New Mexico State University issued the following announcement on Jan. 19
New Mexico State University’s newest college – the College of Health, Education and Social Transformation – is planning a series of roundtables to discuss solutions to current issues.
The first roundtable of the college’s Community Conversations series will feature community members and NMSU faculty and staff, who will all discuss teacher and health care workforce shortages. The discussion will take place at 4 p.m. Jan. 21 via Zoom at https://nmsu.zoom.us/j/99800523188.
“This is a great opportunity to engage with all stakeholders regarding critical shortages related to health care, education and community impact,” said Henrietta Pichon, interim dean of the College of HEST. “We hope all will tune in to the first of several roundtables.”
Cecilia Hernandez, college associate professor in science education and clinical director of the Alternative Licensure program at NMSU, is a member of the college’s transition committee, which was started soon after the College of HEST was approved by the NMSU Board of Regents in May 2021. The college consists of the former education and health and social services colleges, and the Department of Sociology, which was formerly housed in the College of Arts & Sciences.
Hernandez said the committee came up with the idea for Community Conversations as a way to find opportunities for collaboration with the community and with other NMSU faculty and staff.
“We wanted to get the word out to the community that we are now one college,” Hernandez said. “Our teacher education, nursing and social work programs do a lot of similar things as far as clinical practice and working in the community, and we’d also like to find research opportunities and opportunities to impact the community in a positive way.”
The first roundtable will feature Hernandez, Juanita Hannan and Patrick Mendoza from the College of HEST, and Abel Covarrubias, CEO of the Aprendamos Family of Services, which provides early intervention services for children 3 and younger and their families.
Two other roundtable discussions are still being planned, and Hernandez said the committee is still gathering ideas for future roundtables.
For more information, contact Hernandez at cecimh@nmsu.edu.
Original source can be found here.