The UNM Foundation elected several new members to its Board of Trustees this month.
The board’s new national vice-chair, Stephanie Bennett-Smith, received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UNM and said being a Lobo runs in her family.
“My mother was associate registrar, and I began working registration days when I was 13,” she said. “My brother worked at the SUB … (and) my uncle was a faculty member.”
Bennett-Smith is one of six new officers appointed to the board. The board also appointed Gary Gordon to be chairman, Carl Alongi as vice-chair/chair elect, Ray Ziler as assistant treasurer, and Peter Johnstone as secretary.
Board President Henry Nemcik said he is looking forward to working with the board’s recently elected members.
“We are so fortunate to work with this group of trustees, and this new slate of officers,” he said. “Their expertise and experience is vital to positioning the foundation to do an excellent job of helping donors connect with meaningful opportunities to support learning, research, patient care and student success at UNM.”
Newly appointed chairman Gordon said he is a fourth-generation New Mexican who graduated from UNM summa cum laude with a business degree and studied at UNM’s law school. He said the foundation chooses board members with a wide variety of experiences.
“The Board is carefully composed of trustees who love the University, but who also bring an incredible diversity of formal education, life experiences and talents,” he said.
He said many board members have served for more than five years.
Board officers are nominated and elected by the board.
The UNM Foundation is a private, volunteer-run fundraising organization that helps to fund University scholarships, research and athletics.
Foundation spokeswoman Wendy Antonio said the foundation’s goal is to assist those who donate to and serve the University. Its latest fundraising campaign, Changing Worlds: The Campaign for UNM, aims to raise $675 million by 2014.
“The trustees’ work impacts every student who receives a scholarship, embarks on a research project, takes classes from an endowed professor, attends a sponsored lecture series, cheers at a game in a good venue, or benefits from a great learning space or program supported through private donations,” Antonio said.
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She said trustees serve as volunteers without compensation, working as the foundation’s primary representatives in the community. The board of the organization also includes leaders from the University including President David Schmidly and Jack Fortner, president of the Board of Regents.
“All of us are grateful to have a slate of officers and a Board of Trustees of such high caliber to help us move forward,” Antonio said.
