Dionicio (Don) Flores

Dionicio (Don) Flores, appointed to the Board of Regents in 2019, earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism in 1973 at Texas State University and has maintained ties with the university as former chair of its Board of Regents, past president of its Alumni Association and member of its Development Foundation. He was appointed to the Texas State University System Board of Regents by Governor George W. Bush in 1999, serving through 2008. In 1994, Flores received that school's distinguished alumnus award, and in 2004 was selected to the university's School of Journalism and Mass Communications Hall of Fame. Texas State awarded him an honorary doctoral degree in 2015.

In 2009, Governor Rick Perry appointed Flores to the Texas Southern University Board of Regents, serving as first vice chairman until 2015.

After retiring as vice president and editor of the El Paso Times in 2008, he formed Flores Media Consulting where he is a community outreach consultant and media specialist. A 30-year resident of El Paso and a longtime journalist and newspaper executive, was president and publisher of the Iowa City Press-Citizen in Iowa City, Iowa, before going to El Paso in 1993. Joining the Gannett Company in March 1985, he held editing and management positions at the Tucson Citizen in Tucson, Arizona; The New Mexican in Santa Fe, New Mexico; the Visalia Times-Delta in Visalia, California; and Gannett West in Reno, Nevada, before his promotions and transfers to Iowa City and later El Paso.

Flores has been active in many industry associations, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors. He served on Newspaper Association of America committees, and the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. He served multiple times as a jurist in the Pulitzer Prize competitions. He is a past president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Flores served or is serving on journalism boards at the University of North Carolina, Texas Tech University, the University of Nebraska, Middle Tennessee State University, Southeast Missouri State University and University of Texas at El Paso, and Texas State University. He is a frequent speaker and lecturer on college campuses.

His community involvement includes service on the boards of the Sun Bowl Association, Paso del Norte Health Foundation, Border Fund, United Way of El Paso, National Conference of Christians and Jews, El Paso Symphony Board of Trustees, El Paso YMCA, and the El Paso County Historical Society.

Flores is married to Ruth Harris of Oran, Missouri. His term on the Board of Regents expires in 2025.