Alumni Award Recipients

Amy Wohlert
Zia Award, 2010

In today's world of bluster and agitation, of noise and interruption, of demands without reciprocation, it's good we have Amy Wohlert.

When the world around her is in an uproar, Amy stays calm. When a situation becomes heated, Amy considers how best to de-escalate it . . . and somehow manages to. When pressed to speak, Amy thinks carefully about what she says.

In today's campus environment of doom-and-gloom budget scenarios, of increasing demands and decreasing resources, and sometimes of jumbled priorities, it's good we have Amy Wohlert.

Amy earned her bachelor's and master's degrees at UNM and her doctorate in communications disorders from Northwestern University. After teaching at Ohio State and Purdue, she returned to UNM in 2000 to chair the Speech and Hearing Sciences department.

But within 4 years, the UNM administration drafted her as interim associate provost of academic affairs. The joint position of vice provost for graduate education and dean of graduate studies followed. She was soon drafted again to fill the role of interim Dean of the Anderson School of Business. In 2009 she returned full-time to her job as dean of Graduate Studies.

Amy is a bright light in the administration. How can she keep on shining?

Mostly, she focuses on students. Her assistant says she takes students into account with every decision she makes.

Students talk with her. She never says no when they ask to speak with her, even if she ultimately redirects them to their own dean.

Writing about the students at Anderson when she left there, Amy revealed her approach to students in general. She wrote:

. . . that she was swept up by the enthusiasm of the students
. . . that watching their talents develop made her job fun and the school's future bright
. . . that she would take some of the students' accumulated energy back with her to Graduate Studies because students, with their boundless desire to do well, do good, and do right, are the ultimate renewable resource.

While there’s no belittling resources of spirit, those of cash are good, too. Just this week Amy and the Office of Graduate Studies learned that her proposal to establish a Graduate Resource Center at UNM had been approved to the tune of $570,000 annually for the next five years. The Title V grant is directed at serving Hispanic students primarily but will benefit and be open to all graduate students.

It’s good we have Amy to remind educators to keep their ideals as their beacons and student success as their goal, and to find joy and pleasure in the enthusiasm of their students.

It’s also good we have you here, Amy, to receive our thanks, our congratulations, and our Zia Award.