Time Magazine Honors UTEP President Diana Natalicio

enjoy this …” tonight, the president of the university of texas at el paso… with a huge honor. time magazine is recognizing her hard work and dedication. and a few months after collapsing on campus and having quite the health scare … dr. diana an natalicio is back in full force. it’s exciting news for the utep president. and it puts her in the company of some very powerful people. you’ll find world leaders, activists, scientists, athletes, and even presidential candidates on “time magazine’s top 100 most influential list. and there among them is one of our own … utep president dr. diana natalicio. abc-7’s darren hunt is live at utep with the details … darren. rick/estela, the honor came as a complete surprise to the 76-year-old natalicio … who is praised in the magazine for quote: “a masterfu job shaping her school to the surrounding community, not the other way around.” “i learned about it last week and at first, i kept thinking there must be some kind of mistake.” but there’s natalicio, along with time’s other 99 most influential people in the world. “i think it’s great, i thin it’s going to bring a lot of attention to our university.” “everybody is pretty proud, that’s a pretty great accomplishment for the university.” ” i’m obviously very honored an it’s a wonderful visibility for utep.” the page on natalicio says 80- percent of utep’s 23-thousand students are mexican american … and it’s grown into a major research institution under natalicio. she’s “ahead of he time,” it reads, “seeing the future o america in the faces of her students.” “everybody knows that sat’s are not necessarily a good predictor, we all admit that, and yet universities use them over and over again … we’ve said no we’re not going to do that but it takes courage to go against the grain.” “dr.natalicio told me one of th reasons she relates so well to students here at utep, many of whom work while they’re in college, is becuase she too worked her way through college.” “i was first in my family to go to college and i frankly didn’t think i was college material, i worried a lot about that, i had a lack of confidence, like many of our students.” she’s just gla she’s healthy enough to enjoy the honor after collapsing on campus earlier this year. “is retirement even enterin your head at this point?” “it’s not actually, i have long list of things we need to do … i’ve always got a rolling list, darren, of things that need to be done.” natalicio told me her future goals are much bolder. among them, of course, is achieving tier one university status. she hopes this recognition will lead some who didn’t know about utep to give it a chance. rick/estela. darren, live on the utep campus tonight. thank you. also in time’s list of the 1-hundred most influential people in the world .. … a former post commander at fort bliss! army lieutenant general sean macfarland was head of the post from 2013 to 2014. currently, he’s in charge of the fight against is in iraq and syria. macfarland’s profile in the magazine was written by senator john mccain. he says: “i can think of no better commander than macfarland to lead u.s. and coalition forces in destroying the islamic state.” “… our nation has been blesse with leaders who stepped forward – leaders like david petraeus, stanley mcchrystal… sean macfarland belongs in such distinguished company.” the senator also says “macfarland had the courage to adapt and innovate.” if you’d like to see who else made time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in the rld… just visit kvia.com right now. you’l;l find the story in our top stories segment. a look at the city from the abc-seven downtown cam on the chase building. you see we’re