Dr. Anna Nelson previously served as NMHU’s Executive Director of the New Mexico Center for Excellence in Social Work
New Mexico Highlands University is pleased to announce Anna Nelson, PhD, LCSW, as the new Dean of the Facundo Valdez School of Social Work. Dr. Nelson has been serving as interim dean. She’s served NMHU as the Executive Director of the New Mexico Center for Excellence in Social Work since 2023.
Dr. Nelson is a graduate of the Facundo Valdez School of Social Work, earning her Master’s degree in 2003. She earned her PhD in Educational Administration from New Mexico State University in 2022 and a Bachelor’s of Arts in Cultural Anthropology from San Francisco State University in 1995.
“The Facundo Valdez School of Social Work means a lot to me personally,” Nelson Said. “I’ve gotten so much from the FVSSW, and I am excited to be in the position to give something back to the next generation of students and the communities we serve. I’m honored to have the opportunity to lead our school into the future.”
Before coming to NMHU, Dr. Nelson served as a professor of social work at New Mexico State University from 2017-2023. She has also taught at NMHU’s FVSSW, and at Central New Mexico Community College.
“Dr. Nelson has demonstrated the leadership and expertise that will carry the (FVSSW) into the future.” NMHU President Dr. Neil Woolf said. “She is well-respected among New Mexico’s social work higher education community, and she is an ideal fit to lead this critical NMHU program as we educate New Mexico’s future social workers.”
Dr. Nelson was the statewide behavioral health program manager for the New Mexico Department of Health, Office of School and Adolescent Health from 2007-2010. Her professional service includes the New Mexico Social Work Task Force, El Puente de Encuentros Fellowship Program, and SAFETEEN New Mexico, among many others.