Long before they purchased a building together to co-locate their new practices – Juliette Eye Institute and Retina Consultants of New Mexico – Robert Melendez, MD ’00, and C. Nathaniel Roybal, MD, PhD ’07, had a relationship that began through mentorship at The University of New Mexico School of Medicine.

Besides their alma mater, Melendez and Roybal share much in common. Both are successful, driven and innovative. Both are highly respected ophthalmologists who left long-term professional partnerships to start private practices in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both practices share an office building and are dedicated to providing world-class care and exceptional patient experiences.

And, perhaps most importantly, both have dedicated time, energy and imagination to serve and improve their beloved New Mexico medical community by mentoring the next generation of physicians.

“I’m passionate about it because I had many great mentors myself, such as Dr. Frank Marez, ’77,” Melendez says. “I value when someone takes time to give back. When a student reaches out to me with questions, I think back to how I felt when someone helped me get to the next level. [Becoming a physician] is like climbing a 100-step incline, and I see my role as helping with one of those steps.”

While he has mentored at least 30 students during his career as volunteer faculty at UNM, Melendez has also touched the national stage as a member and chair of the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Young Ophthalmologist Committee.

“I developed business resources for young ophthalmologists, and oversaw the online ONE Network program, developing the first-ever educational app for ophthalmologists around the world,” he says. A popular feature is the ONE Minute Video series, providing extracted footage of the most difficult parts of surgeries.

A passionate innovator, Melendez also founded the Juliette RP Vision Foundation, named, like his practice, in honor of his mother, whose diagnosis with retinitis pigmentosa catalyzed his career choice as a young boy. The foundation awards scholarships to visually impaired students and research grants to young scientists conducting retina research.

Melendez, who obtained an MBA from the UNM Anderson School of Management, is also passionate about business mentoring. He founded a digital and print magazine, Ophthalmology Business Minute, and published a book on leadership, Focus on Your Passion, Not the Position. He will also publish a second business book in the coming months.

Roybal shares that passion for business. He founded Retina Consultants of New Mexico with a larger vision in mind.

“I started my private practice not only to provide patients with the experience of world-class care and a chance to have a relationship with their doctor, but also because being a business owner allows me to become a different kind of leader and mentor in New Mexico,” he says.

“I believe sole practitioners and independent practices are the future of medicine in New Mexico. Small physician-owned practices is how we’ll take care of our rural areas. I want to help mentor physicians through the process of opening their own clinics.”

Growing up in northern New Mexico in a family of nine kids, Roybal never knew a physician beside his family pediatrician. Luckily, he decided to pursue a career in medicine. Community physicians are an important resource for young students thinking about the possibility of a career in medicine. They are often the only link between students and medicine.

“Mentorship is everything,” Roybal says. “I mentor undergraduates, medical students, residents and fellows because they are the only legacy we will leave in medicine. The medical profession is about human connection and mentorship is how we recruit and retain our best people. Mentorship is the anchor that links all of our current experiences to the possibilities of tomorrow.”

Roybal credits mentors in his PhD program with teaching him a love of science, however when he knew he had an interest in learning about ophthalmology on the clinical side, “I was fortunate to run into Rob Melendez, and other UNM ophthalmologists like Arup Das, who took me under their wing and gave me the confidence and belief in myself to apply to an ophthalmology residency.

“Our greatest successes come from someone identifying those characteristics and talents that will eventually make us great and pushing us, ‘the baby eagles’ – out of the nest. Mentors know we can fly well before we realize that for ourselves.”

That nudge out of the nest for Roybal culminated in a prestigious EyeSTAR post-doctoral fellowship and residency at UCLA, followed by a retina fellowship at the University of Iowa.

Both physicians are also active in research mentoring.

Dr. Roybal has been the principal investigator in several landmark clinical trials, is a key opinion leader in ophthalmic imaging and is currently heavily involved in the development of artificial intelligence protocols for the detection and treatment of diabetic retinopathy. He mentors medical and undergraduate students and helps them submit abstracts, give presentations and get published.

Research is the best way to stay on the cutting edge and have a tremendous impact on medicine,” he says.

