UNM President Robert Frank Announces New Chief Compliance Officer for Main Campus

Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Pres­i­dent Robert Frank has announced the appoint­ment of Helen Gon­za­les as the University’s first Chief Com­pli­ance Officer.

Fol­low­ing pub­li­ca­tion of the Louis Freeh Report on Penn State, Frank com­mis­sioned a com­pre­hen­sive review of the University’s com­pli­ance func­tions. That report rec­om­mended that the Uni­ver­sity main cam­pus hire a chief com­pli­ance offi­cer and build a com­pli­ance infra­struc­ture that is sim­i­lar to the one that cur­rently exists at the UNM Health Sci­ences Center.

“I con­cur with the report’s find­ings and am pleased that we have a highly qual­i­fied senior exec­u­tive right here on our own staff,” Frank said. “Helen has broad expe­ri­ence with com­pli­ance pro­grams for com­plex orga­ni­za­tions. Besides her 20 years of expe­ri­ence in higher edu­ca­tion, she has worked in health­care, defense con­tract­ing, and pub­lic util­i­ties. These expe­ri­ences will serve us well as she designs and builds a com­pli­ance infrastructure.”

Gon­za­les will tran­si­tion from her role as vice pres­i­dent of Human Resources to her new assign­ment on Mon­day, Jan. 28, 2013.

Coin­cid­ing with the announce­ment that Gon­za­les has been appointed as UNM’s first chief com­pli­ance offi­cer, is the appoint­ment of Jewel Wash­ing­ton as interim vice pres­i­dent for Human Resources. Wash­ing­ton has been with UNM for 15 years and has been the direc­tor of Employee and Orga­ni­za­tional Devel­op­ment within Human Resources for the past five years. She brings an out­stand­ing per­for­mance record of suc­cess and lead­er­ship to her new assignment.

“Jewel has my com­plete con­fi­dence in this new role,” said Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent for Admin­is­tra­tion David Harris.

Media Con­tact: Dianne Ander­son (505) 277‑1807; email: danderson@unm.edu