The University of Incarnate Word announced the arrival of Richard Pineda last week as its new director for the Liza and Jack Lewis Center of the Americas, a role that seeks to establish and maintain relationships with other countries in the Americas.

Pineda moved to San Antonio from his native El Paso, where most recently he served as director of the Sam Donaldson Center for Communication Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso — a campus that has a natural flow of international students, visitors and staff due to its location on the border with Juárez, México. 

He grew up in this border region and after leaving to pursue his higher education degrees, which include a bachelor’s in political science from Baylor University, a master’s in communication from UTEP and a doctorate in communication from Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich., he returned home and spent 21 years at UTEP. 

His research and education interests include politics, media, popular culture, Latinidad and other topics that tightly knit the sister cities of El Paso-Juárez and their nearly 3 million residents together. 

While at UTEP, he led study abroad programs in Brazil, Costa Rica and México, as well as annual student trips to Indonesia.

“When this opportunity opened at UIW, where the Lewis Center’s mission is to increase understanding of the Americas from Canada all the way down to the Southern Cone, I thought, ‘This is it! This is my chance, in the second half of my career, to really advance general knowledge about some things that are really pressing,” Pineda said.

Connecting the Americas

Established in 2019, the Lewis Center‘s goal is to promote relationships with México, Canada, Central and South America. The director role was previously held by Rafael Hoyle, who led the center since 2021. 

Pineda now hopes to use his experience promoting and leading international programs and conversations inside and outside the university to continue Hoyle’s work and create new opportunities for students.

“One thing that I learned over my time at UTEP is that I had the ability to take academic concepts and ideas and translate them to the broader public,” Pineda said. “And to be able to flesh out those ideas without taking a position, bringing a fair perspective and a research perspective.”

Over his two decades teaching at UTEP, Pineda also served as chair of the Communication Department and as a tenured faculty member, introducing more than 3,000 students to communication and the role it plays in society.

Marcos Fregoso, vice president of international affairs, oversees the Lewis Center and said part of the center’s goal is to showcase its work and activities to a broader audience. 

For Pineda this means continuing to bring speakers and events from these countries to the community, but also seeking new ways to connect San Antonio residents to international topics.

At the top of his list is consistently publishing well-researched articles, or policy overviews, that focus on topics that impact the city of San Antonio and the region.

From trade, to workforce, to immigration, there are many connections between the countries that go beyond what we consume via social media or national news, Pineda said. 

“It’s not about advocacy — although I think knowledge by itself is advocacy. It’s about saying, ‘Here is a snapshot of this issue,’” Pineda said.

Ideally, Pineda wants to see UIW students from all fields of study with an interest in topics related to the Americas sign up for internships and fellowships at the center. 

With the right funding, Pineda also hopes to establish international leadership training opportunities for UIW students who want to travel to other countries starting with México, where UIW has two campuses, one in México City and one in Irapuato, Guadalajara. 

“I think that international travel is absolutely one of the most important things that a student can do,” Pineda said. “Especially for students who are first generation, because the whole idea of being in a university and in a place that your parents or grandparents never had the opportunity to be in, is maximizing every opportunity.”