Dr. Marsha Hardeman speaks at UNMG on Feb. 2, 2024 for Black History Month

Dr. Marsha K. Hardeman spoke at UNM-Gallup, for Black History Month, on February 2, 2024: Black History is American History.  Marsha hadn’t always envisioned herself as the multi-talented law school graduate, educator, and civil rights advocate that she is now. Born in Indiana, Hardeman originally 
studied sociology and psychology. Fascinated by the human psyche and why people do the things 
they do, she knew she wanted to work with people. She had a passion for helping people and being 
involved in her community and saw these fields as ways to continue doing that professionally. It was 
not until she moved to New Mexico with her husband in the 1970s that she thought about graduate 
school, and what her next steps might be.
While looking into graduate programs, she saw that the UNM School of Law was ranked nationally 
as one of the top five clinical law programs. “The idea that this clinical law program sought to serve 
the community appealed to me, so I applied,” she says. Turns out, it was one of the best decisions she
ever made.
After admission to the UNM School of Law, Hardeman found many ways to get involved. At the 
time, the Dean was Fred Hart, and Robert Desiderio was the Associate Dean. Hardeman recalls both 
leaders very fondly and says that the school felt like a second home. “Students had the opportunity to
forge relationships with professors, which was such a rare thing. Many of those relationships have 
lasted until this day. There is a distinct longevity to these friendships; people have stayed connected 
and are still friends all these years later.”

For nearly all three years of law school, she baked her way through. She first started by bringing in 
homemade goods and sharing them with the faculty as gifts. Fred Hart, the dean at that time, who 
savored the smell of the homemade fruit cake, told her she should start selling them, and with his 
blessing, she did just that. With the honor system, she’d leave the goodies in the cafeteria, and 
students and faculty would put some change into a little, slotted coffee can she had made. At the end 
of the day, she’d go collect her money, and that’s how she helped pay her way through school.
Outside of her baking hobby, Hardeman found many ways to get involved with the school and her 
fellow students. She was the first woman and first Black student elected as the Student Bar 
Association president, from 1976-77, and she also served as the Black American Law Students’ 
Association (B.A.L.S.A.) president from 1975 through 1976. After she graduated in 1977, she went 
on to work for the City of Albuquerque in the City Attorney’s office, as court administrator for the 
old municipal court, then later as personnel director for the City. Before she left her various roles 
with the City, she had served under three (and a half!) different mayors, with additional service as 
Director of the Human Services Department and Director of the Albuquerque Convention Center. 
Her career then took her in different and diverse directions, a testament to her character and her 
desire to stay active, continuously be learning and engaged with her communities. From starting her 
own management training/consulting business and educating people about employment law, legal 
liabilities in the workplace, cultural diversity and civil rights trainings, to teaching at the University 
of Phoenix in subjects ranging from criminal justice, human resources management, business law and
business communications, Hardeman has done it all, and continues to be actively involved in a 
variety of ways with her church and community.
But Hardeman doesn’t just define herself in these ways; she believes in being a well-rounded 
individual with many different experiences because that’s how she believes you grow and learn. 
Something she views as a lifelong pursuit.