Staff report
President David Schmidly announced June 4 that Viola Florez will be UNM's interim provost.
Florez is the dean of the College of
Education.
"Viola is very experienced," Schmidly said. "She has been at the University for 10 or 12 years."
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Schmidly said Florez cares for New Mexicans and the students of UNM.
"She's very good on student issues," he said. "She has a great deal of concern for the students."
Florez did not return calls the week of June 4.
Schmidly said a national search for a provost will begin this fall.
Florez's ability to deal with people is an important quality, Schmidly said.
"I have known Viola for some time, and she's very good at team building and working with people," he said.
Florez adds diversity to UNM's upper administration, he said.
"I do feel like we need more women and minorities in the senior leadership of the University," he said. "So, I was really pleased that we had a person with this much talent and capability that was willing to do this."
Florez has a bachelor's in liberal arts and humanities from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., a master's in education from the University of Colorado and a doctorate in education from Texas A&M-Kingsville.
Florez became the dean of the College of Education in 1997.
Before then, she was acting vice president and chief academic officer at Texas A&M-Galveston, interim dean of the Texas A&M College of Education and associate department chairwoman of
curriculum and instruction.
Schmidly said it's difficult to hold an interim position.
"Interim leadership is not easy because you don't know that you'll be there full time, and so it takes a special set of leadership skills to be a good interim leader," he said.
Schmidly said the first thing Florez needs to do is establish communication with University administration.
"The primary focus for Viola should be to work with a new president and help us get the leadership of the University pulled together and get the deans coordinated with what the senior executives are doing," he said.
He said Florez's biggest challenge will be winning people over and getting them to work
with her.
"She has a great style with people," he said. "People that know Viola like to work with her, and I'm confident that she will do
very well."
