Distinguished Alumni The true measure of a university’s strength can be found in the achievements of its alumni. As a highlight of our annual Homecoming festivities, The University of Texas at El Paso and the UTEP Alumni Association recognize our most exceptional alumni through the Distinguished Alumni Award. This award is the highest honor that can be given to an alumna/us and recognizes achievements in their respective field or life’s work. The honorees will be recognized during the 2009 Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner, Friday, October 2, 2009. Please click here for more information.  The University of Texas at El Paso and the UTEP Alumni Association are proud to announce the 2009 recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award. Victor Arias, Jr.  Willarda V. Edwards, M.D.  Victor M. Mendez Vernon G. Hunt (Posthumously) About the 2009 honorees: Victor Arias, Jr.  For many people, résumés are no more substantial than the paper on which they are printed documents that we file and ignore until it is time to hunt for a job. Not so for Victor Arias Jr., whose résumé is a testament to his character and diligence. If you look at his record, it looks like 10 résumés compressed into one. A senior client partner for Korn/Ferry International, the largest executive search and recruitment firm in the world, Arias has served on enough boards, panels and commissions to qualify him as a time management expert. Arias received his bachelor’s in business administration in management from UTEP in 1978. After earning his master’s in business administration degree in finance and accounting from Stanford University in 1982, he went on to become the first Hispanic graduate of the Stanford Graduate Business School to sit on the Stanford University Board of Trustees. He also was appointed by then President George W. Bush to the White House Commission on Fellows, designed to provide gifted and motivated Americans with first-hand experience in the governing process. “I credit my upbringing,” Arias said. “I grew up from very humble beginnings. My father held three jobs. And my mother was a very bright woman. She had several college scholarship offers, but that wasn’t done in those days. You had to help the family.” Arias is married to Sandra E. “Sandy” Arias (B.S.M. ’81) and has three children: Crista, Jacob and Victor. He has supported various University scholarships as well as the College of Business Administration. “I grew up knowing I had to give back,” said Arias, a Lifetime Member of the UTEP Alumni Association and a member of the UTEP Development Board and the Centennial Campaign Leadership Council. Arias also credits his work as an equipment manager with the football team for teaching him the value of persistence. “I think we won six games in four years,” he said. “But I saw how hard the football players worked on the field and in the classrooms. There didn’t seem to be too much pride in the school, and that’s why I appreciate so much the sense of pride on the campus today, and for that I credit (UTEP President) Diana Natalicio.”  Willarda V. Edwards, M.D. After three decades of caring for patients and being an advocate for minority medical issues, Willarda V. Edwards, M.D., is in a position to make great progress in creating health equity for all Americans. Edwards, who earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from The University of Texas at El Paso in 1972, became the new president of the National Medical Association in July. A doctor of internal medicine with a practice in Baltimore, Md., Edwards plans to raise awareness of minority health disparities during her one-year term, while striving to increase the number of minorities in health care. From the time she got her first taste of health care working as a nurse’s aide at Thomason Hospital while a student at Bel Air High School, Edwards knew she would play a role in changing health care. It began when she enrolled at UTEP in 1969 with her sights set on a medical degree. Or maybe she knew long before then. “My mother bought toy doctor medical kits for my brothers,” she recalled. “She said I fought with them to get the doctor’s bag.” The University, which provided her with a multi-cultural background, was her launch pad to the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where she earned her M.D. in 1977. She paid for her education by serving in the Navy, working for four years at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, where she was chief of the Internal Medicine Department. Edwards entered private practice in 1984, embarking on a remarkable journey of public service, including positions with organizations such as the NMA, the American Medical Association and the Health Advocacy Division of the NAACP. Edwards also recently served as president and chief operating officer of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, Inc. Edwards received the Congressional Black Caucus Health Brain Trust Award in Journalism for co-authoring The Black Women’s Guide to Black Men’s Health, published in 2007. “We can plant a seed for someone here today,” she told the audience, wrapping up her Millennium Lecture on campus last February. “I truly believe there are some future doctors and nurses here today.”    Victor M. Mendez As director of the Arizona Department of Transportation, Victor Mendez oversaw a project that was completed six years ahead of schedule. Think about that for a second. No matter the city or state in which we happened to reside at the time, we have all seen road projects that seem to take longer to complete than the Great Pyramids of Egypt. And yet Mendez supervised the construction of almost 150 miles of road in the Phoenix area, some of it involving loops to ease the enormous traffic problems in the Arizona city. Scheduled for completion in 2014, it was finished in 2008. How did he do it? “We created innovative partnerships with contractors,” he said. “And we created innovative ways of securing financing early to get the work started.” In a country hammered by economic problems, innovation and efficiency are key, and that is why President Barack Obama selected Mendez to head the Federal Highway Administration. “We consider Victor Mendez an outstanding choice for this key leadership role…” John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials, said in a statement. “He brings an in-depth knowledge of transportation gained on the front lines of a state DOT.” Mendez received a bachelor’s in civil engineering from UTEP in 1980. He also holds a master’s in business administration from Arizona State University. “At the end of the day, everything that has gotten me where I am in my career started with UTEP,” said Mendez, who is a Lifetime Member of the UTEP Alumni Association. Excited about his selection, to head the FHA, he is mindful of the huge challenges that lie ahead, particularly in light of the financial turmoil gripping the nation—problems that will demand the same resourcefulness he exhibited in Arizona. “The important thing is to prioritize, to make sure your expenditures are made where they will have the most beneficial impact,” he said. And while hard times create challenges, he said, they also present opportunities. “I am confident in my abilities, and I will be part of an administration that has made history,” he said.    Vernon G. Hunt (Posthumously)  As a boy growing up in East Texas during the 1920s, Vernon G. Hunt learned the value of the land—and how the land could provide for the people who live on it. For many youngsters of that era, that meant farming the soil, raising the crops that helped provide for themselves and their families. Young Vernon, however, was focused on another natural resource— oil—and his interest set him on a career path that would help lead him to remarkable success. Hunt, who died in 2001, is being recognized posthumously as a recipient of the 2009 Distinguished Alumni Award and will be honored alongside other recipients during Homecoming in October. He joined the Military Corps of Engineers in 1943, earning the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Cross during his service. After serving in the military, he graduated from Texas Western College (now UTEP) with a bachelor’s in geology in 1950, going on to work as a geologist for Stanolind Oil and Gas Company. Becoming an independent geologist and consultant in 1956, he explored—and discovered—oil and gas in Texas, Arkansas and Montana, enjoying so much success that he received the Pioneer Award from the East Texas Geological Society. He held memberships in the American Institute of Professional Geologists, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Society of Mining Engineers, the Former Students Association of Texas A&M University, the Chancellor’s Council of The University of Texas System, and the President’s Associates of The University of Texas at El Paso. Hunt and his wife established the Vernon G. and Joy Hunt Endowed Scholarship Fund in Geology at The University of Texas at El Paso, and have contributed to numerous other University endowments and scholarship funds. “We are privileged to help students who want to pursue a continued education,” said Joy Hunt, a member of the University’s President’s Associates. “I hear from these students every year, and have met a few of them.” She said the students are “wonderful.” “We all miss Vernon very much, although he left us with many good memories,” she said. Memories are what create legacies, and Vernon Hunt left a legacy.