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The University of New Mexico Center for Teaching & Learning, Honors College & Teaching Enhancement Committee, and College of Arts & Sciences held its 25th Annual Teaching Excellence Awards ceremony today at the Anderson School of Management’s Jackson Student Center.

These awards honor the excellence of faculty, lecturers, adjunct instructors, and graduate teaching assistants who have made exceptional strides in hard work, development, and UNM’s educational mission.

“We are here today to honor the most creative and committed faculty and leaders that we have on our campus...To recognize the best of our lobo educators,” said UNM President Garnett S. Stokes. “I am so grateful not only for your knowledge and your expertise but also for the compassion and creativity that you exhibit and your commitment to students, your colleagues and to the University of New Mexico... Every day you are changing lives and changing the world and I wanted to be here to celebrate the very best of the very best.”

A total of 16 faculty were recognized for their outstanding achievements.

“I know each of you have rich family histories that make you who you are, your friends, your colleagues, your communities, and that makes us strong, rich teachers," said Presidential Teaching Fellow of the Year, Leola Paquin, whose family has influenced her teaching style. "That's the basics for my teaching philosophy and how I build relationships with students... nourishing their passions is what makes their educational experience strong. Thank you to my colleagues and my students, you are the reason I am here.”

“I didn’t become a teacher by chance or to be part of an academic program, I chose to be a teacher,” said Erik Pineda, one of the Outstanding Teaching Assistants of the Year.

“Erik’s teaching style means that he is a vocal advocate for self-empowerment,” said one student.

All awardees were praised by colleagues and students alike for their unwavering dedication and passion, which shines through their teaching and enriches the lives of those around them.

Congratulations to all of the awardees for their outstanding achievements in teaching excellence.

Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence Award Winners

Presidential Teaching Fellow Leola Tsinnajinnie Paquin, associate professor, College of Arts and Sciences

Outstanding Teacher of the Year Eli Wilson, assistant professor, College of Arts and Sciences

Lecturer of the Year Irina Meier, senior lecturer III, College of Arts and Sciences

Affiliated Teacher of the Year Maria DeBlassie, adjunct Humanities faculty, UNM Honors College

Online Teacher of the Year Cristina Reiser, senior lecturer III, College of Arts and Sciences

Branch Campus Tenure-Track Teacher of the Year Tammi Duncan-Teller, Assistant Professor of Biology, Valencia Branch Campus

Early Career Teacher of the Year Nahir I. Otaño Gracia, assistant professor, College of Arts and Sciences

Susan Dees-Roberts Outstanding Teaching Assistants of the Year

College of Arts & Sciences Teaching Excellence Award Winners

Breadcrumb

Finishing medical school is a huge milestone for anyone looking towards the future in health care, but it’s by no means the end of the road. Students graduating as a medical doctor (MD) must immediately prepare for their residency training and that additional financial cost. But MDs graduating from The University of New Mexico’s School of Medicine are getting some help.

For the second year in a row, the UNM School of Medicine Alumni Association is giving scholarships to all graduating MDs.

“This is the Alumni Association’s support of the newest members of the alumni as they transition into a new and challenging portion of their journey into medicine. It also marks their entrance into this community that supports one another as alumni.”

— Ashley Salazar, Chief Advancement and External Relations Officer, UNM School of Medicine

“This is the Alumni Association’s support of the newest members of the alumni as they transition into a new and challenging portion of their journey into medicine,” said Ashley Salazar, chief advancement and external relations officer for the School of Medicine. “It also marks their entrance into this community that supports one another as alumni.”

This year 65 MD graduates from the School of Medicine will receive the $1,000 Lobo MD scholarship. The remaining members of the class also received Alumni Association scholarships or Match Day scholarships during their final year of medical school at UNM.

“As students graduate and move to residency, there's a lot of financial burden in that transition itself,” Salazar said. She pointed out that it’s not until Match Day when students find out where they’ll be doing their residency. Some may have to move across the country. “They just find out and they have to, in a short amount of time, line up a living situation, travel across the country and start their new position.”

That was the case for Rushi Mankad, MD, who was among the very first students to receive the Lobo MD Scholarship after graduating from UNM in 2022.

“The financial support is tremendously helpful,” Mankad said. “Starting residency, as with many things in medical school, is an expensive process whether you're moving across the country like myself, or even staying local and still having to purchase supplies for graduation, or the various onboarding tasks with starting your new job.”

The idea for the Lobo MD scholarship came in 2021 after the COVID-19 Pandemic from then Alumni Association president Nathaniel Roybal, MD, PhD, (Class of 2007), who had a vision to give every student in the UNM School of Medicine a scholarship.

