Since joining Our Lady of Our Lake University in July to lead communications, Teresa Niño’s position has already evolved some. Her title is now Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President for Marketing, Communications and Engagement, a position that oversees government and alumni relations, as well as special events.
The university’s marketing and communications team had undergone major changes over the year prior to Niño’s arrival, going from a fully staffed office to an outsourced department. Her arrival constitutes a return to in-house operations.
Niño was 5 years-old when her family migrated to the United States from Tamaulipas, Mexico. Her family was only the third Mexican-American family to move into the Cicero suburb of Chicago, at the time.
Niño earned a communications degree from Columbia College in Chicago and after several years of telling stories as a reporter, she changed gears and began work as a campaign manager and press secretary for the city of and mayor of Chicago.
She later served several roles in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Obama and Clinton administrations — one of which put her in charge of the Affordable Care Act rollout, which aimed to reach 7 million Latinos across the country in a matter of months.
In San Antonio, Niño found a new home nearly 30 years ago, working for the Port of San Antonio, later the San Antonio Express-News, and most recently the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she held the position of VP of university relations, a position she left just before the merger of UTSA and UT Health.
Niño sat down with the San Antonio Report to talk about her career and what has kept her seeking positions where service is at the forefront.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
What caught your interest about OLLU?
I have worked at a lot of places. I’m very proud of my career. I feel blessed that I was able to do so many things in my lifetime. But I was also at a point in my career, at my age, that I felt like I wanted to do something that really has impact.
I’m not going for a title, not going for a big salary, I’m not chasing something, but more of an opportunity to give back.
Talking to (President Abel) Chávez about the historic value of Our Lady of the Lake University and historic value of this community. We are the first Hispanic Serving Institution in the country and right now there are about 500 HSIs and another 500 emerging. But we were the very first one because those conversations took place here in the 80s. And in 1968 hearings took place here to talk about civil rights.
That’s what attracted me to OLLU, because I felt like the community needs to respond again with all this anti-DEI (Diversity Equity and Inclusion). We are a Catholic university, the mission was established by nuns hundreds of years ago — 130 years ago — and the purpose, the mission, was to educate the underserved.
So DEI or no DEI, we’re going to educate the underserved. That’s our mission.
What are some of the personal or professional values that you see reflected in OLLU’s mission?
I think from a student perspective, I wasn’t fortunate enough to go to a four-year university. I was a two-plus-two kid — I attended community college for two years and then went to Columbia College in Chicago. And there’s some things to say about that, the similarities with some of our students at Our Lady of the Lake. But what I’ve learned is the great value of a four-year university, or what a four-year education does to a student.
One of the things that I see with our students — with a lot of the students in Catholic schools throughout the city — is to not confuse politeness and good stewardship with subordination. Because there is tenacity, there is a can-do spirit, there’s the fact that you’ve been able to get to this point with all the challenges around you.
I think that’s something I felt for myself, also. It shouldn’t be surprising that the students from here moved on to start Centro Med and AVANCE.
Can you explain to us your role and the process of bringing communications back to an in-house operation?
It was explained to me that there had been turnover in this department to where there was a full marketing team and then because of budget and other things that was eliminated and they moved to a contractor, but they wanted to move back to having someone in house.
This allows you to have more insight, and more control, over what is happening in your own institution. My role involves being a point of contact for people who want to know us, being able to look at our stories and see which ones we can pitch to the media, to our faculty, to alumni and so forth.
Now I also will have in my portfolio the departments of government relations, special events and alumni relations. I’m looking forward to building up and engaging our alumni.
In recent stories we’ve learned about at least 15 programs that were cut at the start of this year due to budget constraints. Now that you’ll be leading the university’s messaging, what are some of the challenges that you are prepared to tackle?
We recently had a convocation, or a gathering, of faculty and staff to go over this and what we are looking for this year. Change is always challenging, so being able to come together again and say, ‘Yes, that is what happened, and this is where we have to go now,’ that was part of the gathering.
I believe it was 300 people and we heard from everyone. And so this isn’t about, ‘Oh we hired a marketing person they’re going to take care of that.’ No, it means faculty are going to help students stay enrolled, maintenance workers you’re going to make sure everything looks pretty so that the university is welcoming and inviting. Anybody who runs into a student in the hallway, talk to them, greet them in the hall. It matters.
Were you at all hesitant to join a private university that has had to make these recent cuts in programming, staff and faculty?
Not at all. If anything it is what created excitement and enthusiasm, because there is so much opportunity. Our Lady of the Lake has so much rich history and legacy that it’s like I was saying, ‘Put me in coach!’
My success is going to be the university’s success, because my role is to elevate the university. So when you start seeing more of our stories in more places and more people talking about it, that’s how I see my success. We’ve been quiet for a long time.
Then of course a true measure of success is, you know, students wanting to attend OLLU.
