Trailblazer Awards

Trailblazer Awards

Mar 15, 2021 | Spring 2021

Photo of the exterior of Hodgin Hall looking West

Trailblazer Awards

Shammara Henderson

Born and raised in Albuquerque, Henderson graduated from Valley High School and received a bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy from American University in Washington, D.C. She received her J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law.

After graduating from law school, Henderson clerked for New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Charles W. Daniels (’69 JD) before beginning joining the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Albuquerque, where she prosecuted DWI/DUI and domestic violence cases.

Henderson then served as the Associate General Counsel for the Office of Governor, advising on legal matters ranging from pardons and paroles to criminal legislation, environmental legislation and higher education.

In 2011, Henderson joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico, where she focused on long-term drug investigation cases and large drug trafficking organizations, as well as criminal civil rights cases. Alongside her duties as a prosecutor, she successfully promoted fairer enforcement of the laws to alleviate disparate impacts of the criminal justice system, especially racial impacts, and ensure more just punishments for low-level, nonviolent convictions.

In 2017, Henderson co-founded her own law firm, Henderson & Grohman, PC. In 2018 she joined Freedman, Boyd, Hollander, Goldberg, Urias, & Ward, PA.

In early 2020, Henderson became the first African-American to sit on the New Mexico Court of Appeals. She was appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (’82 BUS, ’87 JD) and won a retention election later in the year.

Photo of Judge Shammara Henderson

Trajuan Briggs

Briggs graduated from Birmingham High School in Lake Balboa Calif., nationally ranked as a tailback/slotback and running back, despite sitting out most of his senior year with an ankle injury. He enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, redshirted his freshman year and played for the California Golden Bears of the Pac-12 as a true freshman before transferring to UNM and making the switch from running back to linebacker.

In six games as a junior in a Lobo uniform, Briggs had three tackles (one solo, two assisted) and played on both special teams and defense.

After earning his B.A. in university studies and communications, Briggs served as a graduate assistant on the Lobos football team from 2016 to 2017 while working on his master’s degree. Briggs received his M.S. in Sport Administration in 2017. While at UNM Briggs was chief of staff of the Graduate and Professional Student Association, director of the Lobo Leadership Academy, and a senior academic advisor for the College of Arts and Sciences.

After leaving UNM, Briggs worked as research and development coordinator with Prime U in Dallas, Texas. Briggs launched research projects and developed baseline assessments and impact measure reports to provide analytics on the development of programming. He also worked as a consultant for athletic departments and provided recommendations based on research.

In 2020, he joined the University of New Orleans Athletic Compliance Department as eligibility and academic specialist.

Photo of Trajuan Briggs

Libros by Lobos – Spring 2021

Libros by Lobos – Spring 2021

Mar 15, 2021 | Shelf Life, Spring 2021

Books on a shelf

Shelf Life

Books by UNM Alumni

For someone who loved the Southwest and open spaces, Joseph M. Ferguson, Jr. (’57 BA) had the perfect career. As a traveling salesman for textbook publishers, he was able to set his own itinerary and choose his own routes. “The roads I loved most were in northeastern New Mexico where I discovered — imagined rather — the ghost town of Perdido,” Ferguson writes in his preface to The Roads Around Perdido (Sunstone Press, 2019), a collection of 10 related short stories set in this lonesome country. Ferguson has a way with character and dialogue, but it is description of place where he shines. (The book was a finalist in the 2020 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards contest for fiction.) This is Ferguson describing the title subject: “Untended fields give way to unplanted prairie, and then through hills of juniper and sky the highway dips and rises, a slate-bright line to the end of the earth where clouds, new-born and luminous, have just begun to billow.”

Photo of book The Roads Around Perdido Joseph M. Ferguson, Jr.

Ildikó Oravecz (’89 BBA, ’05 MA) has trademarked the term Tribal Abundance, a philosophy to help people achieve their personal and professional goals. She lays out her philosophy in Tribal Abundance: Living Courageously in an Uncertain World (Citrine Publishing, 2019), which has been recognized by the Independent Publishers Book Awards, the International Book Awards and the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards. Oravecz relies on stories from her life — as a child in South Africa, an immigrant to the United States plopped down in Socorro, N.M., a coach and consultant — to help readers learn how to collaborate and connect to build personal and professional success. In short: “Listen to your gut, build a culture you believe in, and maintain a posture that promotes further enrichment.”

