We are proud to announce this year's recipients of the NM EPSCoR Mentoring Award: Catherine Brewer, Assistant Professor at New Mexico State University; Marty Kirk, Distinguished Professor at the University of New Mexico; and Juchao Yan, Professor at Eastern New Mexico University. Mentors are able to create a professional and social relationship with students that encourage them to take the next step in their careers through listening, advising, supporting, providing feedback, increasing students’ networks, and solving problems, to name a few roles and characteristics. Click to learn more about these outstanding mentors.

Chelsea Chee, our Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator, was honored last week by the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE)with their 2018 Rising Star Award. She traveled to Washington, D.C. to receive this honor. This prestigious award honors a person at the beginning of their career who has demonstrated exemplary leadership traits promoting access, equity, and diversity in education and/or the workforce.

New Mexico depends heavily on revenue generated by oil and gas extraction throughout the state, but significant environmental concerns remain about extraction and production, especially with regards to water use. Oil and gas production generates billions of gallons of what is referred to as "produced water", much of it with very high concentrations of dissolved solids, and much of it originates as fresh groundwater, a precious commodity in the desert southwest.

How do we build a more prosperous future for New Mexico that is driven by the tremendous potential of an innovation and high tech economy? How can we ensure that all of our students have the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and training to participate in the workforce of the future? These were the central questions for the Diversity Innovation Working Group (DIWG) that convened in Albuquerque in August 2017.

This year was a year of firsts and lasts. Near the beginning of the year, we honored Dr. Michael Heagy and Dr. Jose Cerrato with our very first NM EPSCoR Mentoring Award.