About Us
Advisory Board
Miguel Acosta
Miguel Acosta is the Co-Director of Earth Care, a multi-generational community leadership organization in Santa Fe, where his current focus is propelling Santa Fe Mutual Aid – a collective of organizations that have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Miguel brings more than 45 years of experience in advocating for educational opportunities and sustainable community development for underserved populations. He has been the Director of El Colegio Sin Fronteras, a Principal Associate at the Center for Relational Learning, a Community Health Promoter with NM DOH, a program developer at UNM, and has served on the Board of Education of Albuquerque Public Schools.
Beth Beloff
Beth Beloff is Executive Director of the Coalition of Sustainable Communities NM, an organization of local governments aligned around supporting climate and sustainability actions that help advance their local objectives. Prior to this role, she was Chair of Sustainable Santa Fe Commission which developed the 25-year sustainability and carbon neutral plan for Santa Fe in partnership with City staff and community members.
Terry Brunner
Terry Brunner is the CEO of Pivotal New Mexico, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization helping organizations get the funding they need to achieve their charitable and social missions. Terry has over 25 years of public policy and community development experience in New Mexico having served as President Barack Obama’s appointee to New Mexico State Director of USDA Rural Development and State Director to former United States Senator Jeff Bingaman.
Robert Chavez
Robert Chavez, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union, has been on the executive leadership team of the $2.8 billion, 110,000-member credit union since 2000. He currently serves as an Advisory Member of the Sandia Science & Technology Park Advisory Council, as a Board member of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and as a member of the Business Advisory Council for New Mexico State University.
Judy Cormier
Judy Cormier is a retired Banking Senior Executive with over 30 years regulatory compliance experience. She built successful compliance programs within two separate banking institutions and was Chief Compliance Officer/Director of Consumer Compliance for 11 years prior to Retirement. After serving on the Santa Fe Public Bank Task Force in 2018, Judy continued her involvement, as a member of the State Public Banking Committee from 2019 to present.
Eric Griego
Eric Griego is the State Director of the New Mexico Working Families Party, running campaigns to raise standards for working families. For the past three decades Eric has worked as a researcher, analyst and policy maker on applied public policy issues ranging from economic development to early childhood education at the local, state, national and international levels, serving as an Albuquerque City Councilman, Assistant Cabinet Secretary for Economic Development under Governor Richardson, and State Senator. He also led New Mexico Voices for Children, an anti-poverty advocacy, research and policy non-profit organization focusing on children and families.
Steven Gluckstern
Steven Gluckstern is the Chairman & CEO of Santa Fe Farms, LLC. A serial entrepreneur, he has held senior positions in the fields of Education (former School District Superintendent), Investment Banking, Insurance (Head of Reinsurance at Berkshire Hathaway, founder of Centre Reinsurance and Executive Board Member of Zurich Financial), Asset Management (Chairman of Scudder Mutual Funds and founder of Capital Z Partners) and Professional Sports (member of NHL Board of Governors, current owner of The Chicago Dogs baseball team.)
John Hatch, Ph.D.
John Hatch is the founder of Foundation for International Community Assistance International (FINCA). FINCA gives small loans to the poor to transform entire communities in a sustainable way. BrightLife, a social enterprise by FINCA, pairs access to finance with access to energy to unlock productivity and well-being for the poor, and builds pathways to financial inclusion.
Dimid Hayes
Dimid Hayes has called New Mexico home for 38 years. A career in natural health allowed him to travel extensively around the entire state and see the incredible diversity of NM. He sees himself as a bridge person between Southern/Northern areas, rural/urban perspectives and progressive/traditional ways of thinking. He and his partner of 25 years split their time between Truth or Consequences and Santa Fe.
Isabelle Jenniches
Isabelle Jenniches is a skilled community organizer who draws from her experience in policy-making and farmer-to-farmer education. She is Co-Founder of the Healthy Soil Working Group. An accomplished artist with a background in theater and design, she acts as the group’s webmaster and outreach coordinator. Moving to the US in 2005, she worked at a fifth generation family farm in California before coming to New Mexico. She represents the Working Group on the National Healthy Soils Policy Network and serves on the board of the NM Food & Agriculture Policy Council.