Photo of book Tribal Abundance: Living Courageously in an Uncertain World by Ildikó Oravecz

Joy Harjo (’76 BA), who was just named to a third term as the nation’s poet laureate, has chosen works for a comprehensive anthology of poems by Native American writers. Harjo, a member of the Muskogee Creek tribe, is editor of When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through (W.W. Norton & Co., 2020) along with LeAnne Howe and Jennifer Elise Foerster. Harjo explains in her introduction that many people have no idea there is a single Native American poet, much less the more than 160 represented in the anthology. “Many who open the doors of this text arrive here with only stereotypes of indigenous peoples that keep indigenous peoples bound to a story in which none of us ever made it out alive,” Harjo writes. “In that story we cannot be erudite poets, scholars, and innovative creative artists.” This volume contradicts that stereotype with stirring poems by indigenous poets living and passed on, including a roster of writers with ties to UNM. Kiowa poet N. Scott Momaday (’58 BA) offers a blessing and there are poems by Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna, ’69 BA), Paula Gunn Allen (Laguna, ’75 PhD), Simon Ortiz (Acoma, Professor Emeritus and Honorary Doctor of Letters) and Luci Tapahonso (Navajo, ’81 BA, ’83 MA).

Photo of book When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through, Joy Harjo

Ranger McIntyre: The Dunraven Hoard Murders (Gale, 2020) is the third installment of the Ranger McIntyre historical fiction mystery series by James C. Work (’73 PhD). When the college fraternity brother of the son of a Denver millionaire is found dead near one abandoned gold mine in the Rocky Mountains, then another frat brother is found dead near a second mine, Rocky Mountain National Park ranger McIntyre is happy to take some time off and help an attractive investigator try to get to the bottom of the murders. Before the mystery is solved, there is yet another body: the millionaire’s son is found shot to death.

 

Photo of the book Ranger McIntyre: The Dunraven Hoard Murders by James C. Work

Valerie Sherer Mathes (’63 BA, ’65 MA) has built a body of academic work that centers on the American Indian Reform Movement, a series of late 19th century government policies designed to assimilate Native Americans while securing for them land ownership and civil rights. Mathes, professor emerita of history at City College of San Francisco, had her eighth and ninth books published last year. In Charles C. Painter: The Life of an Indian Reform Advocate (University of Oklahoma Press, 2020), Mathes draws a portrait of a skilled negotiator and successful advocate for assimilation policies to address the so-called “Indian problem” of his day. Born in Massachusetts in 1833, Painter was a Congregational Church pastor and professor of theology who came to the Indian Reform Movement through his association with missionary education. In 1883 he was hired by the Indian Rights Association, a non-native group dedicated to the goal of achieving full citizenship rights for American Indians and believing that conversion to Christianity was the key to that end. Through his decades with the Indian Rights Association Painter became an important advocate for protection of Native communities and played a vital role in shaping federal Indian policy.

 

Photo of the book Charles C. Painter: The Life of an Indian Reform Advocate by Valerie Sherer Mathes

Mathes is the editor of Gender, Race, and Power in the Indian Reform Movement (University of New Mexico Press, 2020), which examines the Women’s National Indian Association, another of the associations that worked toward assimilation policies. Throughout its history — and even before its female members had a secured their own right to vote — the association established missions and missionary schools and worked to improve reservation conditions and relations between Native Americans and whites. Mathes also contributes several essays. Driven by a desire to reform an unjust and corrupt federal Indian Office and “a belief in the transformative power of evangelical Christianity,” Mathes writes that two Baptist women from Philadelphia — Mary Lucinda Bonny and Amelia Stone Quinton — formed the Women’s National Indian Association in the late 1870s and pressed through petitions, pamphlets and personal appeals to President Rutherford B. Hayes for policies that upheld treaty rights and contributed to permanent homes for Native peoples.

 

Photo of the book Gender, Race, and Power in the Indian Reform Movement edited by Valerie Sherer Mathes

In Some Kinds of Earthly Love (Little Wing Press, 2020), Neil Flowers (’96 MA), poet, screenwriter, actor and director, collects poems of romantic love, maternal love and other things in a slim large-format volume. This is “Mother and Child”: “She stands/in the plaza/Bust shoppers/bustle round her/Slowly on/her axis turning/this way that way/rocking/the tiny blue/bundle in her arms/She smiles and/smiles and smiles.” And from The Far Pacific: “My left knee hurts. Brown spots/ fleck the backs of my hands/In the street young women cruise by on new bikes/skirts swirl in cool breezes, slim bar legs/make me ache for days that will not return.”

