An advocate for digital STEM education, Hunt School of Dental Medicine student Georgia Hejny was appointed student representative to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board by Gov. Greg Abbott in summer 2022. 

Increasing accessibility to online education “would especially be helpful for nontraditional students,” Hejny said.

Hejny became the first Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso student to be appointed as a THECB student representative. The student representative position was created in 2008; the governor appoints a student to serve as a non-voting member for a one-year term on the nine-member board.