UNM Alumni Assoc. Zia Awards, 1994-2017

The University of New Mexico Alumni Association

ZIA AWARDS

The University of New Mexico Alumni Association Zia Award honors New Mexico residents with a UNM degree who have

distinguished themselves in any one or more of the following categories: philanthropic endeavors, public office, service to the University, community and volunteer activities, business or professional fields, or educational fields.

1994

1998

2002

1995

1999

2003

1996

2000

2004

1997

2001

2005

Adrian Bustamante Tom Cooper Cleta Downey Pete Gibson John Heaton Rick Johnson John T. Ackerman Charlie Carrillo James P. Miller, Sr. Teresa C. Moulds Robin Otten Glojean Todacheene Gwen Speer Clouthier Don Perkins Richard Ransom Maria Estela de Rios Butch Worthington Judy Zanotti Bruce A. Black Arthur Blumenfeld Ruth Frazier F. Chris Garcia Martha Liebert Seledon C. Martinez

George Friberg John A. Garcia Robert Ghattas Van Gilbert Frances and John Hernandez Doris Rhodes Margaret Hopcraft Dike Nasario Garcia Debbie Ullrich-Johnson Michael S. Sanchez Myrna Smyer Thomas J. Steele, S.J. Jose Abeyta Jackie Baca Maria Griego-Raby Arthur Meledres Thomas B. Ryan Louis Weller Randolph “Dolph�

Barnhouse Laura Hueter Bass Sam J. Butler Michael J. Glennon Angela J. Jewell J. Howard Mock

Alex Doyle Beach Fred Begay Breda Bova Tom Chavez William Federici Ramon Huerta Gary Golden Yolanda King James B. Lewis Petra Jimenez Maes Mary T. Torres Robert Wertheim George Brooks Veronica Garcia Thomas Kelley Karen Pharris Jacki Pieracci Riggs Duffy Swan Jim Belshaw Briggs Cheney Michelle Coons Michelle Lujan Grisham Lynda Morgan Lovejoy Waneta Tuttle

2006

Jane Shuler Gray Dick Knipfing Janice Lucero Tommy Roberts Marty Wilson Judith Nakamura 2007

Monica Armenta Steve Bacchus (posthumous) Sandra Begay-Campbell Brian Burnett Leonard DeLayo Chuck Wellborn 2008

Jimmy Santiago Baca Teresa Balcomb and James Tryon Joe Garcia Patrick Gurley Terry Huertaz Carol Radosevich 2009

Herman Agoyo I Gene Baca Gary King Carolyn Ramos Brian Sanderoff Kathie Winograd

2010

Kara Bobroff Sue Daulton Jerry Dominguez Ed Mazria Bradley Smith Amy Wohlert 2011

Larry Abraham Steve Ciepiela Michael Currier Nedra Matteucci Dennis PeĂąa Elba Saavedra

2012

Brian ColĂłn John Cordova Aileen Garcia Edward Gonzales Rhonda King Baker Morrow

2013

Gig Brummell Leslie Hoffman Madeline King Jay Rosenblum Peter Sanchez Frank Sedillo

2014

John Draper Charles Lanier Damon Martinez Don Power Ruth Schifani Barbara Vigil

2015

Cynthia Arndell Bette Jo Sisneros-Ciesielski Kirk Gittings Rene Matison Frank McCulloch Coleman Travelstead

2016

Celia Foy Castillo Kenneth Gonzales Gary Gordon James Miller Carol Pierce Randy Royster 2017

Amy Boule Larry Larranaga L. Ray Nunley Roy Solomon Elisabeth Valenzuela Vickie Wilcox

1994 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Adrian Bustamante Tom Cooper Cleta Downey Pete Gibson John Heaton Rick Johnson

1994 Zia Award Adrian Bustamante

P

reserving and recounting the ethnohistory of New Mexico has motivated Adrian Bustamante’s educational, personal and professional pursuits. His new position as Officer of Cultural Affairs for the State of New Mexico is the culmination of his interests. At the Office of Cultural Affairs, Adrian oversees administrative services, the Museum of New Mexico, Historic Preservation, Arts, the State Library, the Space Center, the Museum of Natural History, the Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum and the Hispanic Cultural Divisions.

Adrian earned his PhD from the University of New Mexico in American studies, emphasizing the ethno-history of the Southwestern United States. He has taught anthropology and history since he was a doctoral student: 11 years at the Santa Fe Community College and five years at Northern New Mexico Community College.

He has also held a variety of administrative positions at those two schools and at the College of Santa Fe. Adrian is involved also in many state cultural and historical associations: president of the Colonial New Mexico Historical Foundation; a member of the New Mexico Historical Society; the New Mexico representative on the board of the Santa Fe Trail Association; on the executive committee of the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities; a board member of Rancho de las Golondrinas; on the executive committee of the Hispanic Culture Foundation; and on the City of Santa Fe Art in Public Places Committee. He is past president of the

Museum of New Mexico Board of Regents and was chairman of the New Mexico Quincentenary Commission.

It is easy to see why he was named in 1988 as “one of New Mexico’s Eminent Scholars to serve as a cultural resource.” And it is easy to see why we are honoring him today with the UNM Alumni Association Zia Award.

1994 Zia Award Tom Cooper

F

or nearly 38 years, writes the Albuquerque Journal, “Tom Cooper has worked with kids who have skipped school, kids from broken homes, kids who have committed crimes. And he has done everything possible to get them out of deep water.”

For 25 of those years, Tom has worked at APS, now as one of two court liaison officers and before that in the juvenile probation office.

Five years ago, there were two suicides at the Juvenile Detention Center – the D Home. Tom was asked by the court and the county to take on oversight of the D Home as ombudsman – unpaid. As of October 26, Tom had made 2,187 visits. That is every day, including Saturday and Sunday.

Tom has been secretary of the Albuquerque Kiwanis Club for 30 years, publishing a weekly newsletter. The Tom Cooper Kiwanis Park in the South Valley as well as the D Home library and learning center carry his name.

Tom received his BA in 1956 at the University of New Mexico, in history and English. He holds a master’s degree in educational administration and has completed his coursework for a PhD. Among Tom’s many awards are the United Nations Concern for Human Rights Award, the Thousand Points of Light Award from President Bush and the New Mexico Distinguished Public Service Award.

We are honored to bestow the Alumni Association Zia Award upon Tom for his outstanding service to the community.

1994 Zia Award Cleta Downey

E

ducation and the arts have always been focal points of Cleta Downey’s life. She received her BA in 1956 at the University of New Mexcio in psychology and English and, in 1970, an MA in art history and museology.

She has done post-master’s work at UNM in art history.

Currently the director of development at the Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute and the executive director of the TVI Foundation, she worked previously as the development officer of the New Mexico Repertory Theatre and for 10 years as curator in the University Art Museum and lecturer in the department of art. Earlier, she taught in Houston with the Texas Public Schools.

In the Albuquerque community, Cleta has served on the board of the Urban Enhancement Trust Fund; was a founding member of Friends of Art; was president of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra board; was president of the Board of Regents of the Museum of New Mexico; was a founding member of the New Mexico Repertory Theatre; was president of the Chaparral Girl Scout Council; chaired former Mayor Louis Saavedra’s Transition Committee for the Quality of Life Projects; and chaired the 50th Anniversary Committee of the UNM College of Fine Arts.

The Chaparral Girl Scout Council named Cleta a “Woman of Distinction.” The New Mexico Business Journal designated her one of Albuquerque’s “Movers and Shakers.” The University Art Museum named her “Friend of the Year.” The College of Fine Arts has

recognized her, and the Albuquerque Arts Alliance hailed her “Volunteer of the Year.”

We now laud Cleta and bestow upon her our Alumni Association Zia Award in recognition of her service to the University and State of New Mexico.

1994 Zia Award Pete Gibson

P

ete Gibson, remembered by many as “Petie� Gibson for his days as a Lobo basketball star, has remained a star in the eyes of countless kids at La Mesa Elementary School and throughout Albuquerque.

Pete graduated from the University of New Mexico with a BSPE in 1971 and has worked as a physical education teacher at La Mesa Elementary School for 23 years. He stays after school to coach his Teams Against Substance Abuse, a federally funded program designed to reach at-risk and latchkey children whose parents are not home after school. Pete works with the kids in small groups, trying to interest them in physical activities and give them new perspectives. To reinforce this contact he takes the children on field trips to local sports events.

Since 1980, Pete has worked as supervisor for City Community Services in the Summer Food Service Program, which distributes between 10,000 and 13,000 meals to kids under 18 years old.

Pete also conducts basketball clinics for kids and is active in the Bella Vista Baptist Church.

Pete is a credit to his alma mater and a model citizen in the community. For his dedication and service to the youth of Albuquerque, we are pleased to present him the UNM Alumni Association Zia Award.

1994 Zia Award John Heaton

A

Carlsbad native, John Heaton returned home after earning a BS degree in pharmacy from the University of New Mexico in 1963 and working three years at Farmington Drug. Now a community pharmacist and owner of Corner Drug Store in Carlsbad, John is a visionary who knows how to turn visions into reality.