Melendez, who also has a master of science degree, recently rekindled his passion for research, submitting independent institutional training grant applications to look at ways to improve outcomes after cataract and LASIK surgery.

Roybal recently became president of the UNM School of Medicine Alumni Association (a role Melendez has previously held), and views his term of service as a chance to magnify the organization’s role as cheerleader for New Mexico physicians.

“We ultimately want our medical students to be successful and we want them to join our community of New Mexico physicians,” he says. “The association can provide avenues for mentorship for our students to come home with strong support and a safety net. We want to grow and develop outreach for our residents and become an even stronger voice for students.

New Mexico is a fantastic place to practice medicine. I couldn’t imagine any other state where a physician could have a bigger impact on the community."

For Roybal, Melendez and other mentors played a critical role in his own return to New Mexico.

“My mentors said, ‘I’m practicing in New Mexico, I’m doing very well, it’s great for my family, and I love it.’ This type of insight is critical when you are making long-term decisions. It is a dream come true to get the training I’ve gotten [and] to be able to practice in my home state and use my training to its maximal potential.”

“My 'why,'” Melendez says, “is to contribute, and I do that by challenging the status quo to try to find a better way, which is something I pass on to mentees: find a better way, whether it’s to start a foundation, a practice or a business magazine. I’ve mentored high school, college, medical students, young ophthalmologists – it reminds us of why we’re alive. Nothing can replace that kind of ‘payment.’”

Although their relationship started as a one-to-one mentorship, Roybal and Melendez are living proof of the ripple effects of that mentoring relationship and its ability to bridge the past with the present, shaping a vibrant future of medicine in New Mexico and its countless students, patients, physicians and communities. Mentorship is rewarding, and if you get really lucky your mentees will become lifelong friends.

Dear Friends,

I have spoken often in the past year of the inspiration I experienced serving alongside a network of individuals dedicated to the work and mission of The University of New Mexico School of Medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone at our institution inspired me. Their work and commitment has been monumental.

As the vaccine continues to roll out, we are invigorated by new hope. I am especially grateful to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Department of Health Sec. Tracie Collins, MD, MPH, Deputy Sec. Laura Parajón, MD, and Human Services Department Sec. David Scrase, MD, for their unwavering work of leading our state through this crisis. Drs. Collins, Parajón and Scrase are all UNM School of Medicine faculty.

I see a cautious sense of relief in our faculty, staff and learners and share their obvious gratitude for this new line of defense against the disease.

As we make our way through and past this very challenging time, I applaud Dr. Douglas Ziedonis, Executive Vice President for Health Sciences and Chief Executive Officer of the UNM Health System, Dr. Michael Richards, Vice-Chancellor for Clinical Affairs, UNM Health System and the entire health system for their leadership. Our CEOs, Kate Becker at UNM Hospital, Jamie Silva-Steele at UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center, and Dr. Robb McLean at UNM Medical Group, Inc., have all been remarkable.

Most importantly, thank you to those on the front line who care for patients in every imaginable way — providers of medical care, housekeeping, food services, supply chain, etc.

Thank you also to our educators and researchers — faculty, staff and learners — who have changed and adapted time after time, creating a workforce for health care and researching to discover and implement new knowledge and treatments.

We have been at the forefront of treating patients and we are taking the lead to end this crisis by turning The Pit, UNM’s indoor sports arena, into a mass vaccine distribution center. UNM Health continues to play an incredibly important role in helping New Mexico become one of the most vaccinated states in the country.

I recognize that it is now time – and imperative – that just as our patients, communities and nation begin to recover, so too must our faculty and staff begin to take some much-needed time for wellness and recovery.

As more of the country is vaccinated, we slowly make efforts to reconnect with one another. While we still cannot gather as much as we would like, now is a unique time for reconnecting in new and innovative ways.

The Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations has launched the “Lobo MD Connect the Pack” survey , which I encourage you to complete. This is an opportunity to update your contact information, make your voice heard and inform the Alumni Association about the benefits you would like to receive as an alumnus. We want to stay connected with you and to connect you with your classmates and colleagues from across the nation.

