Two UTSA faculty named to leadership roles

APRIL 24, 2020 — UTSA today announced the appointment of two faculty members to serve in newly created leadership roles: Norma Guerra has been appointed interim associate vice provost for faculty diversity and inclusion, and Roger Enriquez will serve as executive director of Westside Community Partnerships.

Guerra, an associate professor of educational psychology, joined UTSA in 1988. In addition to her faculty role she has served in numerous administrative positions throughout the university over her career, including executive director of human resources management and development, director of faculty engagement, associate vice president for administration and planning, and chair of the Department of Educational Psychology.

Since 2018 Guerra has served as associate dean for undergraduate studies in the College of Education and Human Development and oversaw the opening of the college’s Student Success Center in 2019. She currently cochairs UTSA’s Inclusive Excellence Advisory Board.

In this new role Guerra joins the Faculty Success team within Academic Affairs, working in collaboration with the Office of Inclusive Excellence. The associate vice provost for faculty diversity and inclusion is charged with advancing institutional goals to increase faculty from underrepresented groups and, in particular, to promote the success of faculty who identify as Hispanic/Latino by implementing at UTSA national best practices related to the recruitment, appointment, development and recognition of diverse faculty. The new position is being filled at first on an interim basis to permit ongoing evaluation of the duties and responsibilities.

“Dr. Guerra has a strong understanding of how faculty success supports student success as well as a vision for encouraging a climate of inclusion that is so critical to attracting and retaining Hispanic and other underrepresented faculty,” said Kimberly Andrews Espy, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “She also has deep experience in bringing together multiple stakeholders to advance institutional goals and will work closely with colleges, departments and others to establish practices to support the recruitment, hiring and retention of outstanding diverse faculty at UTSA.”

Enriquez, an associate professor of criminal justice in the College for Health, Community and Policy, joined UTSA in 2002. He has served as director of the Policy Studies Center since 2013 and previously served as chair of the Department of Criminal Justice (now the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology).

As executive director, Enriquez will work with leadership, faculty and support staff across the university to develop and implement community-focused practices and processes that provide demonstrated benefit to our Hispanic communities; to increase engagement through community-oriented applied research focusing on local challenges for demonstrated collective impact and to facilitate the implementation of programs to increase student access, enrollment and graduation.

“Dr. Enriquez brings a wealth of experience in policymaking and community engagement to this new position,” said Mary Larson Diaz, vice president for university relations. “He will exercise these responsibilities with an intentional focus and effort on San Antonio’s near West Side and other key communities in line with our commitment as an HSI and to advance our institutional goals, particularly relative to the Westside Community Partnership Initiative.”

The executive director position will be part of University Relations and will work closely with Inclusive Excellence; Research, Economic Development, and Knowledge Enterprise; and Academic Affairs.