 

Photo of the book Some Kinds of Earthly Love by Neil Flowers

Flowers presents a completely different tone and form in A Signal Through the Flames (Little Wing Press, 2020). Told as a long narrative verse, it is the story of the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941 and its interruption of a crush by 15-year-old Alex on his 27-year-old teacher Rachel, a love that he carries with him through escape, a settled life in Canada and marriage.

Photo of the book A Signal Through the Flames

“To all who read this book,” Charles Becknell Sr. (‘75 PhD) writes in the preface to Voices from the African-American Village (Page Publishing, 2019), “I encourage you to remember that a person over seventy is not a relic of the past, but a history book with a story to tell and testimony to be revealed.” With that, Becknell begins his testimony to the power — and humor — of the teachings of Black elders and the foundation they provide for Black culture. The subtitle of Becknell’s book is “It Takes a Village to Define a Community.” He begins with language — “black speak.” “God gave us two ears and one mouth, evidently He wanted us to do more listening than talking.”  “I brought you into this world and I will take you out.” “What you do in the dark will soon come to light.” Becknell penned this short, breezy volume after reflecting that younger African-Americans might have lost out on some of the lessons the parenting figures of his generation used to form a culture. “In the transition from old to new, we lost a lot of communication strategies that assisted us in survival by giving us coping skills, endurance skills, and emotional skills to make it until time got better.”

Photo of the book Voices from the African-American Village by Charles Becknell Sr.

Class Notes Spring 2021

Class Notes Spring 2021

Mar 15, 2021 | Class News, Class Notes, Spring 2021

Photo of the exterior of Hodgin Hall looking West

Class Notes Spring 2021

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Send Us Your Notes

Send your alumni news to Mirage Editor, The University of New Mexico Alumni Association, MSC 01-1160, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-0001. Or better yet, email your news to Alumni@unm.edu. Please include your middle name or initial and tell us where you’re living now.

Deadlines:

  • Spring deadline: January 1
  • Fall deadline: June 1

1950

Frances R. Spallina (’56), Albuquerque, and Col. Marvin Spallina celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. They were married Feb. 14, 1955, at the Thomas Aquinas Newman Center at UNM.

1950

1960

Susan Seligman Kennedy (’60 BA) and Jack Kennedy (’61 BS), Albuquerque, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. They are high school sweethearts, married Aug. 19, 1960, at the Albuquerque Country Club.

Judy Vaughan (’69 MD), Albuquerque, has published her biography, “Strawberry Roan: Growing in the Shadow of Hermit’s Peak.”

Marshall Wilder (’64 BSEE) has published “The Microchip Revolution: A Brief History.”

1960

1970

Rhonda Lynn Ashcraft (’79 BBA), Albuquerque, owner of Articles for Her, has announced she will be retiring and closing her store, a fixture in the Northeast Heights for 40 years.

Sarah A. Bird (’78 BA), Austin, Texas, received the Paul Ré Peace Prize in the general category for her work as an activist for libraries and literacy programs. Her other works include the novel, “The Flamenco Academy.”

Robert M. Calvani (’71 BAFA), Albuquerque, has been elected president of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards for 2020 - 21. Among his career achievements are his designs for the First Judicial District courthouse and the New Mexico History Museum.

Charles Burdick Ewing (’76 BBA), Albuquerque, was appointed to a three-year term on the board of directors of The Parker Center for Family Business. He brings 40 years of banking experience to the board.

Augusta P. Farley (’74 MA), Patterson, Calif., was named one of 2020’s Outstanding Women of Stanislaus County. Farley was selected for her outstanding work in supporting women and children in the community.

Robert K. Hitchcock (’78 MA, ’82 PhD), Albuquerque, received the Paul Ré Peace Prize Lifetime Achievement award. He was recognized for his work across southern Africa assisting traditional hunter-gather, sustenance agriculturalist and pastoral communities negotiate an increasingly globalized world.

Albert Man-Chung Kwan (’77 BSPH, ’83 MD), Clovis, N.M., is Plains Regional Medical Center’s new medical director.

Frank H. Martinez (’72 BA, ’81 MPA), Albuquerque, was awarded the Paul Ré Peace Prize Lifetime Achievement Award for his lifelong community advocacy. This includes his work in forming the Citizens Information Committee of Martineztown.

Elaine C. Montague (’71 BSED, ’77 MA, ’84 EDSPC) and Gary T. Montague (’60 BAED), Albuquerque, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. The couple was married June 17, 1960, at the Sandia Base Chapel.

Carolyn S. Montoya (’76 BSN, ’13 PhD), Albuquerque, was honored by the New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence with the Distinguished Nurse of the Year award.

