The College of Arts & Sciences, UNM’s largest academic unit, has a new dean in Jennifer Malat, who comes to UNM from Virginia Commonwealth University, where she was dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences and most recently associate Vice President of Development. Before VCU, she was the inaugural Divisional Dean for the Social Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Cincinnati.

Malat said she was drawn to UNM because of its status as a Hispanic-Serving Institution with a strong commitment to its public service mission. During her time as dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences at VCU, Malat shepherded the College through the first two years of the pandemic while also prioritizing improved equity for faculty, students and staff.

Alina Chircu will join the Anderson School of Management as dean this month. She comes to UNM from Bentley University, in Waltham, Mass., where she was a professor in the Computer Information Systems department and served as interim dean of Business in 2022 and associate dean of Business for Graduate Programs in 2019 and 2020.

Chircu’s teaching and research interests include business process and value chain management, design thinking, digital transformation, and the business value, design, adoption and implementation of transformational business technologies.

UNM Provost James Holloway also appointed three interim deans — Leslie Donovan at the Honors College, David Weiss at University College and Maria Lane at Graduate Studies.

Bronco Mendenhall, a 17-year veteran head coach who turned around struggling programs at Brigham Young University and the University of Virginia, has been named the 33rd head football coach at The University of New Mexico. Mendenhall served as defensive coordinator and associate head coach for the Lobos under Rocky Long for five seasons from 1998 to 2002.

Mendenhall, 57, replaces Danny Gonzales, who was fired at the end of the 2023 season after an 11-32 record over four seasons with the Lobos.

Mendenhall served as the head coach at former Mountain West rival BYU for 11 years and at Virginia for six. He compiled a 135-81 record over 17 seasons at BYU and Virginia before he stepped away from coaching after the 2021 season. All 11 of Mendenhall’s BYU teams went to a bowl and he guided Virginia to three bowl games, including the Orange Bowl in 2019. His teams were 7-7 in bowl games. Mendenhall came to Albuquerque in 1997 to serve as Long’s first defensive coordinator. UNM’s defense, led by safety Brian Urlacher, excelled under Mendenhall. During his time at UNM, the Lobos improved from just three wins in 1998 to seven wins and an invitation to the Las Vegas Bowl in 2002. In the Lobos’ 27-13 loss against UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl, the Mendenhall-led defense held the Bruins to a season-low 167 yards.