John envisioned a modern, well-equipped community hospital and, as chairman of the hospital board, facilitated the construction of Carlsbad’s Guadalupe Medical Center. That meant forming the Carlsbad Foundation, “one of the most significant and unusual resources created for a city” the size of Carlsbad. As the medical center became a reality, John turned his efforts to recruiting excellent health care professionals. He knew they would need adequate facilities for their practices, so he formed a corporation with a group of doctors to build a medical complex.

John has always been interested in mental health and was instrumental in establishing Carlsbad’s Mental Health Center and other related programs, such as the Alcohol Rehabilitation Center and Substance Abuse Clinic. He also lends his pharmaceutical expertise to local nursing homes.

John’s most recent major project was to create the Environmental Monitoring Center.

The Center is independent of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in the Carlsbad area and of any government agency. It will monitor the population at large, the employees of WIPP and the environment of the surrounding area.

Its independence is unprecedented, and it will serve as a prototype for other communities.

John also envisions training programs that could attract people from around the world to learn how waste can be handled safely and the environment monitored.

Two years ago, John Heaton received the Carlsbad Foundation’s Humanitarian Award. At the same time, Carlsbad’s mayor pronounced the week “John Heaton Week.”

John Heaton is a much-admired alum. We honor him now with the Alumni Association Zia Award.

1994 Zia Award Rick Johnson

R

ick Johnson’s name is well known not only in Albuquerque’s advertising community but in national and international advertising circles as well. Rick formed Rick Johnson & Company in 1977, incorporating it in 1979. His route to advertising led from Evansville, Indiana, to the Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco; to Albuquerque National Bank, where he was assistant vice president and advertising manager (during which time he received a diploma from the University of Wisconsin Graduate School of Banking); to Mellekas & Associates Advertising where he was vice president and account executive; to First National Bank in Albuquerque, where he was vice president and marketing director until he formed his own company.

Rick is now treasurer of the Affiliated Advertising Agencies International, and has served on – and received awards from – the boards and committees of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the American Advertising Federation and the New Mexico Advertising Federation.

At UNM, Rick has presided over the Anderson Schools of Management Foundation Board of Trustees. And he has served on our own board of directors and executive committee.

Most Albuquerque community organizations have benefited from Rick’s participation. He has served on the boards of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, New Mexico First, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Presbyterian Hospital Association, the Albuquerque Museum and the Better Albuquerque Bond

Committee. The United Way awarded him its Bouquet for Small Business.

And we would like to present our Alumni Association Zia Award to Rick, recognizing him as a much valued and appreciated UNM alumnus.

1995 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS John T. Ackerman Charlie Carrillo James P. Miller, Sr. Teresa C. Moulds Robin Otten Glojean Todacheene

1995 Zia Award John Ackerman

J

ohn Ackerman knows boards. From the board of Public Service Company of New Mexico to the board of the United Way of Greater Albuquerque, John Ackerman has served on it or chaired it. But let me be specific.

For the past five years, John has chaired the board of PNM; four of those years he also served as PNM president and chief executive officer. John’s path to PNM was relatively direct. He graduated from UNM in 1969 with a BS in electrical engineering. After a stint with General Electric Corporation, John earned his master’s degree in utility management at New Mexico State University, after which he joined PNM. He served in various technical and managerial positions including district vice president, vice president and senior vice president. From 1985 to 1990, he served as president and chief operating officer of Gas Company of New Mexico. In 1990, he began his work on the PNM board.

In the community, John has served either as president or chairman of the following boards: Albuquerque Association for Children with Learning Disabilities, United Way of Greater Albuquerque, St. Pius X High School, Albuquerque Community Foundation and Presbyterian Healthcare Systems. He has served as a National Associate for the Boys Clubs of America and as a member of the board of directors for the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and the New Mexico Council on Crime and Delinquency.

John is also a member of several business and industry boards. In the military, John served with the US Navy on board a destroyer in the far east. At home, John’s wife, Kim (also

a UNM alum) and three sons provide him room, board and lots of love.

Lest we bore you, let me just say how proud we are that John Ackerman is a UNM alum, and how pleased we are to give him this 1995 Zia Award.

1995 Zia Award Charlie Carrillo

I

f anyone represents the heart of New Mexico, la corazón de Nuevo México, it is Charlie Carrillo. He not only knows the history and culture of northern New Mexico, he perpetuates it. A santero – one who paints and carves images of saints in the Spanish Colonial tradition – Charlie has worked in the permanent colections of more than 30 major museums, including the University of New Mexico’s Maxwell Museum of Anthropology. Recently, he was a contributor and guest curator of Cuando Hablan Los Santos (When the Saints Speak) on display at the Maxwell Museum.

Charlie is on the board of directors of El Rancho de las Golondrinas Living History Museum and of the Spanish Colonial Arts Society. When the Abiquiu Morada was vandalized and burned to the ground, Charlie, a penitente, almost single-handedly organized its rebuilding. Deeply committed to preserving and sharing the Hispanic traditions of New Mexico, Charlie has made presentations to schools, universities, Elderhostel programs and museum groups. Just in the last year he has spoken to the Maxwell Museum docents, the El Paso Museum of Art, Southern Methodist University, Greenwich House New York City, Toledo Museum of Art, UNM Symposium on Penitentes, Elderhostel Council, the Museum of International Folk Art, the Heard Museum, the Albuquerque Museum, the Ghost Ranch Conference Center, the Harwood Foundation, the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center and many others.

Charlie is the subject of a new book, Charlie Carrillo: Tradition and Soul, and was

featured in the KNME videos Santero and En Divina Luz (which won a regional Emmy). Charlie had an essay published in the UNM Press book En Divina Luz and has a chapter in the upcoming book Cuando Hablan Los Santos.

Charlie received his BA from the University of New Mexico in 1974 and his MA in 1984. He is currently a doctoral student at UNM. We are grateful that the heart of New Mexico beats for the University of New Mexico, and we are happy to present Charlie Carrillo our 1995 Zia Award, with heartfelt appreciation.

1995 Zia Award James Miller

B

efore I find my own words about James Miller, I’ll share a few of Marty Esquivel’s.

Marty wrote an article about Jim when Marty was in high school in Santa Fe and Jim was serving as Santa Fe Superintendent of Schools (which he did from 1974 to 1983). Jim made a tremendous impression on Marty who later wrote by way of nominating Jim for this award: “on a regular basis you could find him at a high school football game on a Friday night and then a swimming meet the next Saturday morning. He’d catch every school play he could see, show up at band practice unannounced just to say ‘Hi, good job,’ and made several trips into the elementary and junior high schools in Santa Fe to dole out very sincere words of encouragement to any kid he could find.

“Dr. Miller … is tremendously respected by his peers for his professionalism and ability to operate a school district. He is as politically astute as they come, but he has always maintained his integrity and never succumbed to compromising his principles.

Dr. Miller’s resume is filled with many interim superintendent jobs, positions he held while the school districts looked for permanent replacements. There is no coincidence about that. Those school districts knew that Dr. Miller was the person to come in and hold things together. Suffice it to say, those districts would have loved to have Dr. Miller on a permanent basis if they could have.”

To clue you in, since his stint at Santa Fe, Jim has served as acting or interim superintendent of the school districts in Roswell, Tucumcari, Santa Fe again, Bloomfield, Rio Rancho and now Alamogordo. He has also served as an educational consultant for other

New Mexico communities, including Animas, Belen, Capitan, Carlsbad, Clovis, Cobre, Deming, Dulce, Eunice, Gadsden, Hatch, Hobbs… let me just hand you a map of the state! He has been an adjunct professor with the UNM College of Education since 1984.

He began his career as a high school teacher in 1949 and has remained in education since. He fit in a doctoral degree from UNM in 1974.

Jim was a co-founder of Santa Fe Community College, a founding board member of AWARE-New Mexico (that’s Assisting Women to Advance through Resources and Encouragement) and president and member of the board of Santa Fe Community College.

And as if that isn’t enough, Jim has also volunteered with Leadership Santa Fe, St. John’s United Methodist Church, the City of Santa Fe Urban Policy Task Force, Partners in Education, Lions Club, UNM Friends of the Library, UNM Lobo Club, Rio Grande Garden Alliance, New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors and Friends of the Rio Grande Center. I don’t now when his wife, Millie, and their four children get to see him, but Jim has always been a family man as well.

We’re honored to be able to present our 1995 Zia Award to you, Jim.

1995 Zia Award Teresa Cummins Moulds

T

hose of you who have frequented the All University Breakfast in the past provably recall Teresa Cummins Moulds’ participation not as an award recipient but as an organizer and speaker representing UNM Mortar Board Alumnae. Today we are pleased to alter her status somewhat to that of a recipient deserving of our respect and appreciation.

Teresa graduated from UNM in 1956 with a BS in education. She had been married to William Moulds the preceding December and chose to devote herself to her home and community, rearing six children in the coming years and volunteering as den mother, room mother, PTA officer and in many other childcentered activities. During that era of her life, Teresa also served on the UNM Alumni Association Board for four years, receiving the Association’s Distinguished Service Award in 1976 as well as the Lobo Award for distinguished leadership and unselfish service to UNM in 1977.

