CNM names building, two conference rooms after longtime contributors

Central New Mexico Community College’s board is honoring a former president and a longtime supporter by naming facilities after them.

Former CNM President Katharine Winograd’s name will grace the school’s new student services building, which is set to open in fall 2024.

And that of Sherman McCorkle, who served on the CNM Foundation board for decades, will be featured in two of the conference rooms inside the Workforce Training Center.

“It’s such an honor,” Winograd said. She served as president for 12 years, during which she helped form partnerships with the University of New Mexico and Albuquerque Public Schools to create easier pathways between those institutions for students.

Current CNM President Tracy Hartzler met Winograd while working for the Legislature as a senior analyst, then principal analyst working on higher education, and got to know Winograd when Hartzler joined CNM. Winograd’s focus on students and their success was what stood out to Hartzler.

“She focused on student success, she focused on our neighborhoods, and how to make sure that not only access is important, but once they get here, they’re going to persist and complete,” Hartzler said of Winograd.

Winograd is pleased to be recognized at the student services building.

“I felt like that was exactly what we all focused on the entire time,” Winograd said, “taking care of students and making sure our students were ready to become better citizens in New Mexico.”

Much like Winograd, McCorkle’s focus was on giving students the opportunity to access services and an education they might not otherwise receive.

The entrepreneur served on the CNM Foundation Board from 1992 to 2022, including stints as board chair. He led private fundraising efforts and was a major proponent in the creation of the Workforce Training Center.

“The idea of people being able to receive additional training and therefore advance was the idea behind the Workforce Training Center, so I was very much in favor of that,” McCorkle said.

He spent three years raising a mix of private and state funds for the building.

“To simply have the (Workforce Training Center) there and knowing that thousands and thousands of people have bettered the lives of their family because of it is phenomenally rewarding,” McCorkle said.

For both Winograd and McCorkle, it was the focus on the community that drove their actions, and it is community that Hartzler says is the central mission of CNM.

“That is what community is all about,” she said.