mass Communications from Southern Illinois University
at Edwardsville where he serves on the Alumni Advisory Board
for the Department of Mass Communications. Garcia has served
as the Vice-Chairman of the National Meeting of the American
Red Cross in 2001. He presently serves on the Board of the Mid
Rio Grande chapter of the American Red Cross and serves on the
Resolutions Committee of the National 2002 annual meeting of
the American Red Cross. Garcia has been married for 11 years.
His wife Kathy is Sales Manger for Kelly Services for Albuquerque
and Santa Fe.
A multi-award
winning station, KNME-TV is a joint-licensee of the University
of New Mexico (UNM) and Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) and
serves northern and central New Mexico, eastern Arizona and
the Navajo Nation. Nationwide, KNME-TV is one of 360+ independent
television stations, operating with the Public Broadcasting
System (PBS).
***
Alex
Gonzalez, UNM Scholarship Office supervisor, was recently
appointed as the New Mexico coordinator for the National Association
of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), and member of the
NASPA IV-West Advisory Board. He will hold these positions
for the next three years.
***
Director of Student Financial Aid Ron S. Martinez is
author of the article What Does College Cost and Where
Can I Find Financial Aid? appearing in The Latino Students
Guide to College Success, recently published by Greenwood Press,
Westport CT. The book provides advice to Latinos who are contemplating,
preparing for, or already in a college setting.
***
Dr.
Ken Miller, professor and associate dean at the UNM College
of Nursing was recently elected to the Board of Directors of
the American College of Nurse Practitioners.
Miller
was also recently selected one of 60 candidates nationwide to
participate in Leadership for Academic Nursing. The year-long
fellowship program, which is supported by the Helene Fuld Health
Trust, is designed to develop and enhance leadership skills
in new and emerging administrators in baccalaureate and graduate
nursing programs.
***
The Notre
Dame Hispanic Law Students Association honored UNM Professor
of Law Margaret Montoya with the 2002 Graciela Olivarez
Award.
Each year,
the association honors an outstanding Latino lawyer or judge
who has made a significant contribution to the legal community.
Montoya
was the first Latina accepted to Harvard Law School. Her research
focuses on race, ethnicity, gender, language and cross-cultural
discourse. Active in the community, she recently introduced
a new class at UNM "Lawyering for Social Change."
***
UNM Halliburton
Professor of Mechanical Engineering Arsalan Razani has
been elected a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical
Engineering (ASME) International, a nonprofit educational and
technical organization serving a worldwide membership of 125,000.
Only two
percent of ASME members are elected fellows.
Razanis
academic career spans 33 years. He has published two books and
100 referred articles in the areas of thermal science and engineering,
radiation transport, and energy conversion and utilization.
Razani has twice been awarded the School of Engineering Teaching
Excellence Award.
***
UNM Assistant
Professor of History Jay Rubenstein has received an American
Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)-Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship
for $30,000 to begin research on a new project, titled, The
First Crusade in Medieval Memory.
Rubenstein
will conduct research at the Bibliothèque Nationale and
other research institutes in Paris from July 2002 through August
2003. His work will focus on original manuscript copies of 12th
century historical chronicles, sermon manuals and theological
texts.
Rubenstein
expects to be able to demonstrate the profound effects which
the First Crusade, 1095-1099, had on European culture
artistic, military, religious and literary. The First
Crusade is comparable only to World War I, in terms of the way
it forced Europeans to reevaluate themselves and their world,
Rubenstein said. The topic is especially timely in light
of current world politics.
Rubenstein, also UNM Institute for Medieval Studies faculty,
has been at UNM since 1999.
He recently
completed a biography of the French monk, historian and theologian
Guibert of Nogent (c. 1060 - 1125), Guibert of Nogent:
Portrait of an Medevial Mind, to be published by Routledge
this fall.
***
P.J.
Woods, chief nursing officer for UNM Hospitals, was recently
appointed to the Presidents National Advisory Council
for Healthcare Research and Quality.