I hope this edition of UNM Medicine, like the vaccine, will give you hope and anticipation for a renewed connection with us. I hope the stories of mentorship inspire you to believe in the power of coming together to serve the community. I also hope that, if you are in a position to do so, you consider making a monetary donation to the School of Medicine through the UNM Foundation. Your generosity goes a long way in supporting our school’s mission.

May you, and your families, stay healthy and safe. Take good care of yourself and the ones you love. Please continue to follow COVID-safe guidelines to keep our communities moving in the right direction. You are all in my thoughts and heart.

With warm regards,

Martha Cole McGrew, MD
Interim Dean, UNM School of Medicine

When Laura McCutcheon, MSPAS ’15, enrolled in The University of New Mexico School of Medicine's physician assistant (PA) program, she knew she wanted to specialize in rural primary care. But like most PA students, she was anxious about being the only provider in a remote location without another medical professional to help.

Now, as a clinical lecturer and preceptor in the PA program, McCutcheon teaches students that not only is this an unfounded fear, but also that rural health care can be an eye-opening and fulfilling opportunity.

McCutcheon had lived in Peñasco, N.M., since 2003 and spent one of her clinical rotations there. After graduating in 2015, she returned to work at the El Centro Family Health Clinic and the Peñasco school-based health clinic (SBHC).

Doing rural medicine fits my personality,” McCutcheon says. “I really like the challenges of not having everything available to us here and really having to work with what we have.

McCutcheon says that one advantage of being a rural provider is genuinely getting to know the community. She is most proud of the relationships she has built with her teen patients at the SBHC, which has also expanded to their families in her practice at El Centro.

“I think it’s allowed a large degree of trust and integration into people’s lives, where I’m seeing multiple generations of the same family throughout their life spans,” she says.

Despite knowing her community well before becoming a PA, McCutcheon was still surprised by the socioeconomic disparities she discovered upon her return. “I think working in health care enlightened me as to how deep those disparities are and how limited our resources are in rural New Mexico,” she says.

This is why McCutcheon believes it is important for PA students from UNM to rotate in clinics like hers and hopefully specialize in rural primary care. “It’s really beneficial to the students to come up here and see what it’s like,” she says.

McCutcheon thinks that even if students do not choose to specialize in rural primary care, it is still important for them to understand and appreciate what happens to their patients after discharge, including the patients’ living situations and access to resources in rural areas. She appreciates that UNM’s PA program strongly encourages its students to rotate as much as possible in the more remote parts of New Mexico.

As a preceptor herself, McCutcheon hopes that she helps PA students appreciate the importance of rural health care and even sways some of them to follow her example. “That’s one thing I hope to impart to people is how needed we are and how fun it can be.”

Brooklyn Cochrane started her third-year medical school rotation at Piñon Family Practice in Farmington, N.M., in the spring of 2020. But after only two weeks, the COVID -19 pandemic forced a halt to rotations for Cochrane and her fellow UNM medical students.

For the many students across the country who had been placed in rural rotations, this would be a lost opportunity to experience the unique benefits and challenges of rural medicine. But thanks to Brooklyn’s own upbringing, she had already acquired hours of community-based medical education under her mentor in medicine and friend in music, Joseph Pope, MD ’91.

Pope, a former Navy corpsman, talented viola player and 1991 graduate of The University of New Mexico School of Medicine, completed his residency through the University of Colorado at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo.

While at St. Mary’s, Pope became friends with Kristen Cochrane, a nurse who shared his passion for music. Shortly after moving to Farmington with her husband, Keith Cochrane, former director of Instrumental Music at San Juan College, Kristen convinced Pope and his family to move there as well.

The first baby that Pope delivered in Farmington was Brooklyn – Kristen and Keith’s daughter. It was a beautiful beginning to Brooklyn’s musical and medical connection with Pope.

Brooklyn had a passion for music from an early age, but it was not until her music teacher became ill that Brooklyn began to take interest in medicine as well.

“I reached out to Dr. Pope and I asked, ‘Can I come and shadow you and see what you do?’” Brooklyn said. “He just welcomed me with open arms. Whatever I wanted to do – if I wanted to follow him, if I wanted to follow one of his PAs or any of the other doctors involved there.”