A few years earlier, Teresa had organized and served as the founding president of Democratic Women of New Mexico, which is still in existence. New Mexico Governor Jerry Apodaca appointed her to the New Mexico Board of Educational Finance on which she served from 1976 to 1979. Not all that long ago, in 1993, she was also appointed to the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy by Governor Bruce King.

Through the years, Teresa has been an active volunteer with Mortar Board, Casa Angelica, St. Joseph Hospital, UNM Centennial and Barrett House.

Teresa went to work in 1981 as executive director of the New Mexico Council of Independent Colleges and Universities.

In 1983, she began to manage properties and miscellaneous business activities for Myra K. Cummins. In 1990, she began work as an educational consultant.

Teresa continues to take courses and expand her horizons. We can certainly learn from her devotion and commitment to her family and community. We are ever so pleased to present this 1995 Zia Award to Teresa Cummins Moulds.

1995 Zia Award Robin Dozier Otten

I

nterestingly, the Zia Award recipient from whom it was the most difficult to obtain a photograph is the most prominent political figure among our recipients. Robin Dozier Otten has been a candidate for the New Mexico House of Representatives as well as the United States Senate. In January, she was appointed Superintendent of the New Mexico Regulations and Licensing Department by Governor Gary Johnson.

Robin is an inspiration to those who may be thinking about going back to school. She did just that when her own two daughters began school. She entered UNM Law School to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a lawyer, graduating with her JD in 1981. That was 15 years after she had received her BA. She became a partner in the Albuquerque law firm of Otten, Vogel and Campbell, practicing real estate and business law until her recent appointment.

Through all the years, Robin has been actively involved in her community, volunteering for political campaigns and serving on the New Mexico Legislature’s Government Ethics Committee. Among other volunteer activities for the UNM Alumni Association, she chaired our legislative affairs committee and has served on our board of directors. She also has been actively involved in the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and the United Way of Central New Mexico. She has served on boards and committees of the Albuquerque Community Foundation, her church, the Friends of Albuquerque Little Theater and the Albuquerque Bar Association where

she chaired the Judicial Selection Committee.

Robin is interested in educational and family issues.

She has served on the boards of the New Mexico Department of Corrections - Girls’ Reintegration Center, the Samaritan Counseling Center, the Junior League of Albuquerque and Sandia Preparatory School. She has advised the Shelter for Victims of Domestic Violence, the National Association of Women Business Owners and the Women’s Economic Self Sufficiency team. She also gives her time to the Equal Access to Justice Fund Campaign.

We have your picture now, Robin, and it’s that of a very busy and involved community leader. We are very pleased to honor you with our 1995 Zia Award.

1995 Zia Award Glojean Todacheene

G

lojean Todacheene is what you might call a “really good friend in the neighborhood.” Fred Rogers evidently thought so, featuring her on his national TV special Mr. Rogers’ Heroes – Individuals Who Make a Difference. The kids at Mesa Elementary evidently think so, referring affectionately to their principal as “Ms. T.” Parenting Magazine evidently thought so, recognizing her with a Parenting Achievement Award “because she uses age-old teachings to help young Native Americans thrive.” And the Milken Family Foundation evidently thought so, recently awarding her the Foundation’s National Educator Award.

We don’t think so: we know so. Glojean has been a good friend in our neighborhood for many years. She graduated from UNM in 1978 with a BS in home economics education.

She put that education to work back home in Shiprock where she taught home economics subjects at Newcomb Junior High and Shiprock High, for 14 years. She returned to UNM to earn a master’s degree in educational administration in 1983, going home this time to become principal of Mesa Elementary.

Glojean relies on Navajo beliefs as she guides her school, making certain that parents understand they are their child’s first teachers.

And she has made an effort to recruit Navajo teachers as role models for her students.

Married, with two college-age children, Glojean is active in the community, county and state. Toney Anaya appointed her to the State of New Mexico’s Commission on Indian Affairs. Navajo National Chairman Peter McDonald appointed Glojean to the Navajo

Community College Board of Regents and Navajo Nation President Albert Hale recently appointed her to the CIT Board of Regents.

She is also a former member of our own UNM Alumni Association Board of Directors.

You have to have “the heart of a teacher” to be a good teacher, says Glojean. With a heart like Glojean’s, it’s no wonder she’s the best.

We’re thrilled that the Alumni Association neighborhood has decided to give a 1995 Zia Award to Glojean Benson Todacheene.

1996 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Gwen Speer Clouthier Don Perkins Richard Ransom Maria Estela de Rios Butch Worthington Judy Zanotti

1996 Zia Award Gwen Speer Clouthier

N

ew Mexico’s small cities depend upon their stellar citizens and volunteers.

Farmington has depended upon Gwen Speer Clouthier, and a glance at her contributions to the city shows why.

Gwen grew up in Farmington and went away to school at UNM, graduating in 1962 with a degree in secondary education and history. She forged strong ties with her sorority, Chi Omega and her alma mater; she was president of the UNM Chi Omega chapter in 1960. She also forged strong ties with her husband, Charles, a 1954 pharmacy alum. Her sorority and university ties led her eventually to chair State Rush in 1991 and to work almost nonstop on UNM Alumni Association committees and related activities in Farmington and in Albuquerque, serving on the national board from 1986 to 1989. She received the Association’s Lobo Pride Award in 1986 and its Anne Jourdan Award in 1989.

This year she also received the Chi Omega Alumni Service Award.

The mother of two grown children, Gwen is also vice president of Farmington Drug.

She is a member of the Board of Directors of Citizens Bank of Farmington.

She has served on numerous city boards and committees, including those of the Public Library, the Civic Center and Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs. She is a charter member and past treasurer of Farmington Civic Center Foundation for the Performing Arts.

An ordained deacon and elder of the First Presbyterian Church, Gwen coauthored a book on her church’s centennial history.

Today, we want to thank Gwen Clouthier for being someone we and our institutions of importance can depend upon. We are pleased to honor her with our UNM Alumni Association Zia Award.

1996 Zia Award Don Perkins

D

on Perkins is one of those people kids look up to – and they should. To begin with Don Perkins went from an outstanding career in Lobo football between 1956 and 1960 to nine years of highly successful professional ball with the Dallas Cowboys. As a Cowboy, Don played in six pro bowls.

Playing ball graduated into talking about playing ball. Don next worked as a talk-show host and football and basketball analyst for CBS Sports, ABC Sports and several independent networks.

Don could have rested on his laurels, but he chose instead to work with people whose prospects didn’t look as bright as his. In 1972, he returned to New Mexico to direct the State Department of Human Services’ Work Incentive Program for 13 years. Today community. We are most pleased to present he is a community service counselor for the his son Randy with Don’s Zia Award.

Albuquerque Police Department.

And, should you need a little spark added to your productions and events, Don also works as a freelance actor, speaker, film narrator and emcee.

Don has been inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame of his hometown, Waterloo, Iowa, the Albuquerque Sports Hall of Fame, the UNM Athletic Hall of Honor and the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor. The recipient of numerous other honors, Don has served on the executive board of US West and the board of trustees of University Hospital. He is currently a member of the Northwest Mesa branch of the NAACP. The UNM Alumni Association certainly looks up to Don Perkins, and appreciate all he’s done on behalf of our

1996 Zia Award Richard Ransom

A

lthough Richard Ransom has distinguished himself in many if not all of the Zia Award categories, his distinction in the area of public office is irrefutable. After all, you can’t be much more distinguished than Justice of the State Supreme Court, unless you’re Chief Justice – and Dick has been that too.

A track and field Letterman and president of his senior class, Dick graduated from UNM in 1954. He entered the Marine Corps, serving as rifle platoon leader and company commander. In 1956, Dick married Celia Smith, also a UNM grad, and entered law school at Georgetown University, graduating in 1959.

Subsequently, the Ransoms returned to New Mexico where Dick worked for 28 years as a trial lawyer. He was chief trial counsel in may of our state’s landmark consumer protection cases that established, for example, product liability law and the need for adequate warning for users of toxic materials.

Dick was elected to the New Mexico Supreme Court in 1986, and retained in 1994.

He served as Chief Justice from 1991 to 1994.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Dick occasionally lectured on trial practice at UNM School of Law. He received his certification in mediation training from the UNM Law School in 1990, and became a sponsor of lawyer-assisted mediation projects in the schools.

Dick is a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, on whose board of directors he served from 1979 to 1985, and a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers, for which he served as state chairman from 1984 to 1986. The State Bar Association

honored Dick in 1994 with its Outstanding Judicial Service Award.

The Ransoms have three distinguished children and three highly distinguished grandchildren.

We are highly honored to present this Zia Award to New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Richard E. Ransom.

1996 Zia Award Maria Estela de Rios

I

suppose we each have a contract with life. Maria Estela de Rios has taken hers seriously. Of course, contracts are Maria’s business.

As vice president of corporate affairs for Orion International Technologies, a 110-member R&D engineering firm that she founded, Maria is responsible for creating and overseeing all the company’s contracts. She came to Orion via Public Service Company of New Mexico where she worked as contract specialist, contract analyst and then powercontracts coordinator for a total of six years.

