Major Jeffrey Meinders
Meinders is an Army aviator who has been on active duty as an officer for 17 years, with four years of enlisted service in the Missouri National Guard while attending college and ROTC. He was most recently stationed in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, serving as mission commander for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency Open Skies Treaty.
Meinders said he was drawn to UNM by one of his previous supervisors, Col. Ed Brennan, a UNM Air Force ROTC grad, and Chae.
“Both Chae and Brennan spoke highly of Albuquerque, the university and the ROTC programs, he said. “The community support, alumni connections and opportunities for my family are all things we look forward to here at UNM.”
Major Jeffrey Meinders
Meinders is an Army aviator who has been on active duty as an officer for 17 years, with four years of enlisted service in the Missouri National Guard while attending college and ROTC. He was most recently stationed in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, serving as mission commander for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency Open Skies Treaty.
Meinders said he was drawn to UNM by one of his previous supervisors, Col. Ed Brennan, a UNM Air Force ROTC grad, and Chae.
“Both Chae and Brennan spoke highly of Albuquerque, the university and the ROTC programs, he said. “The community support, alumni connections and opportunities for my family are all things we look forward to here at UNM.”
Chae worked at UNM for two years over half of which was encompassed by the pandemic.
“It wasn’t an easy time,” he said. “The campus community stuck together and tried to make the best of what we had.”
Chae said the challenges posed by the pandemic prompted entering into a virtual reality one that students, staff and faculty adapted to quickly in order to meet the needs of the campus community.
“It forced us to learn how to teach in a more dispersed and remote environment,” Chae said. “We realized that we could be virtual for only so long, and we constantly had to adapt and challenge ourselves as faculty to ensure the cadets were getting the training and development they needed as future Army officers.”