Albuquerque Business First honors five from UNM in annual '40 Under 40' issue

Albuquerque Business First annually selects 40 honorees for its annual "40 Under 40" list. This year, five of the 40 chosen came from The University of New Mexico.

UNM’s honorees include: director and research assistant professor at UNM’s Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR), Meriah Heredia-Griego; assistant professor of international management and global structures at Anderson School of Management, Manuel Montoya; associate university counsel at UNM Health Sciences Center, Rosalyn Nguyen; associate professor at the UNM School of Law, Dawinder Sidhu; and associate professor of dermatology and pediatrics at the UNM School of Medicine and chief of staff at UNM Hospital, Aimee Smidt.

Meriah Heredia-Griego
Heredia-Griego works closely with the Division of Equity and Inclusion and is a senior fellow with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy at UNM. She has over 10 years of experience working on college readiness, access, persistence, and graduation issues with students, families, leaders and policy-makers. She has a BA in Broadcast Journalism with a minor in Chicano Studies and Masters of Community and Regional Planning with an emphasis in Community Development from UNM. In 2013, she earned her PhD in Higher Education Administration and Policy from Colorado State University.

Manuel Montoya
Montoya is a professor of global structures and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as a Rhodes Scholar and Truman Scholar. He is the CEO of his own global consulting firm, In Medias Res Consulting. A native from Mora, New Mexico, he returned to UNM because of his interest in New Mexico as a global emerging economy. He has taught a broad array of coursework from global culture and the history of economic thought, to international management.

Rosalyn Nguyen
Nguyen is associate university counsel at UNMHSC where she practices in the fields of business and health law and is the head attorney to UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center, Inc., UNM’s first community-based academic healthcare facility. She oversees all UNMHSC construction matters and also provides legal advice for UNM Hospitals, UNM Carrie Tingley Hospital, UNM School of Medicine, and to other UNM academic schools and clinics. She is significantly involved in the community and the university.

Dawinder Sidhu
Sidhu joined the UNM law faculty in 2011. He teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, criminal law, and national security. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Sidhu has taught at the Georgetown University Law Center as well as the University of Baltimore School of Law. He has held visiting research posts at the Oxford University Faculty of Law and Georgetown University Law Center, and has held academic fellowships at Harvard University and Stanford University research centers. Sidhu also served as an attorney in the policy arm of the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education and was a law clerk to U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell.

Aimee Smidt
Smidt works as an assistant professor in the departments of Dermatology and Pediatrics and is the Medical Director for Dermatology. She also serves as Chief of Staff at UNMH. Smidt works to improve the quality of patient care and the learning experiences of residents, rotators and medical students. She works with UNMH clinic personnel and holds monthly practice excellence meetings to support and encourage clinic operational efficiency.