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New Mexico Highlands President Sam Minner strongly believes in the transformative impact a university can have on both its students and the surrounding community. As the university’s 18th president, Dr. Minner has positioned New Mexico Highlands to confidently meet tomorrow’s educational landscape.

Motivated by his personal experience as a first-generation student, his mother was a homemaker, and his father worked as a miner, and a steelworker–Dr. Minner has introduced several initiatives during his three-year tenure as president that has enhanced the quality of Highlands University’s academic and cultural standing, including the launch of the university’s first terminal degree program in more than 50 years and a campus life initiative that brings nationally recognized performers representing diverse genres to the university.

Believing a strong, vibrant community is essential for a successful university, Dr. Minner serves on two local boards, MainStreet de Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Community Foundation, and has established partnerships with other institutions, nonprofits, government agencies, and private businesses to better and more broadly serve the people of New Mexico.

Dr. Minner attended Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, where he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees. He later graduated from the University of Arizona–Tucson where he earned a Ph.D. in cognitive disabilities. Dr. Minner worked as a faculty member at the University of Arizona and later at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky. Missing the Southwest, Dr. Minner returned and took a position at Northern Arizona University where he began his administrative career serving as coordinator of grants in the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE); interim associate executive director of the CEE; Department Chair; and other administrative postings.