Maria graduated from UNM in 1980 with a BA in chemistry and math. While a student, she worked as executive director of the Society for the Advancement of Hispanics and Native Americans in Science.

Always growing professionally, Maria became a certified purchasing manager in 1984. She has served as president of the National Contract Management Association and as chairman of Albuquerque’s Hispano Chamber of Commerce. Recently, Maria was appointed to the board of directors of the United States/Mexico Chamber of Commerce.

Maria has also served as a trustee of the Hispanic Cultural Foundation and has been active with the Junior League of Albuquerque and the YWCA. All the while, Maria has kept a very special clause in her life’s contract covering her husband, Miguel, and their three children.

Congratulations, Maria. We are all proud of your contract beautifully administered!

And happy to present to you today this Zia Award.

1996 Zia Award H.F. “Butch” Worthington

T

here has been a lot of talk about traditional values this election year. HF “Butch” Worthington does more than talk about them: he embodies them.

Butch belongs to the UNM Class of 1942.

Like many of his classmates, he entered the armed forces straight out of school. He served in World War II, going from the beaches of Normandy to the Czech border with General George S. Patton Jr.’s Third US Army.

Butch came home to his bride, Margaret, and together the Worthingtons set up housekeeping in Artesia, where they have lived ever since. With an economics degree, Butch went into accounting, working for Malco Refineries for 23 years, for Continental Oil until it was sold, and then for 16 years for valued by all of us as a fine community Navajo Refining. When he finally retired he member and UNM alum. We are pleased to was a payroll supervisor for five companies. honor him with our Zia Award.

Margaret and Butch had two children and entered into community life in Artesia.

Butch was active in the Boy Scouts, serving as scoutmaster and on troop committees off and on for 25 years. An active member of the United Methodist Church, Butch also served on the board of the Artesia Community Concert Association. He coached little league baseball and was a charter member and commander of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post for three years.

UNM continues to count on Butch’s involvement as well. He has served as president of the Carlsbad/Artesia Alumni Chapter and was a member of the UNM Centennial Planning Committee.

Not only does Butch embody some of our finest community values, he is

1996 Zia Award Judy Zanotti

I

n her Mirage yearbook photo as 1960 UNM homecoming attendant, Judy Zanotti stares wistfully off with little idea she would be here 36 years later, recipient of the Alumni Associations Zia Award for exceptional accomplishments.

She had little idea she would help found and then serve as executive director of an association for children with learning disabilities, after earning an MA in special education at UNM. Neither did she know she would serve as executive director of the New Mexico State Bar. And she would have been very surprised to learn she would become a vice president of the Gas Company of New Mexico and, eventually, senior vice president of Public Service Company of New Mexico.

Of course, it was no mirage. Among other professional and community activities, Judy is also on the Diversity Leadership Council, and works with Career Services for Persons with Disabilities. She chaired the Governor’s New Mexico Distinguished Public Service Awards Council and is on the board of directors of the UNM Anderson School of Management. She presided over the Alumni Association board in 1989 and was a member of the United Way Board of Directors from 1987 to 1990.

Her awards have been many: the Human Resource Management Association Professional Excellence Award, the UNM Mortar Board Lobo Award, the UNM Student Service Award, the YWCA Women on the Move Award, the State Bar Association Distinguished Service Award and others When she posed for that Mirage photo in 1960, Judy also had no idea of her three

sons, two daughters-in-law, two stepchildren and three grandchildren, or of her husband, Dave Davis.

Knowing her accomplishments, presenting the Zia Award to Judy is no surprise. It is, however, a sincere pleasure.

1997 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Bruce A. Black Arthur Blumenfeld Ruth Frazier F. Chris Garcia Martha Liebert Seledon C. Martinez

1997 Zia Award Bruce A. Black

I

t must have been Bruce Black’s native New Mexican longing for water that led him to join the Naval Reserve in high school as a seaman recruit in 1953. Six years later he received a BS in geology from UTEP, followed in 1964 and then 1973 by master’s and doctoral degrees in geology from UNM. The desert seaman performed outstandingly in both his chosen fields. In the Naval Reserve, he rose to the rank of rear admiral (2 stars) and became the only native New Mexican to head the United States Naval Reserve Intelligence.

This meant commanding more than 5,000 Naval Reserve specialists throughout the United States. He retired in 1996.

With Farmington as his home base, Bruce developed his own successful oil and gas exploration business, Black Oil, Inc., and was an independent oil consultant. Previously, he held top management positions with Shell Oil Company. Bruce has taught graduate courses in geology at UNM as a visiting distinguished professor.

Bruce is an avid supporter of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History – it must be that dinosaur-oil connection. He has been involved since its planning stages, and is now in his eighth year as a trustee.

Bruce has served as president of the Rocky Mountain Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, was founder and past-president of the San Juan Citizens Against Drug Abuse, served as Republican County Chairman for San Juan County and is active in many other community activities.

Bruce and his wife, Marjorie, have one son and one daughter, both FBI agents. There’s a lot of intelligence in Bruce’s family, but it doesn’t take much intelligence to see that Bruce is well deserving of the UNM Alumni Association Zia Award.

1997 Zia Award Arthur Blumenfeld

I

n his finance and management career, Art Blumenfeld reached the pinnacle as chief administrative officer of the City of Albuquerque for four years and as chief financial officer for 11. Four mayors respected his ability, judgment and job.

He reached the pinnacle in his professional organization when he was elected honorary member of the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada in 1993 and served as national president in 1984-85.

With a BBA and MA from UNM, Art has taught in both the division of public administration and the RO Anderson Schools of Management. He directed the Albuquerque Urban Observatory and the Bureau of Business Research on campus. A member of the Anderson Schools Foundation Board of Directors, the Albuquerque Economic Forum and New Mexico First, Art was inducted into the Anderson Schools of Management Hall of Fame in 1991.

Those who know Art, though, appreciate him not just for what he has done but for how he has done it. Impeccably honest, Art has always been “generous, joyful and supportive,” says one who worked for and with him. “He is the civilizing influence,” the “conscience” of any organization he belongs to.

A dedicated humanitarian, Art is also a dedicated gardener (especially fond of roses) and a dedicated bird watcher (especially fond of hummers). His board activities reflect his deep interests in music, the arts and world affairs.

Art, for your accomplishments, your contributions and your joie de vivre, we are happy to present you with the UNM Alumni Association’s Zia Award.

1997 Zia Award RUTH FRAZIER

R

uth Frazier has done “remarkable things” with Futures for Children. Ruth has worked with Futures for 23 years, as its president for the past 16. Futures operates on the “principle that people will do remarkable things when asked to work together for their children.”

Under Ruth’s guidance, Futures now works with 22 Indian tribes in New Mexico, the Hopi in Arizona and more than 175 communities in Colombia, Honduras and Costa Rica. In 1995 it completed a $2 million capital campaign to build its recently opened Learning Center to serve tribes across the US and Canada. Among the innovative fundraising events Ruth has instigated is the International Family Film Festival.

Ruth came to Futures for Children – and to Albuquerque – from Washington DC where she had worked at the Smithsonian. There she developed international anthropological film conferences and introduced the film series “The Ascent of Man.” Ruth received her BA from the University of Colorado. Four years ago she went back to school to earn the Executive MBA from UNM’s Anderson Schools of Management.

We are glad to be able to include this remarkable person as an alumna. In recognition of her remarkable work, we are happy to give Ruth Frazier one of our 1997 Zia Awards.

1997 Zia Award F. Chris Garcia

I

n nominating Chris Garcia for a Zia Award, UNM Associate Provost Richard Holder wrote: “Chris has served UNM with grace, skill and dignity as dean of arts and science, vice president for academic affairs and interim provost.”

We couldn’t agree more. For his administrative skills alone we could award Chris our Zia Award.

But Chris, professor of political science, has also conducted major research, written important tomes, and is considered a critical authority about Latinos and the US political system. He was a co-principal investigator in a research grant of several million dollars to design and conduct the Latino National Political Survey. For this, too, we could award Chris our Zia Award.

Chris takes particular pride in co-founding New Mexico’s first full-service, public opinion survey research firm: Zia Research Associates.

(You’ve seen him with Dick Knipfing on election nights.) This too makes Chris a great candidate for a Zia Award.

Chris earned his BA in political science and German at UNM in 1961 and his MA in political science and education in 1964. He received his doctorate from the University of California, Davis.

Chris is always ready with a smile and a “yes” – we’ve seen both at Alumni Association board meetings and events. If we gave the Zia Award for attitude, Chris would be a candidate in this category, too.

Thanks, Chris. It is with smiles on our faces – for all the above reasons – that we give you today the Alumni Association’s Zia Award.

1997 Zia Award Martha Liebert

I

n 1964, the Bernalillo-Algodones-Placitas communities didn’t have a library. In 1965, they had the beginnings of one, along with a librarian, Martha Liebert. This was no ordinary library, and no ordinary librarian. Like a magician, Martha took a few dozen books in a run-down storage facility and through the years transmogrified them into a multimedia center and library housed in the city’s Roosevelt Elementary School.