“That’s over 400 students,” Salazar said. “So, the Association started small and said, ‘okay, what can we do to give every fourth year, graduating student an award?’”

The Alumni Association hosted a fundraiser during their 2021 reunion and raised over $25,000- to give the initial 25 Lobo MD $1,000 scholarships the following year. That was the start of the Lobo MD scholarship, and it has continued to grow with the support of the Association’s current president, Alisha Parada, MD, FACP (Class of 2008).

The Association’s goal is to make sure that their graduates who, in addition to becoming MDs, also become actively engaged as the newest members of the School of Medicine Alumni Association, feel supported and welcomed by their alumni community.

That’s why every year after convocation, the Association hosts a welcome party for its newest members.

“This year’s graduation and welcome party is going to be at Canvas artistry, which is in downtown, just a block away or so from the Albuquerque Convention Center where convocation is taking place,” Salazar said. “The Alumni Association, alumni from across our community, donors to the Lobo MD or alumni scholarships, leadership, as well as the grads themselves and their families are all invited to take part in this grad party reception to meet each other.”

It's a community that the Association hopes will continue to grow and support Lobos long after graduation and into their future medical careers.

“New Mexico is a small and close-knit group of individuals who genuinely want their own to succeed,” Mankad said. “I would not be anywhere close to where I am today if I had not met these special individuals.”

Click here to learn more about how to give and stay connected to the UNM School of Medicine Alumni Association.

Neighbors near the proposed site of the New Mexico United stadium at Balloon Fiesta Park have again appealed the development, prompting another review by the city's land use hearing officer.

On April 26, Pat Hauser, president of the Maria Diers Neighborhood Association, filed an appeal with the city's LUHO challenging the Albuquerque Environmental Planning Commission's (EPC) unanimous decision on April 11 to amend the Balloon Fiesta Park master plan to allow for stadium construction.

The LUHO, Steven Chavez, previously reviewed the case in February after neighbors appealed EPC’s first approval. Chavez will likely review the case again, Vincent Higgins, City of Albuquerque public information officer said.

As of today, a date for the LUHO hearing has yet to be set, Higgins added.

"The [LUHO] will review the case and hear arguments from both sides, before making a recommendation to the [Albuquerque] City Council, who then makes the final decision," Higgins said. "If the plaintiff still feels like they have a case, they can go to district court to have it heard, but normally, the [City] Council is where it stops."

Hauser’s appeal expresses concerns over an increase in noise, traffic and light in the area that could come from the proposed stadium. In addition, he voiced concerns about the environmental impacts caused by the potential expulsion of methane gas from the Nazareth Landfill, which closed in 1972 and is located on the east side of Balloon Fiesta Park.

Silvia Bolivar, senior planner for the City of Albuquerque, addressed these landfill concerns at the EPC's Nov. 16 hearing.

"The area will further be protected because the stadium's development will address concerns related to the Nazareth landfill by implementing measures to mitigate landfill gasses in coordination with environmental health," Bolivar said during the hearing. "Staff has carefully considered the applicant's arguments and finds that the request is adequately justified."

Additional landfills within the Balloon Fiesta Park include the Los Angeles Landfill, which is located to the south of the park.

Alongside the annual nine-day Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, Hauser said the park is already utilized more frequently than the "17 games a year" outlined in United's lease agreement, which the City Council approved in November 2023.

Hauser, who lives just 2,200 feet from the park, said he can hear “young people playing soccer and cricket,” almost five days a week. Current events scheduled to be held at the park this year include the USA Cycling Collegiate Nationals, New Mexico Wine Festival, USA Youth Archery Nationals and the Latin Explosion Festival.

“If I can hear children playing soccer and their parents cheering, you can only imagine what 10,000 drunk and screaming soccer fans are going to sound like in our backyard," Hauser said. "Having lived here for 57 years, I think change is good to some degree, but it's also cumbersome in other aspects of it. Those of us that live in rural Albuquerque have a different outlook on what is good and what is bad."

In addition to those concerns, Hauser said he appealed the EPC's April 11 decision because Renn Halstead, an associate architect at FBT Architects and a voting member of both the EPC and the pro-growth group Generation Elevate New Mexico, or GENM, did not recuse himself from the hearing. GENM is a membership-based organization aimed at educating people about supporting what it sees as "pro-growth" development.

The New Mexico United soccer stadium was the first project GENM's nine-person board chose to support.

Halstead could not be reached for comment.

