2025 Distinguished Alumni Awards

This year, the college will celebrate the distinguished alumni at The UNM Symphony Orchestra concert at Popejoy Hall on May 8. The 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients include: Eric-Paul Riege for the Department of Art, Ramona Emerson for the Department of Film & Digital Arts, Andrew Megill for the Department of Music, and Mónica Sánchez for the Department of Theatre & Dance.

Harris Smith, Dean of UNM Fine Arts stated, “It is time, again, to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of the alumni of the UNM College of Fine Arts. This year, 2025, marks the 125th year of the Department of Theatre and the 95th year of the Department of Art at UNM. The Bachelor of Arts was first offered in the College of Arts and Sciences in 1916. Since then, many creative professionals have built their careers on the fine arts education they earned at The University of New Mexico. These Distinguished Alumni represent our diverse and talented pool of students and the commitment and dedication of our amazing faculty and staff.”

Department of Art: Eric-Paul Riege
2017, BFA in Art Studio & Ecology

Eric-Paul Riege (Diné) is a weaver and fiber artist working in collage, durational performance, installation, woven sculpture, and wearable art. Using weaving as both means and metaphor to tell hybrid tales that interlace stories from Diné spirituality with his own interpretations and cosmology, he understands his artworks as animate and mobile. His practice pays homage and links him to generations of weavers in his family, which aids him in generating spaces of sanctuary.

Riege’s recent solo exhibitions include “Hammer Projects: Eric Paul Riege” at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2022–2023), “Larger than Memory” at the Heard Museum, Phoenix (2020), and “Hóló—it xistz” at the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami (2019). His recent group exhibitions include the “Prospect.5 Triennial” in New Orleans (2022), the “Toronto Biennial of Art” (2022), and “SITElines Biennial,” presented by SITE SANTA FE (2018). He holds a BFA in Art Studio and Ecology from The University of New Mexico. His work is collected by Forge Project and ICA Miami, among others.

Riege is a member of the Charcoal Streaked Division of the Red Running Into the Water clan. He was born and is based in Gallup, New Mexico.

Department of Film & Digital Arts: Ramona Emerson
1997, BA in Media Arts

Ramona Emerson is a Diné writer and filmmaker originally from Tohatchi, New Mexico. She earned her degree in Media Arts in 1997 from The University of New Mexico and her MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) in 2015 from the Institute of American Indian Arts.

She has worked as a professional videographer, writer and editor for over twenty years and is currently working on her eighth film project, “Crossing the Line.” She is a Sundance Native Lab Fellow, a Time-Warner Storyteller Fellow, a Tribeca All-Access Grantee, a PBS and ITVS grantee and a WGBH Producer Fellow.

Emerson published her first novel “Shutter” – the first of a trilogy – with SOHO Press in August of 2022. Through her storytelling, Emerson looks at contemporary stories about her people and aims to question and redefine the expectations of Native cultural identity, highlighting stories that are not a part of mainstream media.

She currently resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico where she and her husband/producer, Kelly Byars run their production company Reel Indian Pictures.

Department of Music: Andrew Megill
1987, Bachelor of Music

Andrew Megill is professor of conducting and director of choral organizations at the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music, where he holds the Carol F. and Arthur L. Rice, Jr. University Professorship in Performance. He leads choir of the Music of the Baroque, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Chorus, the Carmel Bach Festival Chorale, and Fuma Sacra. Megill earned his Bachelor of Music from the University of New Mexico in 1987.

Megill is recognized as one the leading choral conductors of his generation, admired for both his passionate artistry and his unusually wide-ranging repertoire, which extends from early music to newly composed works. He has prepared choirs for the American Composers Orchestra, American Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonie, National Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Venice Baroque Orchestra for conductors including Pierre Boulez, Charles Dutoit, Joseph Flummerfelt, Rafael Frühbeck du Burgos, Alan Gilbert, Neeme Järvi, Zdenek Macal, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, John Nelson, Rafael Payare, and Julius Rudel. Recordings of choirs conducted or prepared by him may be heard on the Decca, EMI, Canteloupe, Naxos, Albany, and CBC labels.

