Silver City, NM - Dr. Joseph Shepard will be officially installed as the fifteenth president of Western New Mexico University on Friday, October 7.
 
The inaugural ceremony, free and open to the public, will take place in the Fine Arts Center Theatre at 3:30 p.m. A reception for alumni, faculty, staff and students is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in the Thomas B. McDonald Student Memorial Center mall area. Other events are scheduled by invitation only.
 
The ceremony will be streamed live online at http://www.wnmu.edu/inauguration.
 
An unveiling ceremony of a new Mustang statue is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. in front of the Brancheau P.E. Complex Building. The statue was recently sculptured and donated to WNMU.

President Shepard was selected to lead WNMU on April 27, 2011 by the Board of Regents after a nationwide search. Shepard's tenure began July 1 after the retirement of Dr. John Counts who had served as president since 1993.
 
Prior to arriving at WNMU, President Shepard served as the Vice President for Administrative Services and Finance at Florida Gulf Coast University and has more than 15 years experience in senior level higher education leadership. He is married to his wife Marcela and has two children.
 
President Shepard announced his inauguration theme as Transforming the Future Together.
 
Located in Silver City, New Mexico, Western New Mexico University has served the people of the state of New Mexico and its surrounding areas as a comprehensive, regional, rural, public coeducational university since 1893 and caters to a student body diverse in age, culture, language and ethnic background.