Susan DeMar receives the 2017 Community Engagement Staff Award from NMSU President Gary Carruthers (left) and geography professor John Wright. (NMSU photo)
Fifteen years ago, Susan DeMar was enrolled at Syracuse University. She was raising three children while working full-time in SU’s advancement division.
And, she was working on a bachelor’s degree in psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences. Most of her classmates were 10 – 15 years her junior.
Flash forward to today, DeMar is an administrative assistant in the Department of Geography at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.
Raised in Fulton, the daughter of the late Ruth and Albert Webber, she lived on the Silk Road and attended G. Ray Bodley High School.
She was the first woman in her family to attend college.
It was while working at Syracuse that she considered moving from the Snow Belt to the Sun Belt – not an easy decision, given her ties to SU.
“I loved my classes, particularly physics and English, and really enjoyed the people I worked with,” DeMar said. “We had just appointed a new chancellor (Nancy Cantor) and were ramping up for our biggest capital campaign to date. It was an exciting time.”
Now, in addition to working in one of New Mexico’s top applied geography departments, she is a tireless crusader for women and underrepresented minorities in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.
All her hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed.
In April, she received the NMSU 2017 Community Engagement Staff Award for serving as advisor of the American Association of University Women’s affiliate campus organization and as president of the NMSU Women’s Club.
The distinction comes on the heels of her receipt of the Stephen W. and Robert E. Roberts Memorial Staff Award for dedicated service to NMSU.
“New Mexico State is very different from Syracuse, academically and culturally,” said DeMar, also a board member of the AAUW-Las Cruces branch. “For starters, we’re one of the state’s largest public universities. Because we are a federally recognized (U.S.-Mexico) border institution, we have a big Hispanic population. Many of our students come from poor family backgrounds, attending schools with inferior resources. Nevertheless, they are some of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen.”
DeMar said she saw the job opening online and got a phone interview.
“They offered me the position sight unseen and I accepted,” she recalled, adding that NMSU’s racial, ethnic and geographic diversity is one of the reasons she came to campus in 2004.
DeMar is involved with AAUW, a 136-year-old organization that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education and research.
Her college club at works closely with AAUW-Las Cruces on various events and activities. Recently, they presented a series of workshops about navigating job offers and promotion opportunities, as part of the AAUW Start Smart and AAUW Work Smart programs.
Other AAUW events she has organized at NMSU include GIRLS CAN! and Tech Trek. GIRLS CAN! is a daylong conference, designed to encourage teens to continue their education and to help them achieve their long-term goals. Tech Trek is a week-long summer camp, where girls, in DeMar’s words, are “immersed in a world that empowers and encourages them to think about themselves as future scientists, engineers, mathematicians and computer specialists.”
respectively, of the American Association of University Women’s affiliate club
at New Mexico State University.
“Understanding the factors that affect women from diverse backgrounds from progressing in historically male-dominated fields will help them get ahead,” DeMar said, alluding to factors such as marital status, racial and ethnic background, and childcare obligations. “We (in higher education) need to be more responsive to student diversity and personal circumstances.”
NMSU’s first AAUW meeting drew 10 people. The second had 20. Now in its third year, turnout is often 50-60.
Students and colleagues alike praise DeMar for her welcoming demeanor and willingness to let students drop by her office for a study break or cup of coffee.
DeMar plans to retire in 2019, but shows no signs of slowing down.
Her immediate goal is to become a Start Smart salary-negotiation workshop facilitator. (AAUW has more than 700 of them, serving over 240 colleges and universities in 45 states.)
DeMar also plans to remain active with the NMSU Women’s Club, promoting educational and social activities, and pursuing special service projects that enrich the community. DeMar is particularly proud of the Ruth Mary Webber Scholarship, which she established at the club two years ago, in memory of her mother.
“I like to keep busy,” concludes DeMar, who also enjoys hiking, gardening and singing in the Mesilla Valley Chorale. “My ultimate goal is to start an AAUW club at Syracuse University. That would be like coming full circle.”
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Congratulations, Susan!