Megill is particularly admired for his performances of Baroque choral works. He regularly collaborates with leaders in the field of historically-informed performance, and has conducted many period-instrument orchestras, including Piffaro, Rebel, Sinfonia NYC, Brandywine Baroque, the Sebastians, Tempesta di Mare, and the Trinity Baroque Orchestra. A frequent champion of music of our own time, he has also conducted regional or world premieres of works by Caleb Burhans, Paul Chihara, Dominic DiOrio, Sven-David Sandström, Caroline Shaw, Lewis Spratlan, Steven Stucky, Jon Magnussen, Arvo Pärt, and Krzysztof Penderecki. Today Megill lives and works in Urbana, Illinois.

Department of Theatre & Dance: Mónica Sánchez
2018, MFA in Dramatic Writing

Mónica Sánchez heard her calling in the theatre 40 years ago when she became a company member of La Compañía de Teatro de Alburquerque. Her life-long vocation as a theatre artist includes 20+ years in California beginning with a residency at El Teatro Campesino, the preeminent Chicano theatre company founded by Luís Valdez during the nascent civil rights movement led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta to unionize farmworkers. In San Francisco and Los Angeles, she honed the craft of professional actor in theatre, film and television, all the while enjoying a multitude of posts as a teaching artist and facilitating community engagements. In 2015 she embarked on her MFA in Dramatic Writing at UNM, graduating in 2018.

Recent projects include her role onstage at the Yale Repertory Theatre in Luís Alfaro’s play, “Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles;” and a micro-commission from Lortel Theatre’s Alcove initiative for her new play, “Voy.” She has been on faculty at Colorado College since 2019 as Assistant Professor of Playwriting and Performance.

In May 2025, she will be returning to her native New Mexico full-time to embrace the next phase of her work as an actor, playwright, director, and educator in independent and community engagements at a crucial moment when the theatre can, perhaps offer a place and time to provoke our presumptions, assuage our sorrows, and connect in community.

2024 Distinguished Alumni Awards

Harris Smith, Dean of the College of Fine Arts, announced the 2024 recipients at a recent UNM Symphony Orchestra concert at Popejoy Hall. The 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients include Jaune Quick-to-See Smith for the Department of Art, Brian Levant for the Department of Film & Digital Arts, Col. Jim Keene for the Department of Music, and Marisol Encinias (Dance) and Andrea Fellows Fineberg (Theater) for the Department of Theatre & Dance.

Department of Art: Jaune Quick-To-See Smith
1980 Master of Fine Arts degree

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith was a citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation. She called herself a cultural arts worker. She used humor and satire to examine myths, stereotypes and the paradox of American Indian life in contrast to the consumerism of American society. Her work is philosophically centered by her strong traditional beliefs and political activism.Smith is internationally known as an artist, curator, lecturer, printmaker and free-lance professor as well as a mentor. In 2023 Smith was the first Native American to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, titled Memory Map, which is currently traveling across the U.S. During her 40-plus year career, Smith has organized and curated over thirty Native exhibitions.

Smith has given over 200 lectures at museums and universities internationally and has shown in over 125 solo exhibits and over 650 group exhibits. Her work is in collections worldwide, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Brooklyn Museum; the Museum of Modern Art, Quito Ecuador; the Whitney Museum NY; only to name a few. Smith earned a Bachelor of Art Education degree at Framingham State, MA (now University) and a Master of Fine Arts degree at The University of New Mexico. Smith elected fellow alumna Hazel Batrezchavez to accept the Distinguished Alumni Award on her behalf, as the event coincided with a prior engagement with a major museum.
*Photo courtesy Grace Roselli.

Dept. of Film and Digital Arts: Brian Levant
1974 Bachelor Degree in University Studies

Brian Levant has been at the creative helm of some of the biggest franchises in family entertainment. Nearly every year since the late 1970s, Levant has lectured and worked with film students at The University of New Mexico, including teaching his own course Sitcom Boot Camp. After his name appeared on over 400 episodes of television, including being a show runner on Happy Days and Mork & Mindy, Levant turned his attention to directing feature films. His directing credits include: the original Beethoven, the Steven Spielberg-produced box office juggernaut The Flintstones, the holiday classic Jingle All the Way starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Are We There Yet? with Ice Cube, and the 2010 Jackie Chan vehicle, The Spy Next Door, which was shot in Albuquerque.

