University of New Mexico

“Global leadership in higher education by American colleges and universities—a hallmark during the past century – is increasingly at risk, ironically by the very forces our institutions helped to create. Advances in technology and telecommunications and a remaking of the global economy have created a world in which interdisciplinary cross-border research and discovery are the norm and expectations for students prepared to live, work and contribute to an interconnected world are high. Institutions who are able to prepare students-of-the-world will be the colleges and universities of the next century”. “A call to Leadership: The Presidential Role in Internationalizing the University—A Report of the NASULGC Task Force on International Education”- October 2004.

Responsibilities: International Task Force. International Research Institute
Other University Affiliations: Institute of Public Law; Research Professor of Law

The Strategic Plan adopted by the UNM Board of Regents on December 11, 2001, calls for the university to “develop a comprehensive approach to international affairs at UNM, including instructional, research, and service programs, as well as a cosmopolitan, international, social, and cultural life on campus.” In addition it states that UNM should “provide an environment that cultivates and supports activities of national and global distinction and impact.

Since 1983, when he took over as director, Paul Nathanson has worked to broaden the mission of the Institute of Public Law, the public service arm of the UNM law school. When he arrived at IPL, the budget was $250,000; now the annual budget is $2 million.

Under his leadership, the IPL oversees 11 initiatives, including the Center for Wildlife Law, the Center for the Arts in Society, Environmental Law Center, Judicial Education Center and the Children's Law Center.

Nathanson came to the UNM law school in 1980 to work in the Rural Elderly Clinic in northern New Mexico, contributing knowledge he had gained in eight years as executive director of the National Senior Citizens Law Center in Los Angeles. He had been the first director of that center, traveling between Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Prior to that, he was an associate in the tax department at the Los Angeles firm of O'Melveny & Myers.

As a research professor at UNM, Nathanson continues to work on aging issues and has received a number of national awards for his work. He teaches courses on elder law, the legislative process and public policy. He is always looking for new approaches to teaching. For example, he has taught on-line courses and a graduate-level course on technology and social change, which incorporated communications, physics and political science. Nathanson taught the political science portion. Nathanson also helped create TV101, a television news program produced by high school students. The program received numerous awards for its innovation. Among his many public service projects, he taught a class on legislative and community organizing to women who recently had been released from prison.

For two years in the mid-1990s, Nathanson served on special assignment to the UNM President. Specifically, he supervised the Office of Alumni Affairs, the University Development Office, the Department of Public Affairs and the Publications Office.