Of course, Martha’s magic consisted of more than the swish of a wand. For 24 years, she applied unflagging energy, vision and effort to the project. She raised funds, collected books, kept up the facility and provided training and education programs for the children and adults of the community. Her enthusiasm has been infectious. Constantly growing, the Bernalillo Library collection Today we at UNM take great pleasure in today comprises thousands of books. honoring Martha Liebert, ’57 MA in fine arts, Martha’s enthusiasm lies in her genuine with our award, the Zia Award, for sharing her interest in learning, especially about local magic with us. history, folklore and folk art. Since moving to New Mexico in the mid-50s, Martha has been involved in the New Mexico, Sandoval County and Corrales Historical Societies, the New Mexico Folklore Society, the New Mexican and American Quilters Societies, the Sandoval County Tourism Bureau, Historic Preservation of Our Lady of Sorrows Church and many other concerns.

The Bernalillo Library was named after her in 1985, the same year she received the Jefferson Award. The New Mexico Library Association has honored her as have her other two alma maters: Cottey College and the University of North Dakota.

1997 Zia Award Seledon Martinez

I

t’s easy to see why the people of Rio Arriba County consider Seledon Martinez a living treasure. His impact on the community – especially its educational system – has been both positive and significant.

A native of Chimayó, Seledon went from Albuquerque’s Menaul School to Kansas State Teachers College on a track scholarship before the outbreak of World War II. At the war’s end, he came home to New Mexico, where he married Josephine, and earned a BA in interAmerican affairs at UNM. In 1956, he was elected Rio Arriba County School Superintendent, one of only two Republicans elected to a major county office there in the past 40 years. From 1959 to 1962, he served as principal of the Dulce Schools.

Then came a turning point in Seledon’s career: As an administrator at Northern New Mexico State School in El Rito, Seledon played a key role in establishing New Mexico’s first area technical-vocational school at El Rito and Española. He was appointed assistant superintendent there in 1964. In 1970, he organized and planned the branch campus at Española, where he was appointed director.

In 1972, Seledon joined the Española Schools to direct the Emergency School Act Program, bringing in millions of dollars to fund basic educational programs for disadvantaged youth. From 1979 to his retirement in 1981, Seledon directed the district-wide chapter 1 and migrant education program.

Recently, Seledon has traveled as a technical-vocational consultant for the American Bureau of International

Education. That’s when he’s not busy with the ad hoc Coffee Club, composed of professional retirees and educators or with his grandchildren on the family ranch in lower Chimayó.

In honor of his five decades of service to northern New Mexico, we are pleased to give Seledon Martinez our Zia Award. For health reasons, Seledon could not be here today, but he has asked his wife, Josephine, his son, Seledon Jr., and his two daughters, Patricia and Valerie, to accept the award today.

1998 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS George Friberg John A. Garcia Robert Ghattas Van Gilbert Frances and John Hernandez Doris Rhodes

1998 Zia Award George Friberg

T

hose of you who participated in the Alumni Association’s 100th anniversary celebrations last year probably anticipated seeing George Friberg’s face at the podium this year. After all, you saw it about 100 times last year.

You may have seen it in the paper a few times last year in connection with our DH Lawrence Ranch project. While the Alumni Association was exploring the possibility of helping out at the ranch, George became an aficionado of DH Lawrence’s writings, and has shared some of his words with us. It is typical of George’s vivacity and interest in life and people that he would look into the person who was at the root of our project.

This year George is on the receiving end of our awards – not just because of his service above and beyond the call of duty as president of the Alumni Association during our centennial year, but because of the leadership role he has played in his profession and in his community.

Maybe it dates back to George’s years as Lobo quarterback. Whatever the case, George has always been at the forefront of his field. An entrepreneurial engineer, George has managed multi-million dollar engineering and manufacturing concerns and small entrepreneurial companies in defense hardware, high energy lasers, pulsed power and telecommunications. These days, George is the director of project development and business assistance for Technology Ventures Corporation.

Outside of work, George has contributed countless hours to community causes: he’s a

member of the Economic Forum as well as the Albuquerque Civic Light Opera, past chairman of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, a UNM Alumni Letterman, a board member of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institutes and a board member of Noonday, Inc. While we can try to repay George by putting him on the receiving end of our awards, we regret we can’t put him on the receiving end of one of his Aggie jokes. We can never repay him for those!

George, thank you for your hours of dedicated service, both to our association and to our community.

1998 Zia Award John A. Garcia

H

ospitality is something that alumni associations know a lot about. Our alumni association certainly does. I’m willing to wager that you feel welcome and appreciated when you attend an alumni event.

But I’m afraid our knowledge of hospitality pales alongside John Garcia’s. In fact, John, who is now Secretary of the New Mexico Department of Tourism, has made a business out of hospitality, founding Hospitality Resources, Inc., which specializes in restaurant and hotel management.

John began being hospitable, professionally, that is, as a dishwasher at New Chinatown Restaurant. He began his management career at the Marriott Hotel upon receiving his BBA from UNM’s Anderson Schools of Management. He was named Manager of the Year at Bennigan’s Restaurants in 1988.

Soon John was serving as executive director of the New Mexico Restaurant Association.

It was at this point in his career, in 1995, that Governor Gary Johnson appointed John Secretary of the New Mexico Tourism Department. He serves on the Tourism Association of America Board of Directors.

John recently completed a term as general manager of the New Mexico State Fair. He also led the Office of Cultural Affairs for a while.

John extends more than hospitality to children. At the New Mexico Restaurant Association, he developed an innovative program called “Kater to Kidz” in conjunction with the Human Services Department. He also is past vice president of the New Mexico Make-A-Wish Foundation.

We’d like to extend more than hospitality to you, John. And so we extend to you our Zia Award in honor of your professional accomplishments as well as your contributions to our community.

1998 Zia Award Robert Ghattas

W

hile I know that our next honoree, Robert Ghattas, president of Duran’s Central Pharmacy, was nominated for far more than a bowl of green chile, I’d like to take this moment before I begin to thank him for the many bowls of green that I have enjoyed at Duran’s. The pharmacy certainly serves a community purpose, but the restaurant serves a community appetite!

Speaking of community, however, Robert Ghattas has served our community in many ways.

Bob was nominated for this award by Bill Hadley, the dean of Pharmacy, who listed as reasons for his nomination: Bob’s Duran’s nearly every time we wander in for a establishment of a scholarship endowment bowl of chile. fund at the College of Pharmacy, his past It’s with a smile on our faces for all that you do, presidency of the New Mexico Pharmaceutical Bob, that we give you our 1998 Zia Award.

Association, his Ernie Welsh Award for outstanding involvement with the pharmacy profession, his “Bowl of Hygiea Award” for outstanding community involvement and his having filled over 1 million prescriptions!

Then we looked at Bob’s resume and discovered that not only is he president of Regent Drugs and Regent Services of New Mexico, he is a consulting pharmacist to Health Plus of New Mexico. He currently is a member of the UNM Foundation board and the College of Pharmacy’s Dean’s Leadership Committee, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Foreign Visitors Hospitality Committee, the State Board of Pharmacy and the Cimarron HMO Pharmacy and Therapeutic Committee.

And these are just his current activities! So it’s a wonder that we see Bob’s smiling face at

1998 Zia Award Van Gilbert

C

hances are there is not one of you here today who hasn’t walked through a Van Gilbert building. Probably there are few Van Gilbert buildings one of you hasn’t walked through. Van’s firm has been designing buildings in the Southwest for 22 years, and Van worked with Antoine Predock for five years before that.

At UNM alone, two of our most appealing new sites – the Center for Southwest Research (the west wing of Zimmerman Library) and the renovated Fine Arts Center’s Performing Arts Facilities – are Van’s creations.

How many of you have visited the new Albuquerque Aquarium and Biological Park?

Those are Van’s creations.

I know at least two of you frequent the New Mexico State campus. The Center for the Sustainable Development of Arid Lands is Van’s creation.

We always have lawyers – or their clients – in our audiences. Some of you have been to the building of the Rodey Dickason Sloan Akin and Robb law firm – it is Van’s creation.

And surely some of you beasts out there have been soothed by the music at the zoo on a warm summer’s evening – the band shell is Van’s creation.

And I know you go to the library branches and have children in school. Van has had a hand in creating many of these public buildings as well.

And while you walked through these buildings, your spirit has been lifted, whether by the light, by the line, by the intrigue, or by the pleasure of Van’s creation.

Our spirit is always lifted by Van, even when the Alumni Association’s DH Lawrence Ranch Committee, on which Van served, made the difficult decision not to pursue the renovation of the ranch because we simply don’t have the vast sums of money required.

Van has been an alum for 34 years. We’ve appreciated his contributions to our community for nearly as many. It’s about time we told him so. Selecting Van to receive one of our 1998 Zia Awards is our way of doing that.

W

1998 Zia Award John and Frances Hernandez

hen I first read the nominating materials about John and Frances Hernandez, all I could think was WOW! Not only has each of them excelled in his or her field, together they have surely led a fascinating life.

John and Frances’ married life began in 1951. They met 50 years ago today at the UNM swimming pool.

