A new chancellor has been named at Valencia County’s higher education institution.
Dr. Samuel Dosumu
New chancellor
University of New Mexico provost and executive vice president for academic affairs James Holloway named Dr. Samuel Dosumu as chancellor for the University of New Mexico-Valencia branch campus, on Friday, May 13.
“I am excited to welcome Dr. Sam Dosumu to UNM-Valencia as our new chancellor. Dr. Dosumu brings an array of experience to our campus; he has an infectious personality to share with everyone he meets,” said Paul Luna, UNM-Valencia campus Advisory Board chairman. “I hope everyone on campus and throughout Valencia County will welcome Dr. Dosumu, and will help him navigate through the many facets of overseeing the wonderful programs and great faculty and staff at Valencia campus.”
Dosumu fills the position held by Dr. Alice Letteney, who will retire from UNM on July 31, after serving as chancellor at UNM-Valencia for 27 years. Dosumu is excited to return to New Mexico and looks forward to serving as chancellor at UNM-Valencia.
“I’m excited to be selected as the next chancellor of UNM-Valencia campus. After learning a lot about the community, the campus, and the important role the campus plays in the economic and social profile of the county, I know it is the place for me to be,” Dosumu said. “I met the advisory board members, faculty and staff, and from our interactions, I was highly impressed with how UNM-Valencia is an important entity in Valencia County. I’m honored to be following Chancellor Alice Letteney, a leader with such extensive experience who has done a lot for the community and the campus.”
Holloway called Dosumu a wonderful new addition to the UNM-Valencia community.
“He is a great listener, has extensive experience working with high schools on joint programs with two-year schools, and on ensuring that branch campus students can pursue their academic aspirations,” Holloway said. “I’m excited to have Sam joining UNM.”
Dosumu has spent much of his 30-year career serving community colleges in Arizona, Colorado — Pueblo Community College — Iowa, North Carolina and New Mexico in a variety of positions including provost and vice president of academic affairs at Hawkeye Community College, associate vice chancellor of Academic Affairs at Maricopa County Community College, vice president of instructional services, Asheville Buncombe Technical Community College, and dean of business and information technology at San Juan College.
Dosumu said he looks forward to the continued engagement with the Valencia County community and cited the economic growth in the region as an important component to UNM-Valencia’s mission.
“I read a lot about the Valencia campus, as well as Valencia County in general, and learning of the big enterprises coming to the area and the growth the area is going through, I knew I would want our institution to be part of that growth. Working with our community partners, UNM-Valencia will continue to be a significant educational partner throughout the service region,” Dosumu said.
“The new Workforce Training Center will be the jewel of the region, as our campus reaches out to our business partners, and works with the region’s economic engine to attract more businesses to our area, where UNM-Valencia will continue to train new and current workers and create educational pipeline for our high school students to earn a college degree, or to learn skills they need to be successful in the workforce.”
A native of Lagos, Nigeria, Dosumu enjoys traveling and has done so extensively across Europe. He ventured in and out of short story writing, after completing a sequence of courses in creative writing. He enjoys writing articles on community college topics and has published in the San Juan Business Journal. For extracurricular activity, he enjoys playing soccer, tennis, skiing, biking and hiking.
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May 2, 2024
