Barbara Rodriguez

Barbara Rodriguez, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, is proud to be a native New Mexican, growing up in Española.

She became provost and executive vice president for academic affairs in June 2026. Since July 2025, she was interim in that role. Previously, she was senior vice provost since 2018, where she oversaw faculty personnel matters, including tenure and promotion; faculty labor relations; and academic policies and procedures.

Rodriguez is a professor of speech and hearing sciences at UNM, joining the faculty in the department in 1999. Before joining the faculty, she worked as a bilingual clinician throughout New Mexico, including in K-12 public education settings, and directed the UNM Speech Language and Hearing Clinic from 1992-1994.

She earned both her bachelor of arts and master of science degrees at UNM and her Ph.D. in speech-language pathology from the University of Washington.

She considers UNM her academic home and feels fortunate to have been able to return to UNM as a tenure-track faculty member after earning her doctorate.

Rodriguez said what she enjoys most about her administrative role is “working closely with academic leadership to foster a collaborative environment to support faculty.”