This year’s James F. Cole Memorial Award for Service recipient is Gabe Anaya ’59. Anaya, a first-generation college graduate, is an educator, soldier, philanthropist, and community volunteer who earned a Bachelor of Arts in Education from NMSU. He spent 30 years inspiring young minds as a mathematics teacher in New Mexico schools. During those three decades, he also served in the U.S. Army Reserve, retiring as a colonel in 1990. Anaya’s dedication extended to the NMSU campus at the Alpha Omicron chapter of the Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) fraternity, where he served as chapter advisor and mentor for the board of advisors. In 2001, Anaya established The Gabe Anaya Honorary Endowed Scholarship to help TKE brothers, funded repairs for the TKE house, and supported numerous other NMSU students by helping with bills, rent, and food.

Anaya has volunteered for 23 years at El Caldito soup kitchen in Las Cruces, overseeing meal preparation and serving as board president for four of those years. As board vice president for the former J. Paul Taylor Foundation, he helped transfer the J. Paul Taylor family home to the State of New Mexico to become the Taylor-Mesilla Historic Site.

The Young Alumni Service Award honors graduates 40 or younger who have made significant professional and philanthropic strides. This year’s recipient is Garrett Leitermann ’16, ’17, an archaeologist with the Bureau of Land Management in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Leitermann has pursued the repatriation of human remains and cultural objects under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and leads outreach events, including guided hikes, to historic and prehistoric sites around New Mexico’s public lands.

All the Distinguished Alumni awardees have demonstrated significant achievement and service that brings honor to the university. The 2024 Distinguished Alumni recipients are:

• Antonia Roybal-Mack ’03, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES): Roybal-Mack earned a degree in hotel, restaurant, and tourism management at NMSU before obtaining her law degree. She is a founding partner of Roybal-Mack & Cordova, PC, working in the areas of disaster mitigation, wildfire recovery, watershed issues, and environmental mass tort recovery. Roybal-Mack has received many accolades for her contributions to the legal profession and her focus on water rights and environmental issues. She also founded the Mora Fire Fund with the Center of Southwest Culture, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for wildfire victims.
• Tony Lovitt ’76, College of Arts and Sciences – Journalism and Mass Communications: Tony Lovitt pioneered play-by-play broadcasting of volleyball on the radio in 1975 and became the first play-by-play announcer for volleyball on ESPN in 1979. He was the lead announcer for numerous indoor volleyball competitions, including several summer Olympic Games, Goodwill Games, and the pre-Olympics men’s volleyball tournament at Earl’s Court, London. He received USA Volleyball’s James E. Coleman Award for lifetime service to the USA men’s and women’s national volleyball teams. Lovitt is also the author of two children’s books and donates one dollar from each sale to a memorial fund for his brother, a 30-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department who died in 2021 at City of Hope, a cancer research and treatment hospital in Los Angeles.
• Dr. Don W. Cleveland ’72, College of Arts and Sciences – Physics: Don Cleveland has been chair of cellular and molecular medicine and neuroscience at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research since 2008. He has led the field in discoveries regarding the causes and treatment of ALS and Huntington’s disease that have implications for other neurodegenerative/neuromuscular diseases including spinal muscular atrophy, myotonic dystrophy, Alzheimer’s, and chronic traumatic brain injury. Cleveland has also served on medical boards including the Neuroscience Scientific Advisory Board for Novartis and the Scientific Review Board for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2018, he and his wife established the Ernest Lynn Cleveland Scholarship supporting students in the NMSU College of Arts and Sciences.
• Dr. Mary J. Bell ’92, College of Business: A Crimson Scholar at NMSU, Bell has made significant contributions in both the military and academia. Commissioned through NMSU Army ROTC as a Distinguished Military Graduate, she excelled as one of the first women in the U.S. Army Aviation Branch. Over her 20-year military career, she held pivotal roles in operations in Haiti, Iraq, and Colombia, leading high-risk missions and receiving the Army’s Humanitarian Service Medal for her leadership during Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti. Currently, she is dean of the Beacom College of Computer and Cyber Sciences at Dakota State University. As a member of the American Association of University Women, she advocates for gender equality and education.
• Dr. Shanta Thoutam ’04, ’16, College of Engineering: Shanta Thoutam is an innovation and startup advocate. While earning her master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from NMSU, she played a key role in bridging the gap between NMSU and the market by advancing technologies emerging from campus to business development settings. In the corporate sector, she championed a technology commercialization accelerator that created 10 startups and enabled them to raise $2+ million. After relocating to Hyderabad, India, she served as vice president of corporate innovation and business development at T-Hub, as officer on special duty for textiles and handicrafts, and as chief innovation officer for the state of Telangana, India. She now serves as an executive committee member with the Indian Association of Southern New Mexico to help bring together the Indian communities from five cities in the Southern New Mexico region.
• Rebecca Gallegos ’06, College of Health, Education and Social Transformation: After several years teaching music, Rebecca Gallegos transitioned to nursing so she could make a greater impact in the world. She completed the NMSU Roadrunner program, a fast-track BSN program for working professionals, and then began working in a trauma center. While on a mission trip to help orphanages in Chihuahua, Mexico, she used her skills to improve hygiene and disease prevention, get kids to doctor appointments, and even managed a flu outbreak. Inspired by this experience, she and her family moved to Mexico, and she founded a 501(c)(3) in 2011 to support more orphanages and prevent child abandonment in Chihuahua and Aldama. She is now the clinical manager at a regional cancer center, Munson Medical Center (MMC), which serves more than 540,000 people across eight hospitals and partner organizations across 29 counties in Traverse City, Michigan.

To learn more about each awardee, full biographies will soon be available at https://www.nmsualumni.org/awards-recognitions