Jerome Nelson (’76 BA) has published “The Word Unveiled: A Spiritual Dictionary of Scripture.”

Joan Roberts (’73 BSED ’76 MA), and Randall S. Roberts (’73 BUS, ’76 JD), Farmington, N.M., celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on Aug. 23, 2020.

Ann E. Sims (’70 BSN), Albuquerque, and Thomas Sims celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Aug. 9, 2020. The couple were married at the UNM Alumni Memorial Chapel and will spend their retirement traveling and volunteering.

Charles L. Wiggins (’78 BSHE), Albuquerque, director of the New Mexico Tumor Registry, was awarded with the Calum S. Muir Memorial Award, which honors those who have made substantiative and outstanding contributions to the field of cancer surveillance.

1970

1980

Carol Leslie Adkins (’81 BSCHE), Albuquerque, received the Women in Technology Award from the New Mexico Technology Council. Adkins is the director for Sandia National Laboratories’ Energy and Earth Systems Center.

Carl M. Cady (’80 BSME), Los Alamos, N.M., was named the state’s swim and dive coach of the year by the New Mexico High School Coaches Association. Cady, an engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, coaches for the Los Alamos High School Hilltoppers, the same school he attended and for which he competed.

Armondo DeCarlo (’80 BSME), Ogden, Utah, has retired after 40 years in engineering. A member of the Defense Acquisition Corps and Tau Beta Pi, his final assignment was with the nuclear missile program at Hill Air Force Base.

Ireena A. Erteza (’86 BSEE), Albuquerque, was awarded the Women in Engineering Award by the 2020 Society of Women Engineers. She was recognized for the 27 years she has spent at Sandia National Laboratories as a devoted advocate for women in the STEM field.

Maria D. Gonzales (’85MA, ’92 PhD) has published “Atop the Windmill: I Could See Forever.”

Bill A. Goodman (’82 BS), Albuquerque, was recognized as one of 2020 SBA New Mexico Small Business Award winners and given the Small-Business Person of the Year award. President and CEO of Goodman Technologies, LLC, he is credited with more than 90 publications and his company has contributed to four different space missions.

Gilbert V. Herrera (’81 BSCPE), Albuquerque, has been appointed to the newly established U.S. National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee. The group will be tasked with advising federal offices in maintaining U.S. leadership in this field of technology.

Robert David Martinez (’86 BBA, ’97 MA), Albuquerque, the recently named state historian, has launched a new YouTube channel — New Mexico History in 10 Minutes, an innovative approach to public lectures in the time of the pandemic.

Michael John Newman (’85 MBA), Rio Rancho, N.M., and his wife Mary have celebrated 50 years of marriage. The couple was married September 20, 1970, at the United Nations Chapel in New York.

John Rabins (’85 PhD) has published “Defined by Fire.”

Peter A. Sanchez (’84 BBA), Albuquerque, was elected to the Bosque School board of trustees as a member of the finance committee and board vice chair. He is CEO of the Atrisco Companies.

Donald R. Smithburg (’85 MAPA), La Cygne, Kan., is interim CEO of Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services.

Richard S. Stapp (’89 MS), Arlington, Va., was promoted to chief technology officer at Northrop Grumman Corp. He will be working on new technology solutions and strengthening existing programs.

Patrick J. Wilkins (’85 BBA), Albuquerque, was elected to the Bosque School board of trustees as a member of the finance committee. He is a partner at Ricci & Company, LLC.

John L. Taylor (’80 MA) has released “Navajo Scouts During the Apache Wars.”

Sheryl M. Williams Stapleton (’87 MA, ’90 EDSPC, ’13 EDD), Albuquerque, joined the New Mexico Council for Racial Justice. The first African American woman to be elected to the New Mexico Legislature, she is currently serving as majority leader of the House.

1980

1990

Fernando G. Baca (’93 BA), Albuquerque, has joined Century Bank as a vice president and commercial loan officer at the DeVargas branch in Santa Fe.

Charles E. Becknell, Jr. (’93 BUS, ’08 PhD), Albuquerque, joined the New Mexico Council for Racial Justice. Faculty member of Africana Studies at UNM, Becknell also serves as a minister at the Emmanuel Baptist Church.

Alicia C. Benavidez (’97 BSED) and Daniel P. Benavidez (’98 BAED, ’03 MA), Glorieta, N.M., celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.

Gregory Brown, Jr. (’95 BUS), Albuquerque, was named head boys’ basketball coach at Albuquerque High
School. A former AHS player who led the team to a state championship, he was also a Western Athletic Conference player of the year during his time with the Lobos and will be bringing 15 years of coaching experience to the team.

