College names president finalists

ESPANOLA -- Northern New Mexico College is expected to announce its new president shortly after Thanksgiving following a search committee’s interviews and community forums with four finalists for the job.

Contenders are

• outgoing New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas;

• state Higher Education Deputy Secretary Patricia Trujillo, an Española Valley native who was a tenured professor at Northern and served as founding director of the college’s Office of Equity and Diversity;

• Bruno Hicks, vice president of academic affairs at Dalton State College in Dalton, Ga.,

• and Yueh-Ting Lee, a professor in the applied psychology program at Southern Illinois University.

Finalists were announced Oct. 7.

Hicks is also a finalist for the chancellor position at Eastern New Mexico University, which is expected to be named on Nov. 29, according to ENMU officials.