Since 2004, Kim Lopez-Gallagher has taught United States history, government and philosophy at NMSU Alamogordo. In August 2023, Lopez-Gallagher, who became a full professor in 2016, received the NMSU’s Donald C. Roush Award for Teaching Excellence at the fall 2023 convocation. NMSU bestows the Roush award – named after a former NMSU executive vice president in celebration of his efforts to improve teaching in New Mexico – based on information from students, department heads, deans and community campus directors.
Lopez-Gallagher said her teaching philosophy aims to empower students to actively engage in their own learning. She added that her students remind her daily of what it means to persist to reach a goal.
“What I enjoy about teaching is when I see students make a real connection between the ideas we are studying and their own lives,” she said.
Aside from teaching, Lopez-Gallagher is active on NMSU Alamogordo’s Faculty Assembly. From 2015 to 2016, she co-chaired the assembly’s sub-committee on shared governance, which designed a new structure for NMSU Alamogordo faculty and staff committees. She is also a member of the NMSU Alamogordo’s Quality Assurance Team for Distance Learning and is a Quality Matters Master Reviewer. She has twice presented at the Quality Matters national conference with the Quality Assurance Team.
In 2016, Lopez-Gallagher attended the Summer Classics program at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, where she participated in an intensive seminar on U.S. history during the administrations of Thomas Jefferson. Each September, she collaborates with colleagues and local attorneys to organize Constitution Day at NMSU Alamogordo.