Manuel Montoya, Ph.D.
Manuel (MJR) Montoya, Ph.D. is an Associate professor of global structures and international management at the University of New Mexico Anderson School of Management. Generally he researches global political economy and is concerned with how we make the planet a meaningful part of our social and economic realities and has published work on issues ranging from international trade to creative economy. He has delivered over 100 lectures across the world and is recognized as a leading authority in the burgeoning field of critical management studies. In private life, he has been an amateur watchmaker for 12 years, and is a published poet and short story writer. Dr. Montoya was born and raised in Mora, New Mexico.
Winona Nava
Winona Nava has been President/CEO of Guadalupe Credit Union (GCU), a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), for 29 years. Under her leadership the Credit Union has grown from $10 to $200 million in assets. GCU provides products and services accompanied by one-on-one financial coaching and financial education in order to provide financial empowerment to those living in 7 counties in Northern New Mexico.
Paul O'Connell, Ph.D.
Paul O’Connell’s (Ph.D. Economics) 40+ years professional career revolved around the economic analysis of agricultural and forestry production and processing, the natural resources on which the production depends and administration of related research and development programs. He spent over a decade with the Rural Development Division of the World Bank in Washington DC where he worked in four African countries, Ukraine, Brazil and the Philippines, conducted training programs in sustainable agriculture, lectured in Australia and New Zealand, and ran the World Bank Expo in Hanover, Germany in 2000.
Paul Stull
Paul B. Stull is the President/CEO of Credit Union Association of New Mexico and Chairman of the Board for Leverage Point, Inc. He currently represents 41 credit unions in the State of New Mexico and is active in financial services political advocacy programs on both the state and national level. His background includes extensive experience in the health care industry as an Assistant Vice President and Hospital Spokesman for St Joseph’s Hospital in New York. Paul previously served as Director of the One AZ Community Foundation and has served on the Board of Directors of the Marketing Association of Credit Unions.
Wendy Volkmann
Wendy Volkmann works with philanthropists, finding organizations that match their vision for social and economic justice. Her interests in racial justice and climate change have led her to advocate for grassroots movement-building organizations led by the people most impacted by society’s challenges. While often the least resourced, it is impacted communities that best understand the challenges they face, the solutions needed, and that are the most dedicated to making change. Wendy’s delight is to link donors with values-aligned organizations.
Reilly White, Ph.D.
Dr. Reilly White is an Associate Professor of Finance and Endowed Bank of America Lecturer at the University of New Mexico. In addition to teaching MBA students, Dr. White serves as the University Outreach Chair for the CFA Society of New Mexico and Director of the $3.6 Million student-run Regent’s Portfolio. Prior to his career in academia, Dr. White worked as an analyst for a large Boston-based bank, where he learned a great deal about company analysis, funding, and maintaining ethical corporate leadership.
Upcoming Events
California’s New Public Banking Option Opens Door for Real Community Investment
FAIR / Truthout.org
Economy & Labor
Oct 22, 2019
Janine Jackson interviews Public Bank LA’s Trinity Tran about public banking for the October 11, 2019, episode of “CounterSpin.”
Ellen Brown’s
2019 Book
Today most of our money is created, not by governments, but by banks when they make loans. This book takes the reader step by step through the sausage factory of modern money creation, explores improvements made possible by advances in digital technology, and proposes upgrades that could transform our outmoded nineteenth century system into one that is democratic, sustainable, and serves the needs of the twenty-first century.
Join those who’ve endorsed a Public Bank for New Mexico
“I had the good fortune to work on this initiative before Bernie kidnapped all my time. This is one of those no-brainer initiatives that only the 1% could oppose. It has the potential to save the state millions of dollars by vastly reducing the cost of its bonds to improve infrastructure funding. in a public bank, our state funds can be used to build our local economy and our local infrastructure.”
– Paul Gibson
Retake Our Democracy