After shadowing Pope for the first time, Brooklyn’s interest in medical practice became a passion for community medicine.

“I remember leaving the first time after shadowing thinking, ‘This is what I was meant to do, like this is where I want to be,’” she said. “These people are so nice and so caring and not just about the health of the community but also the well-being of their patients.’”

Pope said Brooklyn was fearless. “We let her do stuff. ‘You want to give this a shot? Do you want to do this procedure?’” he said. “And she would say, ‘Where are my gloves? Let’s go do it.’”

Pope believes every physician is ultimately a mentor, because they have to teach their patients. It is no surprise that he sees value in mentoring students as well. He estimates that more than 100 students have shadowed the physicians in his office since he founded Piñon Family Practice in 1998, and he knows the mutual benefits of clinic-based education.

“Students do take up time . . . there is always a downside to having a student around, but the upside is they keep asking you questions. We try to put the student in the position of becoming the teacher. There are a lot of reasons that having them around makes us better. They challenge us.”

Taking students has always been a part of the strategic plan for Piñon Family Practice, Pope said.

“We had in our long-term plan, ‘We need to have students. We need to help, especially those from the Four Corners, with experience,’” he said. “Our ulterior, long-term motive is to recruit someone and have them fill our shoes, so we can leave. And they can take care of the practice, and they can take care of us.”

The plan is working. Recently, Piñon retained a new family doctor, William Curtis Young, MD ’16, the son of Bill Young, MS ’02, a long-time physician assistant at the clinic. Like Brooklyn, Piñon’s newest physician spent much of his formative years learning from providers at the practice.

“We have known him all his life – shadowing at every opportunity,” Pope said. “We thought of our future as including him, and that is the most amazing example of what we are trying to do.”

Brooklyn’s specialty choice was also impacted by her time with Pope at Piñon. “His passion inspired me to go out on my own and get to know this [family medicine] community better, so I got a job at Presbyterian working with their Women’s Services department.”

When it was clear what Brooklyn wanted her career to look like, she asked Pope for a little more advice: “Where should I go to [medical] school to get the best shot at a career like this?”

Naturally, Pope recommended UNM, where he was influenced by family medicine mentors of his own, including emeritus faculty members Burt Umland and Warren Heffren. “Dr. Pope’s emphasis of not only the patient but also the community comes from UNM,” Brooklyn said. “They really emphasize that, not only in family medicine, but in everything.”

When third-year rotations approached, Brooklyn was eager to put all she had learned at UNM into practice at Piñon once again. “Rotation with [Dr. Pope] was going to be the pinnacle,” she said. “I had come to this point where I could be helpful in clinic and see patients on my own.”

Unfortunately, COVID-19 cut the rotation short. It even halted Brooklyn’s plans to play her oboe in a musical concert with Pope. Despite some disappointments, the short rotation offered one final and lasting impact on Brooklyn, as she was able to experience early response to the pandemic with the Piñon team.

As time would tell, the Farmington community was among the hardest hit by the virus in New Mexico, and Brooklyn was impressed by the team’s quick response, setting up one of the first tent testing sites in the state. “They made a big impact on that community for sure,” Brooklyn said.

Brooklyn will take what she learned in the short rotation at the start of a pandemic and years of mentorship from Pope with her into the next phase of her medical education journey – a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Hawaii.

Before The University of New Mexico School of Medicine was founded in 1964, private practice neurosurgeons would staff the Bernalillo County Indian Hospital and travel to rural towns in New Mexico with a packet of instruments to conduct surgical procedures.

They treated a wide variety of problems, including spinal tuberculosis and frequent pituitary tumors. But the groundwork laid by founding faculty, like Michael Pollay, MD, enabled the school to develop into the institution able to provide deep resources for surgical education and community health known throughout the country today. se treatments are generally available.

Pollay completed his medical doctorate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1955 and surgical education at the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, where he ultimately became the chief resident in neurosurgery. By 1963, he was recruited to Albuquerque to serve as an instructor and to help establish the new medical school.

At the time of his arrival in New Mexico, there was no UNM Health Sciences campus. Pollay and other founding faculty members worked out of the Indian Hospital, and early anatomy labs for the school were set up in a nearby abandoned 7-Up bottling plant.

