IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3-17-06  CONTACT:  PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE

            SILVER CITY—The community is invited to join the Western New Mexico University Chicana/o Faculty Caucus and the Multicultural Affairs/Student Activities Office in welcoming School of Education Dean Dr. Patricia Manzanares-Gonzales.

            A welcome reception is planned on Friday, March 31, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Thomas B. McDonald Student Memorial Center Seminar Room located on the third floor of the facility.

            SOE Dean Manzanares-Gonzales is a native New Mexican with some 27 years of experience in education.  She assumed the duties of Dean for the School of Education on January 17, 2006.  She worked at Highlands University for 12 years before accepting the position of SOE Dean at WNMU.

Manzanares-Gonzales earned a bachelor of arts degree in elementary education with a minor in special education, a master of arts degree in elementary education with a reading emphasis, and a master of arts degree in educational administration at NM Highlands University.  She also earned a doctorate in education degree in educational leadership from Northern Arizona University specializing in the areas of curriculum and instruction, educational leadership, organizational behavior, and distributed/distance education.

She has been married for 28 years to Dr. Phillip L. Gonzales, a practicing School Psychologist.  The couple has two children, a daughter who is a captain in the Air Force as a Judge Advocate General (lawyer), and a son who just transferred to WNMU from UNM for this semester. He is a political science and history major.

-30-