Suzanne Wood Bruckner (’94 MBA, ’05 JD), a lawyer with Sutin, Thayer & Browne, and a member of its board of directors, and head of the firm’s tax law division, was appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to serve on the New Mexico Tax Practitioner Advisory Committee.

Joseph P. Coleman (’90 BUS), Albuquerque, has retired as Valley High School’s boys basketball coach. A 1984 VHS graduate, he reached four state championship games and took home three blue trophies in his 23-season career.

Jason C. Dykehouse (’95 BA) has written the novel “A Reduction of Men.”

Laura Gutierrez-Spencer (’90 PhD), Las Cruces, N.M., retired as director of Chicano Programs at New Mexico State University. She is a screenwriter/executive producer for the movie “Magic Love Dust.”

Paul L. Huitt (‘92 BUS, ‘96 MA), Albuquerque, has retired from coaching baseball at Sandia Preparatory School after 21 seasons and six state championships. A former UNM player, he will still continue to teach.

David H. Johnson (’94 JD), a lawyer with Sutin, Thayer & Browne, co-authored the New Mexico chapter of “Corporate Practice of Medicine: A 50 State Survey,” second edition, published by the American Health Lawyers Association.

Kiran Katira (’99 EDSPC, ’05 PhD), Rio Rancho, N.M., joined the New Mexico Council for Racial Justice. Katira is cofounder of the UNM Community Engagement Center and a national trainer with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond.

Edward S. Lopez (’90 BA), Newport Beach, Calif., is a member of the board of directors of The Parker Center for Family Business.

Santana M. Macias-Fontana (’98 MD), Corrales, N.M., was elected to the Bosque School board of trustees as board and executive committee chair. She is currently a physician with Presbyterian Medical Group.

Daniel Joseph Mayfield (’99 BA), Albuquerque, was promoted to vice president of government affairs at the Credit Union Association of New Mexico and president of Leverage Point.

Maria T. Mora (’90 BA, ’92 MA), St. Louis, Mo., received the 2020 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring for her multiple roles at the University of Missouri.

Marisa I. Mulkey (’92 BA), Village of Los Ranchos, N.M., was elected to the Bosque School board of trustees as a member of the finance committee. She is the executive vice president and chief strategic officer at
DreamSpring.

David Neidhart (’90 MD), Farmington, N.M., of San Juan Oncology Associates, has opened the Four Corners Cancer Center.

Lee L. Patchell (’93 BBA, ’95 MBA), Albuquerque, was elected to the Bosque School board of trustees as the governance committee chair and the member of executive committee. She is currently vice president of human resources partnerships and employee relations at Presbyterian Healthcare Services.

Deb Haaland (’94 BA, ’06 JD), a member of New Mexico's Laguna Pueblo, became the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. history. Haaland was confirmed as Secretary of Interior for President Biden’s Administration in March of 2021.

Photo of Lorii Rabinowitz

Lorii Rabinowitz (’94 BA) is one of three finalists for the 2021 9NEWS Leader of the Year award. Rabinowitz is CEO of the Denver Scholarship Foundation.

Christopher L. Steffan (’99 BS), Albuquerque, has joined JB Henderson Construction Company Inc. as special projects manager.

Thomas P. Trowbridge (’96 MPA), Santa Fe, N.M., won first place for “Best Daytime Newscast” in The Associated Press Television and Radio Association 2019 contest for an edition of the “KSFR MidDay Newsbreak.”

1990

2000

Stephanie G. Becker (’03 PhD), Albuquerque, has been promoted to executive director/principal at Amy
Biehl High School.

Christina L. Beppler (’06 BS), Albuquerque, was awarded the 2020 Society of Women Engineers’ Work/Life Integration Award. An analytic chemist at Sandia National Laboratories, she was recognized for her work in establishing the Sandia Parents Group.

Photo of Denise Chanez

Denise M. Chanez (’01 BA, ’06 JD), Albuquerque, a director at the Rodey Law Firm, was presented with the State Bar President’s Award. Chanez was recognized for her service and work as co-chair of the State Bar’s Committee on Diversity in the Legal Profession.

James D. Cox (’07 BBA), Farmington, N.M., is deputy county manager of San Juan County. He previously was the county’s chief financial and strategy officer.

Richard Charles Doty (’04 BA), Rio Rancho, N.M., retired as the Rio Rancho Fire Rescue deputy chief after 20 years of service. He will be working as operations manager for a nationwide private medical response company.