John asked Frances to go out for a coke that evening and proposed to her just before being thrown out of the dorm at 10 p.m. Frances received her master’s degree in romance languages in 1950 and left without a commitment. She returned to Albuquerque just before graduation in 1951 to check on John. John received his degree in civil engineering and a Navy commission, and the couple was married in San Diego. They set out on an adventure.

Frances followed John’s ship for three years, after which she and John settled in Santa Fe for eight. They wended their way to Purdue, where both earned master’s degrees (the second for Frances). John headed to Harvard for another master’s and a PhD while Frances set to work on her doctorate in comparative literature at UNM where, in 1963, she was the only woman to receive a doctoral degree. In 1965, both began teaching careers at New Mexico State University. John remained there, eventually becoming dean of the College of Engineering, while Frances moved over to become a professor of English at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Together, John and Frances have lived in and visited some of the most interesting places – for example, Chile, Turkey, New Zealand and Malaysia – Frances working as a Fulbright or visiting/exchange professor and John as a consultant or research professor.

Over the past 30 years, Frances has distinguished herself in scholarly research, teaching and university affairs.

Her publications have included books, articles and lectures in the fields of classical and contemporary literatures and educational issues, and the translation of works from Spanish.

She has just finished a translation of The Carvajal Family: The Jews and the Inquisition in New Spain in the 16th Century.

Many of you here will be interested to know that Frances founded the Mortar Board chapter on the UTEP campus. She was the national president of the College English Association in 1983-84, and received its Distinguished Service to the Profession award in 1990. Last year she was given the title Professor Emerita and led commencement as grand marshal.

Over the past 30 years, John has taught at New Mexico State and has pursued a panoply of consulting assignments, studying water quality and resources on a global as well as local scale. In addition, he served in the US Naval Reserve, retiring as Captain in 1981. That same year, he was appointed deputy administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, with a stint as acting director in 1983. John was the highest ranking civil engineer in government since Herbert Hoover and the highest ranking Hispanic during President Reagan’s first term. In 1983, John also became a Senior Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science and for Los Alamos Laboratories. He serves on the International Relations Task Force of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and on the USMexico Task Force on Border Pollution Problems of the Water Environmental Federation. In 1993, he was named a Senior Fellow of the American Society of Engineers.

Wow! It has been an adventure – one with more facets than I can possibly describe. One with more facets than can be listed on two curricula vitae.

(The Hernandez family has been a part of UNM for over 70 years: John’s father was on the Board of Regents, his sister Jean a Mortar Board president, his uncle Ben a long-time activist in the Alumni Association, his aunt Louise earned an MA here, and countless others have earned one or more degrees from UNM.

John and Frances, we are so impressed by your choices, your contributions, your accomplishments, your lives. We are honored to have you among the fold of UNM alumni. And we are proud to present you this year’s Zia Award.

1998 Zia Award Doris Rhodes

I

imagine everybody here is a UNM supporter.

But Doris Rhodes may take the cake. Doris is a supporter through and through, from the inside and from the outside.

Doris holds two degrees from UNM and worked as development director for Anderson Schools of Management for six years. During that time, Doris the Insider increased annual contributions to the school from $77,000 to more than $600,000.

In 1995, Doris left UNM to become vice president of corporate and public relations for Norwest Bank where Doris the Outsider remains a strong advocate for UNM. She established a Norwest employee campaign to benefit the UNM General Libraries and has helped secure funding for numerous UNM programs. She has chaired the impressive Anderson Schools Alumni Hall of Fame Dinner for the past four years.

Doris’ program of corporate philanthropy at Norwest now serves as a model for other organizations in the community. She has been called upon by United Way and the National Society of Fundraising Executives to elaborate upon that model.

Much of Doris’ success has been due to her intensive personal service to the New Mexico community. Doris is secretary of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Foundation Board of Directors, which she chaired last year. She is corporate recruitment chairman for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the Catholic Foundation, Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and is actively involved in United Way. At

UNM, Doris serves on the Anderson Schools Foundation Board, the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Council and the Women’s Athletic Advisory Board. We’re not talking about a life’s collection of involvement here – these are just this year’s activities!

So, it comes as no surprise that Doris has received the Governor’s Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women, the Albuquerque People’s Choice Award for Community Leader and the Albuquerque Chapter of the NAACP’s Martin Luther King Award, and has been named a Woman on the Move by the YWCA and one of Albuquerque’s Top Ten Most Influential People by the New Mexico Business Journal.

For your through and through, inside and outside support of our community and of our university, Doris, we would like you to take not the cake but our 1998 Zia Award.

1999 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Margaret Hopcraft Dike Nasario Garcia Debbie Ullrich Johnson Michael S. Sanchez Myrna Smyer Thomas J. Steele, S.J.

1999 Zia Award Margaret Hopcraft Dike

F

or Margaret Dike, the distinction between education and community blurs. Margaret has always used one to better the other.

Growing up in Cimarron, New Mexico, Margaret witnessed community service firsthand: her father was town clerk; her mother started a community lending library.

When Margaret returned to Albuquerque – having earned her BA in English here during World War II – in the early 50s as a young mother, she began a lifelong commitment to the city, county and state PTA. In various capacities, she testified before the State Legislature on public school finance. She also served on the state committee to celebrate the Year of the Child, reviewing the needs for children and youth services.

Margaret’s involvement with the American Association of University Women began when she was granted a scholarship for graduate studies – she completed her master’s degree in educational foundations at UNM in 1975.

She later served as president of both the state AAUW and the Albuquerque branch. As chair of the Civic Affairs Committee, she helped survey the need for a museum in Albuquerque; her involvement led to three four-year terms on the Museum of Albuquerque Board of Trustees. Still with AAUW, she testified to the State Legislature in support of the Civil Rights Restoration Act. As president of NMAAUW, she convened a Round Table on Gender Equity.

Margaret also served as president and state liaison of the New Mexico Association for Community Education Development, assisting in the development of Community education programs in Acoma and of educational

programs for displaced homemakers.

Margaret was the ideal person to coordinate school and community affairs at APS, working with parents, students, staff, business, community organizations and agencies. She is president of the Albuquerque Association of Education Retirees.

Currently the president of Albuquerque Mortar Board Alumni, Margaret has received the Lobo Award for contributions to UNM and the National Mortar Board Community Service Award. She twice received the Governor’s Award to Outstanding New Mexico Women and has received the YWCA Women on the Move Award for Community Service and the New Mexico Distinguished Public Service Award. She was installed in the Albuquerque Senior Hall of Fame in 1995.

Margaret is one of the few people you come across who, when they say they are going to do something, do it. That’s been our experience in the Alumni Association, as Margaret has been instrumental in establishing several scholarship endowment funds, including one in memory of Dean Lena Clauve.

Margaret, for your unprecedented dedication to education and the community, we are thrilled to present you a 1999 Alumni Association Zia Award.

1999 Zia Award Nasario Garcia

I

can’t imagine a more appropriate time for someone who grew up in a ghost town and writes about brujas, bultos y brasas to be recognized than Halloween Eve. Nasario Garcia grew up in Ojo del Padre, also known as Guadalupe, now a ghost town northwest of Albuquerque in the Rio Puerco Valley. Tales of that valley as well as those of his grandfather’s Pecos Valley have defined his literary career.

Nasario earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and a master’s degree in Portuguese from UNM. Fortunately for us all, less than encouraging words from his freshman advisor were countered through his UNM years by the support of Professor Sabine Ulibarrí and others. Nasario later earned his PhD in 19th century Spanish literature from the University of Pittsburgh.

Now professor of Spanish at Highlands University, Nasario has also served in the administrative end of academe, as dean and assistant vice president for academic affairs at the University of Southern Colorado as well as Highlands University. In 1991, he served as president of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, an organization with more than 13,000 members.

Nasario’s areas of specialization include Hispanic language, culture and folklore of New Mexico and the Southwest, dealing with local stories, riddles, folk sayings, ballads and entriegas. He also specializes in the Chicano novel.

Nasario has published more than 50 works, including 10 books. Comadres: Hispanic Women of the Rio Puerco Valley was

published last year by UNM Press. Más antes: Hispanic Folkore of the Rio Puerco was released last fall by the New Mexico Museum Press. And Brujas, bultos y brasos: Tales of the Supernatural from the Pecos Valley has just been published by Western Edge Press in Santa Fe. Pláticas: Conversations with Hispano Writers of New Mexico is due out next year from Texas Tech University Press.

Appropriate to this day and to his Tales of the Supernatural, Nasario has said that “everyone, from the very young to adolescents to mature adults, likes to be spooked.”

Also appropriate to this day, we can say that everyone likes to honor those who immortalize our antepasados and our cultura.

For that reason, we are very pleased, Nasario, to bestow upon you our 1999 Alumni Association Zia Award.

1999 Zia Award Debbie Ullrich Johnson

S

ix years ago Debbie Ullrich Johnson chaired the board of Worldwide Partners, Inc., the world’s oldest and largest regional ad agency network, with 55 offices in the US and 40 in Europe, Asia and the Pacific Rim. She was the first woman chairman in the organization’s 55-year history.