Smith has given over 200 lectures at museums and universities internationally and has shown in over 125 solo exhibits and over 650 group exhibits. Her work is in collections worldwide, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Brooklyn Museum; the Museum of Modern Art, Quito Ecuador; the Whitney Museum NY; only to name a few. Smith earned a Bachelor of Art Education degree at Framingham State, MA (now University) and a Master of Fine Arts degree at The University of New Mexico. Smith elected fellow alumna Hazel Batrezchavez to accept the Distinguished Alumni Award on her behalf, as the event coincided with a prior engagement with a major museum.
*Photo courtesy Grace Roselli.

Department of Music: Colonel Jim R. Keene
1988 Bachelor of Music degree

Jim Keene has led thousands of performances in 47 states and seven countries including for 6 U.S. Presidents. He led multiple televised productions, most recently earning a New York Emmy Award for a CBS production, Songs of Service and a Grammy Award for “Best Immersive Album” in 2022 as conductor of the United States Army Field Band. Keene was leader of the US Army Field Band, the US Military Academy Band, Commandant of the Army School of Music and served the United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own,” as director of The Army Chorus.

Keene has also led The Army Strings and the Army Orchestra, the U.S. Army Europe Band and Chorus in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Ground Forces Band in Atlanta. He led the Joint Forces Chorus at George H. W. Bush’s memorial service, and music for the interments of Presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald R. Ford. He has conducted the New York Philharmonic, The Detroit Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, The Boston Pops, the Japan Central Band, and the Dallas Winds. He has performed with numerous artists including Ray Charles. He is a native of Albuquerque.

Dept. of Theatre & Dance (Dance): Marisol Encinias
2008 Bachelor of Art degree & 2012 Master of Fine Art degree

Marisol Encinias is an associate professor of dance within The UNM Department of Theatre & Dance. UNM is the only university in the U.S. to offer a degree in flamenco dance.

As a fourth-generation flamenco dancer, Professor Encinias began studying this historic form of dance at the age of five with her grandmother Clarita Garcia de Aranda. In addition to teaching at UNM, she is currently the executive director of the National Institute of Flamenco (NIF), a nonprofit arts organization founded by her mother Eva Encinias, in 1982. Encinias has taught at NIF since 1990 and has served as the artistic director and curator for the annual Festival Flamenco Internacional. Encinias is also credited with helping to found the charter school, Tierra Adentro, that offers a model of culturally relevant and academic success in New Mexico.

Dept. of Theatre & Dance (Theatre): Andrea Fellows Fineberg
1990 Bachelor of Art degree

Andrea Fellows Fineberg has been with Santa Fe Opera for more than 33 years and director of community engagement since 1993. She brings a deeply rooted love and appreciation for the performing arts to her work as administrator, educator, producer, and co-host for the award-winning podcast Key Change, and as a librettist. As a librettist she collaborated with John Kennedy on Trinity and Stephen Paulus on Shoes for the Santo Niño.

In 2016, UnShakeable, with Joseph Illick, premiered in Santa Fe, and in the outpouring of activities for the commemoration of the Shakespeare 400, was cited by The New York Times. For Dayton Opera she wrote an original dialogue for The Magic Flute and The Abduction from the Seraglio and, in February of 2022, saw the world premiere of Finding Wright with composer Laura Kaminsky. As a collaborative artist, Fineberg has had the privilege of founding and then working with the Academy for the Love of Learning’s Lifesongs¸ writing original, musical narratives with individuals in hospice care since its inception in 2007.

Harris Smith, Dean of UNM Fine Arts stated, “It is time to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of the alumni of The UNM College of Fine Arts. Next year, 2025 will mark the 125th year of the Department of Theatre and the 95th year of the Department of Fine Arts at UNM. The Bachelor of Arts was first offered in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNM in 1916. Since then, many creative professionals have built their careers on the fine arts education that they enjoyed at The University of New Mexico. These Distinguished Alumni represent our diverse and talented pool of students, the commitment and dedication of our amazing faculty and staff.”

Nominations for the Distinguished Alumni Awards for 2025 will open again in Fall 2024, with a deadline of February 1, 2025.

For more information, please contact Shelly Smith, Director of Development, UNM Fine Arts at shelly.smith@unmfund.org or Kristine Purrington, Executive Director of Academic Development, UNM Fine Arts at kristine.purrington@unmfund.org