Beth Poquette Drews (’01 BA), Dallas, Texas, was awarded the Paul Ré Peace Prize Career Achievement Award for establishing Mariachi Pantera de Oro, the second middle school mariachi program in Dallas Independent School District.

Agnetha J. Gloshay (’06 BA, ’16 MPA), Albuquerque, co-founder of Native Women Lead, has joined the board of directors of the Family Independence Initiative.

Photo of Tina Muscarella Gooch

Tina Muscarella Gooch (’08 JD), a lawyer with Sutin, Thayer & Browne, has been named to the Business Leadership Council of Family Friendly New Mexico.

Myrriah M. Gomez (’09 MA), Albuquerque, received the Paul Ré Peace Prize Emerging Promoters of Peace
award. She was recognized for her work with the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, a grassroots organization that brought attention to the negative effects suffered by New Mexicans after their exposure to radiation from the nuclear device detonated in 1945 at the Trinity Site.

Photo of Jesse D Hale

Jesse D. Hale (’08 BA, ’13 JD), has been named counsel at Sutin, Thayer & Browne. Hale recently was re-appointed to a second term as vice chair of the Membership Committee of the ABA’s Health Law Section. He also co-authored the New Mexico chapter of “Corporate Practice of Medicine: A 50 State Survey,” second edition, published by the American Health Lawyers Association.

Jordan Anthony Herrington (’04 BBA), Albuquerque, has been promoted by Bank of Albuquerque to senior vice president and commercial real estate manager.

Theodore B. Hodoba (’00 MCRP), Veguita, N.M., has retired as manager of the Whitfield Wildlife Conservation Area after having worked there since March 2009 and volunteering since 2003.

Cynthia Maria Jarvison (’05 AAPBA, ’07 BBA), Gallup, N.M., was given the Small Business Development Center Excellence and Innovation Award by SBA New Mexico. She is currently the director of the Small Business Development Center at UNM - Gallup.

Rose Kern (’03 BUS) has published “Air to Ground 2020: A Guide for Pilots to the World of Air Traffic Control,” second edition.

Scott H. Koller (’08 BSEE), Albuquerque, has been promoted by Bridgers and Paxton Consulting Engineers to vice president. He joined the company in 2008.

Kathyleen Mary Kunkel (’03 JD), Albuquerque, retired as the New Mexico Secretary of Health.

Jackie C. Lopez-Barlow (’07 BSCHE), Abiquiu, N.M., was recently featured in Los Alamos National Laboratory’s new seven-episode podcast “Mars Technica.” The podcast explores the scientists, technology and equipment of the NASA 2020 Perseverance Rover mission.

Barbara A. Lynn (’01 MPA), Albuquerque, joined the New Mexico Council for Racial Justice.

Leonard P. Madrid (’05 BA, ’08 MFA), Albuquerque, has been working with Blackout Theatre on El Campo Santo, a podcast featuring music, comedy and stories set in New Mexican locations.

Cassandra Ruble Malone (‘04 MMU, ‘08 JD), Albuquerque, has joined Keleher & McLeod as an attorney.

Clara M. Moran (‘05 JD), Albuquerque, was appointed to the Second Judicial District Court in Bernalillo County. She has worked in the state Attorney General’s Office and the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

Virginia Necochea (’01 MA, ’15 PhD), Albuquerque, was named executive director of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center.

Carrie D. O’Hara (’02 BSTT, ’11 MA), Albuquerque, was chosen as a 2020 Women Worth Watching winner by Profiles in Diversity Journal. The award recognizes dynamic women who are changing the workplace and world. O’Hara is a security expert and innovative instructional systems designer at Sandia National Laboratories.

Corrine M. Sanchez (’01 MA), San Ildefonso Pueblo, N.M., joined the New Mexico Council for Racial Justice.

Brian G. Serna (’06 MA), Santa Fe, N.M., joined the New Mexico Council for Racial Justice. He is the founder and CEO of Serna Solutions, which specializes in behavioral health and counseling.

Lucy B. Solimon (’04 BA, ’07 JD), Albuquerque, was appointed to the Second Judicial District Court in Bernalillo County. Lucy has served as bureau chief of the Workers Compensation Administration enforcement since 2018 and as a special assistant U.S. Attorney for Laguna Pueblo.

Briana H. Zamora (’00 JD), Albuquerque, a state Court of Appeals judge, has been named to the steering committee of the Commission on Equity and Justice.

2000

2010

Hope A. Alvarado (’19 BA), Albuquerque, joined the New Mexico Council for Racial Justice. Alvarado is currently a youth leader with the New Mexico Child Advocacy Network.

