23 Facts About Diana Natalicio

Diana Natalicio was an American academic administrator who served as 10th president of the University of Texas at El Paso from 1988 to 2019.

Diana Natalicio became an assistant professor at UTEP in 1971, and was named the first female president of the university on February 11,1988.

In 2016 Diana Natalicio was named to Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people.

Diana Natalicio was named president emerita of UTEP by the University of Texas System Board of Regents in August 2019.

Diana Natalicio's father William Siedhoff owned a small retail business and her mother Eleanor Josephine Bierman was a homemaker.

Diana Natalicio said that she learned to operate the switchboard quickly, but about a month into the job she realized that she did not want to make it a career.

Diana Natalicio said that the desire for a more fulfilling career led her to enroll in college at Saint Louis University.

Diana Natalicio said that when she entered SLU, she realized that her high school preparation had been subpar.

Diana Natalicio earned an undergraduate degree in Spanish at SLU and was a Fulbright Scholar in Brazil.

Diana Natalicio completed a master's degree in Portuguese and a doctorate in linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin.

Diana Natalicio was hired as an assistant professor, and later served as the modern languages department chair, dean of the liberal arts college and vice president of academic affairs.

Diana Natalicio was criticized for low four-year graduation rates during her tenure, but she said that four-year graduation rates were not the most important measures of a university's success.

Diana Natalicio served as president of UTEP for 31 years before she stepped down in August 2019.

In 2006, Diana Natalicio received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Texas at Austin.

Diana Natalicio was the 2013 recipient of the Hesburgh Award from TIAA-CREF.

Diana Natalicio received the 2015 Carnegie Corporation of New York Academic Leadership Award.

In 2001, Diana Natalicio received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Smith College.

Diana Natalicio was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Georgetown University in 2011.

In 2019, Diana Natalicio received the Clark Kerr Award from the UC Berkeley Academic Senate for distinguished leadership in higher education.

In 2013, Diana Natalicio was elected president of the board of directors for the American Council on Education.

Diana Natalicio served on the Committee on Underrepresented Groups and the Expansion of the Science and Engineering Workforce Pipeline of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Diana Natalicio was on the board of directors for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

Diana Natalicio was a principal investigator in a National Science Foundation program to increase participation in the STEM fields.