University of New Mexico President Garnett Stokes announces retirement

University of New Mexico President Garnett Stokes, the first woman to hold the position, is retiring after more than seven years.

“As I approach eight years of service as your president — and after several wonderful decades of service in higher education leadership, it soon will be time for me to step away and begin a new chapter in my life with my husband, Jeff, who has served as my partner throughout this leadership journey,” she wrote in a campus-wide email Tuesday. “I have informed the Board of Regents that the 2025-26 academic year will be my last serving as your President.”

Stokes’ contract was renewed through July 1, 2026, by the Board of Regents on Tuesday. She began serving as UNM president on March 1, 2018.

Upon her July 2026 retirement, she will have headed the school for longer than any president since Richard Peck, who led the school from 1990 to 1998.

“But I want to be clear — I am not going anywhere yet. There is still a great deal of work ahead of us this academic year as we move forward in pursuit of our vision and face head-on the challenges being encountered by higher education institutions across the country,” Stokes wrote in the email.

Paul Blanchard, chair of UNM’s Board of Regents, thanked Stokes for her leadership and her “visionary stewardship and steadfast commitment to the University.”

“Her work has advanced UNM as a national leader in research, student success, and as a partner and major driver of economic development for communities across our state, including expansion and modernization of treatment facilities for UNM Health Sciences,” Blanchard said in a statement Tuesday.

The state’s Higher Education Secretary Stephanie Rodriguez also thanked Stokes for her time at UNM in a statement to the Journal and said she provided “much-needed stability for the university since 2018.”

“President Stokes has not only kept UNM moving forward, but charted a path for sustainable growth in partnership with the state and our landmark scholarship programs for New Mexicans,” Rodriguez said. “My colleagues at the New Mexico Higher Education Department and I appreciate her service and we look forward to continuing our work with university leadership on supporting students and faculty, enhancing public safety efforts, and expanding opportunities for more New Mexicans.”

In a news release from UNM on Tuesday, the school touted enrollment increases, strides made in research and improvements in athletics during her tenure. She is the 23rd president in the university’s history.

“She’s been a great president, been very supportive,” UNM football head coach Jason Eck said Tuesday. “She’s obviously done a lot for this university, and should get to enjoy retirement. So hopefully we get somebody who’s really good and very pro-athletics for that spot.”

Stokes was not made available for an interview Tuesday.

“President Stokes looks forward to reflecting on her tenure and sharing her thoughts on her retirement plans at an appropriate time closer to her departure in 2026,” Ben Cloutier, interim spokesperson for UNM, said in an email. “At this point, she is focused on continuing the important work underway at the University.”

Early into her UNM tenure, Stokes and then-Athletic Director Eddie Nuñez recommended the school cut men’s soccer, men’s and women’s skiing and women’s beach volleyball to address budget shortfalls and federal Title IX equity concerns. The Board of Regents approved axing the teams after public meetings where droves of supporters tried to save soccer and the other sports.

During the early years of Stokes’ presidency, the university operated under an agreement with the Department of Justice that aimed to ensure the university responded appropriately to sexual harassment involving students. The school was released from that agreement in 2019.

Also in 2019, Stokes jumped from a plane, safely landing onto Johnson Field accompanied by a U.S. Army Golden Knight to raise awareness for the university’s ROTC program.

UNM grappled with a high auto theft rate on campus compared to other universities, and other high-profile crimes during Stokes’ tenure — including the Nob Hill shooting of Lobo baseball player Jackson Weller in 2019. Then, in November 2022, UNM student Brandon Travis was fatally shot on campus by New Mexico State University basketball player Mike Peake, in what was later ruled self-defense.

Most recently, in August, 14-year-old Michael LaMotte was fatally shot in an on-campus dorm room leased to a student enrolled in the college’s Gateway Program.

Stokes also guided UNM through the pandemic, adhering to the governor’s lockdown orders and resuming in-person instruction fully in August 2021.

Before coming to New Mexico’s flagship university, Stokes worked from 2011 to 2014 as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Florida State University. Following the resignation of then-president Eric Barron, she briefly held the title of interim president for FSU.

She then served for three years as provost and subsequently executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Missouri at a time when the school was receiving national attention over the Concerned Student 1950 protests about turbulent race relations on campus, leading to the resignation of then-president Tim Wolfe and main campus chancellor R. Bowen Loftin.

In a 2018 article from the Columbia Missourian, just weeks before she took the post at UNM, her colleagues credited Stokes, saying she would be remembered for “her leadership during turbulent times.”