Pollay developed an intense clinical service in Albuquerque before there was an intensive care unit or trauma center. He and Ralph Kaplan, MD, assisted by a surgical or orthopedic resident, shared every other night call. Pollay also conducted research and developed a laboratory to study cerebralspinal fluid physiology. While on the faculty he helped to develop the curriculum and training programs for the new medical school. Eventually, Pollay rose to professor of Neurosurgery and Physiology.

In 1976, he left the UNM School of Medicine to join the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine faculty as professor and chair of Neurosurgery, a position he held until 1994.

Pollay derived the greatest joy in his professional and scientific career from his role as a teacher of the many students, interns, residents and fellows with whom he worked. Even after his departure from UNM, he and his wife Peggy, a retired nurse, established an endowed scholarship through La Tierra Sagrada Society, a group formed to support the financial needs of medical students.

Pollay passed away after a lengthy respiratory illness in February 2021. His expertise and passion for education, as well as his service to the people of New Mexico, are greatly appreciated and fondly remembered. You can submit remembrances and learn more about his life and career in neurosurgery at the UNM School of Medicine’s Virtual Faculty Memorial webpage.

Seventy years ago, my father was born into a farming family outside of Shahrekord, my ancestral home in Iran. It was an impoverished household of calm commitment to their collective struggle. The economics of small farming trapped the family because it provided enough food and money to survive but offered no surplus in capital to empower a change in the household’s trajectory. The reality of their situation was felt by all.

My grandmother always had food prepared (usually bread, eggs or yogurt) but every meal was devoid of meat, an expensive luxury unavailable to them. The children trod the four miles to school in shoes that were two sizes too big, a strategy to lengthen the shoe’s life. My grandfather would forego new work shoes altogether. Consequently, at the end of a work day, my father would massage his father’s feet with different lotions but no matter how hard he tried, he could never make his Dad’s feet soft again.

Our subscription to the legacy of poverty and famine abruptly ended with my grandfather because he knew subsequent generations would suffer without a forceful change in our family’s trajectory. He prohibited the children from farming ever again and each was expected to pursue careers in business or academia with money sent home to pay for help on the farm. He pushed his children to emigrate and sacrificed the continuity of generations in his presence so that a new family legacy may be forged.

Today, at family celebrations such as No-Rooz (New Year), I am surrounded by my Dad’s generation, all business owners, doctors and professors. They are a unique embodiment of the American Dream because their success required separation from the ones that came before them. I am a continuation of their story and that courageous decision made by my grandfather so long ago.

A glass bottle flew past my father’s head and shattered at the bottom of a dark stairwell. At first, he did not realize the bottle was meant for him.

After my father served two years in the Iranian military, a requirement of all male citizens, my parents scraped together $900 for their journey to the United States. My mother studied nursing and my father studied electrical and computer engineering. My father worked the night shift at a local diner for $2.50 an hour to make ends meet.

Shortly after my parents arrived, anti-Iranian sentiment flooded the country with news of the hostage crisis. My parents witnessed the transformation of American public opinion towards Iranians. Once welcomed, my father now had to dodge glass bottles hurled in the night as he descended from his university apartment. His dark hair and thick accent made him the target of racial slurs and he ceased to be Mr. Ahmadian, he was The Iranian. These events were over 10 years before I began my own journey in America.

I stand on the shoulders of paladins, my forefathers, who severed family ties for the good of children and grandchildren they had yet to meet. It is the tapestry of their sacrifices that propel my mission to better the lives of those around me and this country that I call my own. This is why I train to become a physician-scientist.

As my ancestors did for me, I hope to empower my patients and their families to write the next chapter on their terms.

Dear UNM School of Medicine Alumni,

It is a true privilege to write to the entire network of UNM School of Medicine alumni as your 2021 Alumni Association president.

Graduating with the School of Medicine’s first MD/PhD class and returning to serve New Mexicans as a vitreoretinal surgeon are two of my proudest accomplishments. We have great opportunities in the years ahead to utilize the Alumni Association as a tool to support our practicing physicians as they serve our fellow New Mexicans. You’ll see we have efforts to hear directly from you in the coming year.

