CANYON, Texas — A West Texas A&M University professor of nursing is one of 50 leaders from around the country chosen for a prestigious fellowship.
Dr. Priscella Correa, WT’s Baptist Community Services Professor of Nursing, is part of the fifth cohort of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities’ Leadership Academy / La Academia de Liderazgo.
“Our leadership academy fellows have already proven the value of the Association’s efforts to increase diverse representation within the upper echelons of higher education by assuming top positions at colleges and universities across the nation,” said HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores. “Students benefit from having leaders from a wide range of backgrounds, and this fifth and largest cohort to date, brings a range of professional and life experience that can meet the challenges of our multicultural institutions of higher education.”
Correa will take part in a HACU’s 37th annual conference Oct. 28 to 30 in Chicago. WT student Juan Castaneda, a sophomore agricultural business and economics major from Amarillo, also will attend the ¡Adelante! Leadership Institute at the conference after being sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“It is a true honor to have been nominated and selected for this prestigious fellowship,” Correa said. “I am grateful for the opportunity to obtain specialized leadership training from influential leaders in higher education. Part of the fellowship will be implementing a project at WT that will allow me to apply the newly gained knowledge to serve WT and our students.”
According to HACU, fellows participate in several different leadership development activities to prepare themselves for leadership roles in the full spectrum of institutions of higher learning, with an emphasis on Hispanic-Serving Institutions and emerging HSIs.
As part of the one-year fellowship program, Correa will take part in webinars and three seminars, including one in conjunction with the conference in Chicago.
WT has been an official Hispanic Serving Institution since 2016. To qualify, an institution’s Hispanic full-time equivalency must be at least 25 percent of the overall undergraduate population.
Since that time, overall enrollment of Hispanic students has grown 17.2 percent. As of Fall 2023, Hispanics make up 31.2 percent of WT’s overall student population.
In 2022, Correa was one of 12 Texans chosen for the 2022 cohort of Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education’s Career and Leadership Development Institute.
Correa, a registered nurse, joined the WT faculty in 2012. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degree in nursing from WT and a Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in 2020. Her research interests are in health promotion and the effect of chronic illness on the family structure, health disparities, and community and population health.
Addressing the needs of its diverse population is a key goal of the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.
That plan is fueled by the historic One West comprehensive fundraising campaign, which reached its initial $125 million goal 18 months after publicly launching in September 2021. The campaign’s new goal is to reach $175 million by 2025; currently, it has raised more than $150 million.
About HACU
The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, founded in 1986, represents more than 500 colleges and universities in the United States, Latin America, Spain and school districts throughout the U.S. HACU is the only national association representing existing and emerging Hispanic-Serving Institutions. The Association’s headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, with regional offices in Washington, D.C and Sacramento, California.
