UNM President Chris Garcia announced last week that the University has selected its next Office of Equal Opportunity director - a candidate he said was far and above the best of four finalists.
Doralia Martinez Freudiger, who is currently the deputy director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Staff for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., was selected from a pool of finalists that were brought to campus in September and October for forum interviews with faculty, administrators and students.
Freudiger will take over as director of the OEO office Jan. 13, said Ricardo Maestas, executive affairs officer in the Office of the President.
The search for the new director began in March and culminated in the selection of the four finalists.
"She brought a lot of strength to the position," Garcia said. "She's extremely knowledgeable in the OEO field. She knows the policies extremely well."
Although some expressed reservations about Freudiger because of an absence of work in a university setting, Garcia said that with her work experience, she should be able to easily transfer her skills to meet the needs of the campus community.
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Freudiger said her lack of university experience doesn't mean she won't be able to work with UNM's existing system.
"Sometimes when people do things the same way all the time and they know how the system works, they can't see other ways of doing things," Freudiger said. "My perspective is different and I bring in a different way of looking at the problem. In terms of how things are done, I'm coming in with an open mind. I think I can be creative of how things are done."
Freudiger said her experience includes supervising a full time staff of 14, including attorneys, Equal Employment Office program managers, counselors and support personnel.
As Office of Equal Opportunity director, Freudiger will be responsible for developing and directing a comprehensive affirmative action plan, coordinating efforts to comply with the American with Disabilities Act and Title IX and investigating complaints of alleged discrimination and sexual harassment.
The Office of Equal Opportunity also monitors University activities to ensure compliance with local, state and federal laws prohibiting discrimination.
Freudiger said she has experience with Hispanic recruitment, retention and employment, as well as American Indian and Asian Pacific student recruitment.
Additionally, her work at the Justice Department has put her in direct contact with recruitment strategies at UNM.
Freudiger said her Washington staff developed a program to come to UNM and speak to law students about working with the Justice Department.
"When the position opened up, I thought, it's just inline with what I'm committed to doing," Freudiger said. "I'm going to bring in the same kind of dedication and commitment that I had with the Equal Employment Opportunity Staff in Washington, D.C."
She added that as director, she wants to seek out the UNM community and let its members know what the office has to offer them and to "bring diversity to the department."
Freudiger's plans for the department, however, are something she feels must work themselves out once she joins the University.
"After I meet with everyone, I want to develop a plan to meet expectations," Freudiger said. "I don't want to go in with a plan without having done all of the research and meeting all of the people."
She added that teamwork will be something she will stress to her staff while at UNM.
After an eight-month search that included several interviews and much deliberation, Garcia said he is happy with its results.
"We are very fortunate to attract such a good pool of candidates and to attract an offer to such an outstanding candidate," he said. "It's great to have a search for an important position that ends as well as this one did."