As you read this magazine, you’ll find articles highlighting alumni who have mentored School of Medicine students.

This year and into the future, the Alumni Association will work to establish more opportunities for you to actualize your role in a mentor relationship. The “Meet Your Match” campaign pairs the newest graduates of the MD program with alumni who already practice in their specialty of interest. Please consider lending some of your time and talents to mentor one of our students.

I’d like to invite you to attend our upcoming virtual town hall with Douglas Ziedonis, MD, MPH, Executive Vice President for Health Sciences and CEO of the UNM Health System, and Martha Cole McGrew, MD, interim dean of the School of Medicine. I hope this town hall becomes an annual event where alumni can interact with decision makers and help shape the agenda, not just for the association but within the School of Medicine. We hope to hear about your specific ideas.

In the coming year, the Alumni Association will also bolster efforts to recruit our graduating alumni back to our state. Look for upcoming events to connect our residents with employers within our state. New Mexico is a beautiful place with a rich and diverse culture. As alumni we have a powerful voice and a perspective of gratitude that needs to be heard by our prospective colleagues as they make these important life decisions.

Thank you for taking some time with UNM Medicine. I hope it will spur you to take action, get involved, become a mentor and use your voice to help us recruit physicians. 

Thank you for all of your support. You are the School of Medicine’s proudest accomplishment.

Sincerely,

C. Nathaniel Roybal, MD, PhD ’07

President, Alumni Association
UNM School of Medicine

BOARD REPORT

UNM SCHOOL OF MEDICINE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

C. Nathaniel Roybal, MD, PhD ’07 (President)
Alisha Parada, MD ’08 (Treasurer/Vice President)
Jennifer Phillips, MD ’01 (Immediate Past President)
Lawrence Andrade, MD ’00
Manuel Archuleta, MD ’73
Valerie Carrejo, MD ’04
Dion Gallant, MD ’99
Angela Gallegos-Macias, MD ’02
Albert Kwan, MD ’83
Mario Leyba, MD ’04
Robert Melendez, ’08
Daphne Olsen, ’17
Mario Pacheco, ‘86
Valerie Romero-Leggott, MD ’92
Linda Stogner, MD ’83

STUDENT & RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVES

Deanna Gonzales, MS ’21
Jessica K. Benally, MS ’22

EX-OFFICIO MEMBER

Martha Cole McGrew, MD
Interim Dean, UNM School of Medicine

ADVANCEMENT AND ALUMNI RELATIONS

CHIEF ADVANCEMENT AND EXTERNAL RELATIONS OFFICER
Ashley Salazar

MARKETING MANAGER
Bridgette Wagner Jones

 PROGRAM MANAGER
Erika Anderson

PROGRAM SPECIALIST
Ryan Niemi

EVENTS PLANNER
Ruth Morgan

PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR
Ashley Hatcher

STUDENT WORKER
Bryan Marquez

CONTACT
UNM School of Medicine
Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations
MSC 08 4720 • Fitz Hall #182B
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
505.272.5112

Cheers and applause filled the Zoom space on Monday, March 15, as graduating UNM School of Medicine students eagerly opened their emails to discover where they matched for residency.

Match Day is an annual rite of passage. Fourth-year medical students across the country learn simultaneously where they will spend the next three to five years of their lives completing their medical training. This year, the UNM School of Medicine’s Match Day was the first (and hopefully last) to be held virtually.

Of the 83 members of the class of 2021, 24 (about 29%) matched in New Mexico and 23 of those matched at the UNM School of Medicine. That bodes well for the future physician workforce in New Mexico, because physicians typically decide where to practice based on where they performed their residency.

Nationally, more than 35,000 graduating medical students matched for first-year residency positions, with nearly half in primary care specialties, according to the National Residency Matching Program. The 2021 match cycle was the largest match on record with an increase of 2.7% from last year.

Years ago, as a UNM School of Medicine student, Teresa A. Vigil, MD ’03, thought she was on the path to pursue a career in oncology.

But that all changed when she began her pediatrics rotation, which led to a residency in pediatrics in 2003.