In 1994, Debbie was awarded the silver medal by the New Mexico chapter of the American Advertising Federation for lifetime achievement. In 1995, she was named the Female Executive of the Year by the National Federation of Female Executives, New Mexico chapter, and, the following year, a Woman on the Move by the YWCA. The question begs: why does Debbie, one of the most respected and well known women in the ad business, choose to remain in Albuquerque when she could be off in Hong Kong or London? It’s a question easily answered, if you know Debbie.

If you know Debbie, you know that she and Rick are a pair, a team. But together they could head to Milan, New York, or Rio. It’s not a question of leaving one’s spouse behind.

Of course, there is Rick Johnson and Company, which Debbie and Rick have built through the years. It’s the state’s largest advertising and marketing agency, with over 75 employees, 12 departments and four subsidiaries. It has won over 1,000 creative awards locally, nationally and internationally.

The Rick Johnson Agency, of which she is president and chief operating officer, received the 1995 YWCA Vanguard Award for supporting the advancement of women.

If you know Debbie, you know she is a New Mexican – and a Lobo – through and through.

Following her father’s footsteps (although not onto the football and track fields), she earned her bachelor’s degree at UNM. She taught high school speech, English and journalism in APS, and was a writer for the Associated Press before beginning her advertising career over 20 years ago.

If you know Debbie, you know her community activities are myriad: she serves on the board of directors of Albuquerque Economic Development, Inc., the Anderson Schools of Management and Quality New Mexico.

She is chair-elect of the Robert O. Anderson Schools of Management Foundation. She was communications chair for America Japan Week 1995 and chaired the 1993 Governor’s Quality in Education Conference as well as the 1995 National Quality Education Conference.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. But if you know Debbie you know that iceberg is too cold a word for her. You know her warmth, her wit and her compassion.

Whatever inspires Debbie’s loyalty to New Mexico, to UNM, to her friends… whatever keeps her here… we are grateful for it. And we are grateful to Debbie, which is why the Alumni Association is so pleased to give her its 1999 Zia Award.

1999 Zia Award Michael Sanchez

W

ho could have known when Michael Sanchez graduated from UNM with a BA in political science in 1973 and a JD in 1976 that in 20 years’ time he would give thousands of other young New Mexicans the opportunity to go to college?

With his private law practice well underway in Los Lunas and the three Sanchez kids well underway in school, Michael was elected to the New Mexico State Senate in 1992, representing District 29-Valencia County. He is a member of the Conservation, Judiciary and Water & Natural Resources committees and an interim member of the Criminal Justice committee.

But it will be hard to outshine his reputation as the father of the lottery scholarship program that reinvigorated higher education not just at UNM but at all the state’s schools.

Michael authored the first bill in 1996 and subsequent bills establishing and financing the Legislative Success Scholarships.

Using funds from the New Mexico State Lottery, this program provides New Mexico high school graduates who have completed the first semester of a higher ed program with at least a 2.5 GPA with eight consecutive semesters of full college tuition.

It is an unprecedented blessing to many New Mexicans who would never be able to afford college otherwise as well as to many middleclass New Mexicans who would have to struggle to make ends meet while coming up with nearly 2,000 extra dollars per year.

At UNM in 1997, during the first semester the scholarships were available, freshmen enrollment increased 30 percent.

Student credit hours this semester are at an all-time high. The freshmen class increased this year by 3.5 percent. Since 1995 it has increased by 52 percent.

Administrators agree that these figures are largely due to the Success Scholarships.

I realize that I am talking more about the impact of Michael’s legislation than I am about Michael, but in this instance perhaps the fruits of his actions talk to who Michael is. They certainly demonstrate why we at the Alumni Association are so grateful to Michael and are so pleased to present him our Zia Award: we hope to thank him and encourage him to continue in his efforts.

How and in what form the lottery scholarships will continue through the years are unsettled questions. Larry Calloway recently quoted Michael as saying “I’m going to fight like heck to make sure everybody has a chance to go to school.” We hope this award will lend you support in that fight, Michael.

1999 Zia Award Myrna Smyer

I

f I could make this presentation to Myrna Smyer in rhyme, I would. But it’s Myrna who is the mistress of rhyme… and theatre.

Myrna directs Once Upon a Theatre, a local, non-profit organization dedicated to theatre by and for young people. Once Upon a Theatre productions are designed to be portable and taken to schools, pueblos and reservations throughout the state. Whereas some plays may be performed solely for the sake of art, Myrna’s performances take into account equally the impact of a play upon its audience.

Listen to what an APS teacher working with at-risk students said about a performance of Cinderella: “You have given my students a chance to dream, and in their lives, dreaming is vary rare.”

Or to a six-year-old boy who had just seen his first play, Little Red Riding Hood: “This is the best day of my whole life.”

Once Upon a Theatre stages three types of plays: • chamber theatre, which brings alive classic stories of Twain and Poe, for example; • melodrama, in which the hero, Chadwick Fearless, saves the heroine, Mary Lou Trustworthy, from Dastardly Dick Sneering; • and Once Upon a Rhyme, Myrna’s own series of fairy tales adapted to the stage and written partially in rhyme – they are not spoofs, but mini-morality stories, in which, for example, Goldilocks is remorseful for the harm she has caused, and she and the bears discover the blessings of diversity.

Myrna began the Once Upon a Rhyme series while she was the drama director and chair of the fine arts department at Sandia Prep School, where she worked

from 1977 to 1998. In addition to Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood, the series includes Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, The Dancing Princesses, The Three Pigs and Sleeping Beauty. Sandia Prep students acted in the performances which entertained over 70,000 children and adults in six Southwestern states.

Myrna received her BFA in theatre arts from UNM and an MA in performance studies from Northwestern. She has taught theatre seminars and workshops nationwide and directed over 100 children’s plays and over 50 adult plays. Her Once Upon a Rhyme series was given a first place award for quality in education by the New Mexico Research and Study Council and UNM, and won the Albuquerque Arts Alliance Bravo Award for Quality in Education. Myrna is a member of the New Mexico Arts Commission and the Albuquerque Arts Alliances Arts and Education Task Force.

To you who put us in merry mood We extend our heartfelt gratitude.

Your whimsy and your great talent We think indeed are heavensent.

We gladly give you our award.

For your plays, our hearts have soared.

1999 Zia Award Thomas J. Steele, SJ

F

ather Thomas J. Steele, says fellow Zia Award recipient and noted santero Charie Carrillo, is “part of the Hispanic family. We call him ‘Tio Steele.’ Much of what he has brought us has been through the book, but we also have taken much away from the dinner table when he’s here.”

The “book” in question is that known as the santeros’ bible, Santos and Saints, written by Father Steele in 1975, published and revised several times since. It tells the stories not only of the santos but of how they fit into the lives of early New Mexicans. It helped revive the santero tradition that had been fading.

Father Steele, a Jesuit priest, came to New Mexico from Missouri in 1965, earning his doctorate in English at UNM in 1968. Upon graduating, he began a 30-year tenure as professor at Regis College in Denver. There he assembled the nation’s largest teaching collection of santos. He began by collecting and cleaning a few santos, marveling at what would reappear as the dirt disappeared. Retired in 1977, he still serves as curator of Regis’ Southwestern collections.

The influence of the Southwest upon Father Steele is ever prevalent, whether in collecting santos or in his writings. UNM Press published his New Mexican Spanish Religious Oratory, 1800-1900 two years back. Soon the Museum of New Mexico Press will publish Francisco Xavier Romero, a Hitherto Unknown Santero, and Tradición Revista will publish The Archbishop Comes Back to Life. LPD Press of Albuquerque will publish Archbishop Lamy’s Sermons next year.

Father Steele, for breathing life into a tradition dear to our culture, for the respect you have shown it, for your part in preserving it for generations to come, we happily honor you with our 1999 UNM Alumni Association Zia Award.

2000 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS José Abeyta Jacquelyn J. Baca Maria Griego-Raby Arthur Meledres Thomas B. Ryan Louis Weller

2000 Zia Award JOSÉ ABEYTA

W

hen we called Joe Abeyta to tell him about his selection for our Zia award, he said, “You must have the wrong Joe Abeyta.” We knew we didn’t. How many Joe Abeytas are there who are pharmacists, who served in the state Legislature and who live in Wagon Mound? We had our man.

What we’re about to tell you about Joe we got second-hand from an ardent admirer of his, New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Joseph Baca. Joe couldn’t imagine his resume would hold much of importance to us. So, Joe, if we don’t have the details exactly right, we’ll give you a chance to straighten them out in a minute.

What we do have straight is our knowledge that Joe is a very humble, self-effacing man, who has made tremendous public service contributions in an area of the state not exactly on the beaten path and in of a profession not often involved in politics.

Originally from Aztec, New Mexico, Joe was one of the early graduates of the school of pharmacy, finishing his degree in 1951.

He ran Best Pharmacy in Albuquerque’s north valley. While living in Albuquerque, he was elected to the City Council for at least one, if not more, terms. He was always active in civic matters and a full participant in the community.

