A new initiative will help increase New Mexico State University’s visibility on the worldwide stage.

An International Relations Institute, the brainchild of President Michael V. Martin, will be developed at NMSU. Heading this task is Delano Lewis, who served as U.S. ambassador to South Africa during the later years of the Clinton administration.

Lewis, the former president and CEO of National Public Radio, was named a senior fellow at NMSU in fall 2006. He will use his breadth and depth of experience to lead the institute from concept to reality. That experience includes working as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission, as staff director with the Peace Corps in Nigeria and Uganda, and work with various members of the U.S. Congress.