“I felt good about going to work every day,” she recalls.

And she still does, even if her patient visits are conducted over Zoom due to COVID-19, instead of at The University of New Mexico Hospital.

“One of my favorite things to do is have a conversation with a kid,” says Vigil, adding that it also gives her an excuse to keep up with the latest comic books and Marvel characters.

These days, she asks her young patients how they’re doing. Are they sleeping OK? “‘How are you doing since you can’t see your friends at school?’ I talk to families and kids about (the pandemic),” she says.

A professor in the UNM Department of Pediatrics, Vigil completed her residency at UNM in 2006 and continued on as chief resident from 2006-2007. She has been in Pediatrics ever since, becoming a full professor last year. She’s also the assistant dean of students in the Office of Medical Student Affairs.

Around the UNM Health Sciences campus, Teresa A. Vigil (pronounced Teh-DEH-sa) is known affectionately by her colleagues and students as “TV.” “It distinguishes me from other people,” she says. “Just call me TV.”

Vigil grew up in Las Vegas, N.M., and comes from a family with a long history in the state. She credits her close-knit family as being her inspiration. Her mother taught 1st grade and her father was a professor of political science at New Mexico Highlands University.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere without my parents,” she says. “They always encouraged me to do exactly what I wanted to do. That thinking and encouragement got me here.”

Before applying to medical school, she earned her undergraduate degree in biology at UNM and worked at TriCore Reference Laboratories at UNMH for a couple of years. She began medical school in 1999.

“I was convinced that I was going to do medical oncology,” she says. “I had an uncle who had a brain tumor, and that’s probably where it (my interest in medicine) started. I loved hematology and oncology. In my third year, I gravitated to patients with cancer. But when I got to pediatrics, I felt like I was home.”

She decided to pursue the chief residency so that she could learn about administrative roles. “I felt like I could handle things pretty well,” Vigil says. “It just felt right that I could use the organizational skills that I was born with.”

Mentoring medical students is a big part of the job. Vigil draws on her own experiences of being mentored. “I really, really try to listen to what they want to do before I make a decision on how to help them,” she says.

“I just try to remember they’re unique. I ask them, ‘What’s your background? What have you done? What are your experiences?’ I can get an idea of where they want to go. I’m not there to influence them. I’m there to keep them on track for something they want to do.”

In 2014, Vigil transitioned to working with medical students in the Office of Medical Student Affairs, a role that she loves.

“I get to act like a shepherd, nudging students where they should go,” she says. But, she adds, “I’m not like a person shepherd.”

Vigil describes herself as being more like a German shepherd. “I use that analogy,” she says. “I’m actually nipping at their toes and nudging them with my nose.”

She loves watching the “incredible metamorphosis” students go through. “In their fourth year, they’re physicians,” she says. “They come in wanting to take care of people, and they walk out of here ready to care for them.”

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Questions? Contact Erika Anderson at emanderson@salud.unm.edu 

managing editor
Ashley Salazar

creative director
Bridgette Wagner Jones

editors
Michael Haederle, Alexandria Sanchez, Elizabeth Sandlin

contributing writers
Rosstin Ahmadian, Cindy Foster, Amanda Gardner, Kara Leasure Shanley, Emily Monteiro Morelli, Ruth Morgan, C. Nathaniel Roybal, Rebecca Roybal Jones, Ashley Salazar, Alexandria Sanchez, Ken Thompson, Bridgette Wagner Jones

graphics & layout
Bridgette Wagner Jones

photography
Jett Loe, Raymond Mares, José Rodríguez, Allan Stone, Bridgette Wagner Jones

dean’s office
Martha Cole McGrew, MD
Interim Dean, UNM School of Medicine

contact
UNM School of Medicine
Office of Advancement & Alumni Relations
MSC08 4720 Fitz Hall Rm 182B
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131-0001
505.272.5112

subscription information
unmsomalumni@salud.unm.edu 

editor email
asmsalazar@salud.unm.edu 

We welcome the submission of stories, photographs and letters to the editor.

UNM Medicine is published by the UNM School of Medicine Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations
Printed in the USA Copyright 2021
The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center