New Mexico State University’s Outreach Conference will be held on November 14th and 15th at the Las Cruces Convention Center. The conference is free to attend. To learn more about the upcoming conference, Anthony Moreno talked with Dr. Luis Cifuentes, Vice President for the Office of Research, Creativity and Economic Development at New Mexico State University.
Transcript:
Anthony Moreno: Dr. Cifuentes, thank you for joining us.
Dr. Luis Cifuentes: Thank you for inviting me.
Anthony Moreno: The name of this conference is “Amplifying Outreach through Education, Health, and Economic Development." What can attendees expect with this event?
Dr. Luis Cifuentes: Well, we think we have a a really exciting series of panels and breakout sessions specifically on those three areas, economic development, health, and education. The whole thing starts off with the welcome, Debbie Moore from the Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce, Senator Bill Soles and President John Hummer from BCOMM are going to get things going, but they were going to go into various sessions, one of them having to do with the role of cooperative extension, social determinants of health, health disparities. Former Governor Carruthers, former President of New Mexico State University, is going to be the keynote, so that's an exciting occasion. A series of breakout panels addressing health, education, and economic development in the afternoon and then the NMSU Foundation is going to have a reception where everyone's invited. And here's the thing, all of this is free and the parking is free because it's at the Las Cruces Convention Center.
Anthony Moreno: One thing I do want to talk with you about is the economic development conversations. Can you share a little bit about the conversations that will be happening on social transformation, border development, and New Mexico State University’s plan?
Dr. Luis Cifuentes: We're going to have a really interesting breakout that the College of Health, Education and Social Transformation is going to be putting out. They're going to be asking a really important question do we need to redefine what economic development is. So, from a university perspective, we typically think of economic development in three primary ways, mostly through our graduates that then go on to contribute to the workforce, through what we call knowledge exchange, where we exchange knowledge with industry, business agencies, et cetera, and then through commercialization and tech transfer. But the College of HEST is going to ask the question, is that a narrow way of looking at economic development. Particularly in an area like we live in. We are on the border. We have an unusually large number of individuals that are not in economically strong positions. What is the role of the university in that environment, compared to places like Silicon Valley or Boston?
Anthony Moreno: What are some of the conversations that are happening in your department about that issue and how the university may need to think about economic development with the communities in our region for the future?
Dr. Luis Cifuentes: Well, I'll be honest with you and tell you that my office is relatively new. As a result of this organizational change that took place here this summer, bringing in Interim President Gogue. I went from being the Office of Research, Creativity and Strategic Initiatives to the Office of Research, Creativity and Economic Development. I think it's fair to say that the conversation about the particular role of New Mexico State as a land grant as an institution that serves a very special population with economic, educational and health needs, that we have to approach this thing differently than this traditional three mode model I just discussed. Frankly, the question is how, and those conversations are new, but they're exciting and they are part of what you are going to hear about if you come to this conference.
Anthony Moreno: Dr. Luis Cifuentes is Vice president for the Office of Research, Creativity and Economic Development at New Mexico State University. Dr. Cifuentes, thank you for joining us.
Dr. Luis Cifuentes: Thank you for inviting me.