Should the city reject his appeal, Hauser pledged to continue opposing New Mexico United's proposed stadium at Balloon Fiesta Park, stating the project wouldn't happen "over my dead body." In a letter sent to the EPC on March 10, he suggested alternative locations for the stadium, including Mesa del Sol, West 9th St., Paseo Del Volcan, Pueblo of Sandia and near University Stadium at 1111 University Blvd. SE.

Additional neighborhood associations opposing the stadium project are the Wildflower Neighborhood Association, North Edith Corridor Association and the Alameda North Valley Association.

"New Mexico United is committed to being a great community partner, which is why we continue to engage with members of various communities on this transformative, privately-funded stadium project,” David Wiese-Carl, vice president of media and impact for New Mexico United, said in an email statement when asked about the second appeal.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A brazen, seemingly unprovoked attack was not only uploaded to social media, but it was posted by the alleged attacker.

The Facebook post was removed, but not before hundreds of New Mexicans saw it, including Bernalillo County deputies.

The alleged attacker apparently punched an elderly man in the face for no reason, and those who know him worry his violence will continue to escalate.

The suspect is Armando Gandara III. KOB 4 spoke to a woman who works with him, and she says based on her experiences and that video, he is absolutely a danger to the community.

“I was in complete shock. I was blown away. I was thinking, I already knew this man was dangerous, and now this just cements that fear that he is this dangerous, if he’s willing to do that to a random stranger? What’s he gonna do to people he knows and people he has a problem with?” said Amanda Kimbrel.

Kimbrel has been worried about Gandara for a while.

Just recently, the Albuquerque man went live on Facebook and posted a video of him punching what appears to be an elderly man, completely unprovoked.

Kimbrel works with Gandara at UPS.

“When I go to work every morning, I am, my anxiety level is through the roof because I don’t know what he’s going to do. No precautions have been taken to secure my safety or my co-workers. I go to work every day wondering, ‘Am I going to die today?’ And I know that sounds dramatic, but it’s truly not because he is completely unhinged,” said Kimbrel.

She filed a restraining order against him back in January, something Kimbrel says he’s violated more than once.

“He violated it I think a total of seven times now, maybe six. He stole one of his friends phones, reached out to me, pretending to be the other friend. He violates it at work. He’s supposed to, you know, stay within 100 yards of me. He comes right next to me,” Kimbrel said.

Bernalillo County deputies say they’re aware of the video but can’t do anything until the victim comes forward to press charges.

Kimbrel hopes that happens so Gandara can be stopped.

“People need to stand up to people like this, and stop taking it. So whoever that older gentleman was that he, you know, sucker punched like that. I hope he comes forward,” said Kimbrel.

Kimbrel plans on taking Gandara to court for violating the restraining order.

Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office sent the following statement to KOB 4:

“The victim in this case has not come forward and we do not have a confirmed identity of the victim. Without a statement and report made by the victim this case cannot move forward. We urge the victim in the video to come forward and speak with a deputy to ensure we can move forward with appropriate charges in the pursuit of justice.”

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) –DeeRonn Booker is the Pro Shop manager at Santa Ana Star Casinos Starlight Bowling Center, and the 33-year-old bowler accomplished a major feat on March 31, in Las Vegas, NV. Just a full-time-professional bowler for two seasons, Booker won this year’s USBC Masters, which is one of five events considered to be major events in bowling.

“It was hard to explain, I mean sometimes we think in the back of our minds that this may never happen, but when it did happen I immediately started thinking of all of the people that have helped me get to that point,” said Booker.

This marks Booker’s 1st PBA victory in what was his first TV appearance. Booker was undefeated in this grueling tournament. Making it through the 64-player bracket, Booker knocked out four PBA Tour Champions. “A guy who has won this event twice already, another guy who has won this event four times, the best bowler in the world for the last years, I am like what!? You know, that is exactly what I told myself, I was like are you kidding me? I can tell you that I was so hyper-focused, that I have never been that focused ever in competing and doing anything, and now it’s about trying to figure out how to channel that again”, said Booker.

With this win, Booker is the third African American to win a PBA Tour title, and the first African American to win the Masters. Booker looks to keep winning titles, but he also looks to be a role model and ambassador for the sport.

“I want people to understand my personality, I want them to understand that I am the same person that when you walk in here and say hi, I can’t get the ball to fit right so he is out there on the lane 11-shots shooting 300. You know, with anything that I am doing because everyone means so much to me and what I am doing, like I want them to feel apart of it too”, said Booker.

DeeRonn will continue to work at Santa Ana Star Casino at the pro shop and giving people lessons, but the professional will also be on the road for tournaments. Booker will compete in Kingman, AZ, next on May 4-5.