Virginia Scharff was recently named director of the Center for the Southwest at UNM. She succeeds Richard Etulain who retired Aug. 1.
Scharff, an associate professor of history at UNM, said she is excited to serve as the new director of the Center for the Southwest.
She said one of her goals as director is to set up a listserv and to continue to sponsor symposiums.
"We are also in the midst of preparing a grant proposal to sponsor a conference this spring, on utopia and the city in the Southwest," she said.
The mission of the center, previously known as the Center of American West, is to encourage conversations, collaborations and creative cooperation among the various people, all over the campus, who are involved in southwest studies and regional projects.
Scharff is a historian and writer who specializes in the histories of women, of mobility, and of the American West. Her publications include "Taking the Wheel: Women and the Coming of the Motor Age," "Present Tense: The United States Since 1945" and "Coming of Age: America in the Twentieth Century," and forthcoming from the University of California Press: "Twenty Thousand Roads: Women, Movement, and the West."
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Scharff has served as consultant on numerous television documentary projects, including the nationally broadcast Biography of America, a television course in United States history produced by WGBH in Boston.
Scharff also writes fiction under the nom de plume Virginia Swift. HarperCollins published her first novel, "Brown-Eyed Girl," in April 2000. A second novel, "Bad Company," is expected in 2002 from HarperCollins.
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UNM received $35.3 million in private funds during the 2000-2001 fiscal year, 6.9 percent more than its $33 million goal, according to the UNM Foundation.
The figure constitutes a 12.4 percent increase over fiscal year 1999-2000, which brought in $31.4 million.
"In recent years we have seen a substantial increase in community support for UNM's mission," said UNM president William Gordon. "The generosity of people in the community has allowed us to pursue our objectives in ways that we would not otherwise have been able to do."
The mission of the UNM Foundation is to solicit, accept and manage private contributions and grants for the purpose of promoting the education, research and community service commitments of the University. The development of private resources, both philanthropic and volunteer, is the Foundation's responsibility.
The UNM Foundation is an incorporated not-for-profit organization with the responsibility to receive, invest and distribute gifts of private support to UNM.