Noe Astorga (’15 BA, ’19 JD), a lawyer with Sutin, Thayer & Browne, has been appointed to head the firm’s Committee on Equality. Astorga is a first-generation American and first-generation college and law school graduate.

Dawn G. Begay (’11 BA), Albuquerque, joined the New Mexico Council for Racial Justice. Begay serves as the Native American Affairs Coordinator for the City of Albuquerque’s Office of Equity and Inclusion.

Johana Bencomo (’18 BSN), Las Cruces, N.M., joined the New Mexico Council for Racial Justice. She is executive director of Comunidades en Acción y de Fé and a Las Cruces city councilor.

Frank A. Blazquez (’18 BA), Albuquerque, was awarded the Paul Ré Peace Prize Career Achievement award for his art project Barrios de Nuevo Mexico: Southwest Stories of Vindication.

Elizabeth K. Fresquez (’14 BSN), Albuquerque, released her first single ”Ninety-Nine.” Currently working in the pre-anesthesia clinic at UNM Hospital, Fresquez still finds the time to make and perform music.

Gabriel M. Gallegos (’18 BA), Albuquerque, has been promoted to media director of Sunny505.

Aaron J. Gardner (’15 BA), Rio Rancho, N.M., was appointed permanent site manager of Casa San Ysidro: The Gutiérrez-Minge House in Corrales.

J.R. Giddens (’18 BLA), Albuquerque, was hired by Northern New Mexico College as new head coach of the women’s basketball program. A former NBA and UNM player, Giddens has played internationally for more than 10 years.

Astrid Carmela Gonzaga (’18 AAS), Gallup, N.M., joined a UNM-Gallup field research team funded by the National Science Foundation to advance the understanding of hydrodynamic controls on the sedimentary architecture of floodplain deposits.

Brittany A. Karnezis (’16 MA), Albuquerque, is executive director at the New Mexico Cancer Center Foundation.

Katherine E. Kleinsteuber (’13 MSN), Carlsbad, N.M., joined the Pecos Valley Physician Group’s team of health care providers and will be working at the Sandia Surgical and Vein Center.

Photo of Robert Johnston

Robert J. Johnston (’16 JD), a lawyer at Sutin, Thayer & Browne, has been appointed to the board of directors of the State Bar’s Tax Law Division. Johnston also co-authored the New Mexico chapter of “Corporate Practice of Medicine: 50 State Survey,” second edition, published by the American Health Lawyers Association.

Colleen A. Lino (’17 BBA, ’19 MACCT), Albuquerque, has been promoted to senior tax associate at Pulakos CPAs accounting firm.

Kimball S. Sekaquaptewa (’17 MBA), Cochiti Lake, N.M., received the Women in Technology Award by the New Mexico Technology Council. Sekaquaptewa is the chief technology director at Santa Fe Indian School.

Photo of Alison Goodwin

Alison K. Goodwin (’18 JD) a lawyer at Sutin, Thayer & Browne, has been appointed the Young Lawyer Division Liaison to the State Bar of New Mexico’s Health Law Section. Her term runs through December 2021.

Rosswell Radoslaw Sinclair (’20 BBA), Albuquerque, won the 79th Albuquerque Men’s City Golf Championship. Sinclair finished the 54-hole event at 12-under 204.

Martina Terri Smiley (’19 AS), Window Rock, Ariz., joined a UNM-Gallup field research team funded by the National Science Foundation to advance the understanding of hydrodynamic controls on the sedimentary architecture of floodplain deposits.

Jason D. Sterns (’11 BBA), Albuquerque, has been promoted to senior auditor at Pulakos CPAs accounting firm.

Andres D. Trujillo (’10 BA), Albuquerque, was named executive director of New Mexico Games, an annual amateur athletic competition.

Phillip N. Walck (’11 BBA, ’19 MBA), Albuquerque, has been promoted to senior tax accountant at Pulakos CPAs accounting firm.

2010

2020

Photo of Sabrina Hernandez

Sabrina Hernandez (’20 JD) has joined Foulston Siefkin LLP, the largest Kansas-based law firm, as an
associate in Foulston’s litigation practice group.

Jared P. Lucero (’20 BA), Santa Fe, N.M., co- founded YOUnited Threads, a charitable bracelet business
dedicating all profits to the American Red Cross initiative to fight COVID-19.

Alexis M. Rael (’20 BBA), Santa Fe, N.M., joined the New Mexico Council for Racial Justice. Rael is
pursuing a master‘s in business administration at UNM.

