Decorated veteran named CEO of Clovis Veterans Memorial District

Lt. Col. Lorenzo Rios has been named the new chief executive officer for the Clovis Veterans Memorial District.

Rios, a decorated veteran of the both the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, joined the Clovis Veterans Memorial District after completing a 23-year military career where he served in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. He earned two bronze stars before retiring from the Army in May.

Rios said he joined the district with a vision for the future and plans for more outreach to all sectors of the community.

“I plan to lead the district with a more active role in communicating the heroic stories about the men and women from the Clovis area who valiantly served our nation,” Rios said.

He also served as a professor and department chair of the Military Science and Leadership Department at Fresno State, where he served as commander of Fresno State’s Army ROTC Bulldog Battalion.

A naturalized U.S. citizen born in Tecoman, Colima, Mexico, Rios was a migrant farmworker who first enlisted in the Marine Corps before later joining the Army through the ROTC program at Gonzaga University.

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 10:13 PM with the headline "Decorated veteran named CEO of Clovis Veterans Memorial District."