2020

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor

Mar 15, 2021 | Letters, Letters to the Editor, Spring 2021

Letters to the Editor

Has it only been six months since we published the last issue of Mirage?

In the Year of Coronavirus, sometimes time stands still and a day spent in self-isolation can feel like a week. Other times, I look at the calendar and marvel that we’ve been at this for six months, nine months, a year.

I distinctly remember my birthday a year ago in March, mostly because it was completely ignored in what was then a new and rather intriguing shutdown.

Could we do this for a few weeks? Stay home? Not see other people? Rely on the Internet for work, shopping, even happy hour?

We could. And we did. As the one-year anniversary of this weirdness rolls around, we’re still doing it and I prepare to ring in another birthday at home with my husband, our pandemic puppy and DoorDash.

At UNM, the summer was spent preparing for an academic year like no other. With no crystal ball to know what late August would look and feel like, administrators made their best guess that close physical contact would still be unsafe and faculty began to steep themselves in best practices for teaching remotely. Students, staff and faculty who only knew FaceTime a year ago became quick studies in the uses of Zoom and other platforms and in the differences between hybrid in-person, synchronous and asynchronous schedules.

In addition to profiles of some especially inspiring alumni in this issue, I’ll introduce you to some students and faculty members who adapted to — and in some cases thrived — in this new academic world.

And what better time to launch Mirage in a virtual-only format?

This is the first issue that we are publishing online only. That means you will not receive this in printed form in the mail but can read the print facsimile on the e-reader you’re most comfortable using — swiping to turn pages and accessing the magazine in its familiar form.

On the web, our storytelling includes a new video component so that you may see and hear fellow alumni to better understand their worlds.

It’s all been a little more challenging under pandemic procedures and we have juggled the twin goals of bringing you a magazine in a new format while also keeping everyone healthy. Almost all of our interactions have been remote. If they have been in person, we have followed UNM and New Mexico guidelines for distancing and wearing masks. When you see photos or videos of people without masks on, I promise you those instances were brief and everyone was at a safe distance.

We’d very much like to hear your thoughts on the new website. You can email me at MirageEditor@unm.edu or alumni@unm.edu.

Stay safe and thanks for reading!

Leslie Linthicum
MirageEditor@unm.edu

Photo of Leslie Linthicum

Hard work and adaptation keys to UNM’s 2020 success

Hard work and adaptation keys to UNM’s 2020 success

Mar 15, 2021 | Spring 2021, UNM President’s Letter

Hard work and adaptation keys to UNM’s 2020 success

As I write this in late December 2020, the first doses of a vaccine for COVID-19 are being administered to our front-line health care providers at The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center who have been working tirelessly and fearlessly. I’m in awe of their dedication, and so grateful for their skill and compassion. To all of them, and all of our alumni on the front lines of the pandemic: thank you. We’re proud to be your fellow Lobos.

I also want to applaud a different kind of front-line worker vital to our core mission at UNM: our faculty, who quickly and deftly pivoted to life under lockdown. Whether they were teaching chemistry or Kafka, our faculty masterfully adapted to a new normal of remote instruction and squint-sized Zoom windows. That also meant holding virtual office hours and conducting research remotely, while still juggling family life from the dining room table. While nothing compares to face-to-face instruction, our faculty have also proved that nothing gets in the way of a great teacher.

Meanwhile, our dedicated staff continued the work that kept The University of New Mexico open for business, from our fantastic custodial staff to our masterful librarians and laboratory workers. Many employees, in fact, were on campus every day, keeping our most vital functions safely operating even at the height of the pandemic. To our faculty and our staff, I can’t begin to tell you how thankful I am for all of you.

And let’s hear it for the unsung heroes of 2020: each and every one of our students. They’ve had their lives as Lobos unexpectedly and permanently altered. And while we can empathize with all they’ve been through, I don’t think we truly appreciate how much they’ve sacrificed, even as they’ve succeeded beyond expectations. As our alumni know, part of college life is the college experience — the socializing, gatherings and rites of passage that shape us as alumni, and as human beings, for the rest of our lives. Our students were denied a year of these experiences — and while we did our best to virtually celebrate formative occasions like graduation or homecoming, we also know it’s just not the same.

Obviously, I’m so incredibly proud of our healthcare workers, faculty, staff and students. They deserve not only our thanks for all they’ve done in a remarkable year, but also our respect and admiration. What they have done has been unprecedented, and they did it all with patience, grace and no small amount of good humor.

In short, thank for you everything, Lobos. Here’s to better days ahead in 2021.

 

Regards,
Garnett S. Stokes
President, The University of New Mexico

 

President Garnett S. Stokes

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