Joe was involved with the methadone program from its incipience. Heroin addicts would come to his pharmacy for doses. While many opposed the program and didn’t want addicts mixing with their clientele, Joe thought it worthwhile, and made his services available.

Joe closed his drug store about 10 years ago (we think) and retired to Wagon Mound. Joe’s wife, Margarita, had grown up on a ranch near there. Joe worked as a pharmacist for the State Hospital at Las Vegas, and ran for and served in the state Legislature, representing San Miguel, Mora and Colfax counties.

We’re honored to have Joe here this morning. And we’re pleased to be able to recognize this gentle man who, without boasting, has worked hard on the public’s behalf and who teaches us how to live out our civic responsibilities. Joe, you are an inspiration to us, and we are delighted to give you our 2000 Zia award today.

2000 Zia Award JACQUELINE J. BACA

R

aise your hand if you think Bueno Foods’ purpose is to sell chile.

Wrong. Bueno’s stated purpose is, and I quote, to “have a positive influence on people’s lives through our products and organization.”

That must have come straight from Jackie Baca, head of the Baca family-business. We’re not sure exactly how far that family extends.

Jackie’s father and uncles founded the business in 1951. Jackie has been involved in the company most of her life, starting as a production worker. Her brother and sisters share in the direction of the company.

Then there’s the extended family that works at Bueno. And there’s the rest of us in New Mexico who simply enjoy our New Mexican traditions and foods.

It’s a unique way to look at customers, and it’s been a productive way to run Bueno.

During the 17 years of Jackie’s tenure, Bueno has attained 98 percent name recognition, increased its sales and employment 5-fold, and its profit 5-fold. The company has undertaken three major expansions in the South Barelas Industrial Park – her family’s original neighborhood.

With a BA in political science and an MBA from UNM, Jackie has been determined not only to make Bueno its best, but through her business and community service activities, to provide educational and job opportunities to disadvantaged and minority people.

Under Jackie’s direction, for example, Bueno emphasizes hiring workers from the Barelas and South Valley areas. The company provides educational and advancement opportunities to its employees, offering such benefits as flex time, medical insurance and a matching retirement plan.

Jackie instituted the Raymond J. Baca and Joseph J. Baca Scholarships for minority high school seniors, and participates in the Hispano Chamber of Commerce educational programs and the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce Join-a-School program.

She has also served on the Alumni Association board.

In 1994, Jackie was named US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Businesswoman of the Year. She has received the Governor’s Trailblazer Award, and has been inducted into the Anderson School of Management’s Hall of Fame.

Bueno has been awarded the Vanguard Award and the SBA Welfare to Work Award, as well as a recent New Mexico Ethics in Business Award.

Jackie, your actions speak for who you are and what you believe in. Many people in today’s world mouth the words, but few live them. For the integrity and vision that you’ve shown in your career, we are proud to award you our 2000 Zia award.

2000 Zia Award MARÍA GRIEGO-RABY

I

’m willing to bet that the first word that pops into your mind when you think of María GriegoRaby isn’t “roughneck.” Nor is it “roustabout.”

Yet, that’s how María got her start, fresh out of UNM with a BBA in 1980. She took a job as administrative analyst with Amoco in Denver where she trained in the field, then began forecasting well costs, reporting oil and gas production and performing a variety of other tasks.

Three years later María moved from the pursuit of black gold to that of educational gold as a fundraiser in Stanford University’s Office of Development.

Then, luckily for us, in 1986 she came back to Albuquerque to pursue her MBA and began working as an account manager at Contract Associates, a leading commercial and office furnishings firm. Two years later, along with her five siblings, María bought the company and became its principal shareholder and president.

Under María’s leadership, the company has expanded into Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. It has twice received the US Small Business Administration Administrator’s Award of Excellence, and is one of the top 25-womanowned businesses in New Mexico. María has not only been recognized as the SBA’s Minority Small-Business Person of the Year but as the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Hispanic Business Woman of the Year.

A fourth-generation Albuquerquean, María has a keen sense of home and a desire to give back to it. She has dedicated time and energy to the fields of education, health care, leadership development and the arts.

Foremost in our minds are the hours that María has donated to the UNM Alumni

Association – serving as its president last year and on the executive committee of the board this year – not just during homecoming but in finalizing a memorandum of agreement between the university and the association.

María currently serves as vice chair for leadership for the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and as a member of the Presbyterian Healthcare Services board of directors. She has also served on the boards of the Albuquerque Arts Alliance, the Albuquerque Conservation Association, the Anderson Schools of Management Foundation and the Albuquerque Zoological Society.

We’ve all struck paydirt in knowing Maria.

Not just because of her entrepreneurial sense. Not just because of her community commitment. Not even just because of her contributions to the Alumni Association. But because in addition to all this María treats people well. She notices those around her. She realizes what other people do. She realizes that they, like her, have families as well as jobs to tend to. She supports them. She thanks them.

This morning we thank you, María, for your talents and sincerity, and for sharing both with us.

We’re glad you left the oilfields, and hope you’ll accept this Zia award as a sign of our appreciation.

2000 Zia Award ARTHUR D. MELENDRES

W

hen young Art Melendres served as vice-president and then president of UNM student government, ASUNM, he may not have had much of an inkling that 25 years later he would be overseeing the UNM Board of Regents. Then again, maybe it shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise, considering his allegiance to his alma mater and his propensity to rise to leadership positions.

Art received his bachelor’s degree from UNM in 1965, followed by his JD in 1971. He served as a law clerk under Howard C. Bratton, US District Court, District of New Mexico.

The following year Art joined the Albuquerque law firm of Modrall, Sperling, Roehl, Harris and Sisk, becoming a partner and shareholder in 1977. He’s remained with Modrall ever since, serving now as general counsel to the Albuquerque Public Schools. He advises the school board and administration on open meetings, inspection of public records, real estate, employment and other matters.

Within his profession, Art has served as president of the Albuquerque Bar Association, the New Mexico Association of School Board Attorneys and the young Lawyers Section of the State Bar of New Mexico. He is a member of the Hispanic Bar Association, and he served on the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary.

He received the Distinguished Service Award from the State Bar of New Mexico in 1978 for outstanding professional contributions.

Outside his profession, Art has focused his volunteer activities on education.

Of course, his biggest commitment,

beginning in 1991, was first as UNM regent and then as President of the UNM Board of Regents. He has served on the Alumni Association board, the UNM Presidential Scholarship Program, Our Lady of Fatima School Board and as a coach of AYSO soccer and Boys’ Club basketball. Currently, Art is coaching Lincoln-Douglass Debate at Rio Grande High School.

Art and his wife, Diana, also a UNM alum, have four very bright children, all of whom, no doubt, could have gone to school at most any university in the country but who remained, instead, at UNM. Art and Diana must be talking UNM up pretty positively to have accomplished that feat. It’s a sure sign of Lobo allegiance.

We are pleased to bestow our Zia award upon Art, for his distinguished accomplishments and for his service to UNM.

2000 Zia Award THOMAS B. RYAN

W

e didn’t even know, as we were selecting recipients for the Zia awards, to be given out on the morning of the Homecoming football game, that Tom Ryan was All WAC center for the Lobos in 1977.

A three-year football letterman and honorable mention All-American in 77-78, Tom also lettered in wrestling at UNM in 1976. But we didn’t know that.

What we did know was that Tom, as principal of Del Norte High School from 1997-99, had received a prestigious Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award for championing technology-supported learning. In fact, his technology initiatives at Del Norte as well as other APS schools led to his appointment last year as executive director of learning technologies for APS. In this position he is responsible for integrating technology into classroom instruction, establishing communication systems and developing programs to train and encourage teachers and administrators to use technology.

Tom received his BS from UNM in 1980 in industrial education, with certification in PE. His career centered primarily on Albuquerque High School for the next 15 years. There he taught both industrial ed and PE, chaired the PE department and coached football. As head football coach, he instituted academic excellence programs such as PASS (Push Athletes for Scholastic Success). He established the Albuquerque Football Coaches Association. He also organized cultural exchanges with Mexico.

In 1994, Tom received his MA in educational administration from UNM, and his career took

on a new direction. He became assistant principal first at Albuquerque High, then at Cibola High; in both positions he pushed for technology use and improvement. He taught classes at the UNM College of Education in administrative applications of technology.

What we know now about Tom is that he is front and center for kids as well as technology learning in New Mexico. What he knows and what he teaches will have a profound impact upon our kids as they make their way in this new, technological age.

So, Tom, for your vision and foresight, your interests and energies, we gratefully bestow upon you our 2000 Zia award. And, go Lobos!

2000 Zia Award LOUIS WELLER

L

ou Weller is opening a lot of people’s eyes. Founder and president of Weller Architects, and a 1959 graduate of UNM’s School of Architecture, Lou stresses sensitivity to cultural and traditional values in the planning and design of each Native American project his firm manages. These projects are numerous and important: • Lou is project manager in conjunction with another architecture firm for the National Museum of the American Indian, to be constructed on the Smithsonian Institute’s last available museum site on Washington Mall.

• Lou recently completed his responsibilities as project manager for the new Cultural Resources Center for the National Museum of the American Indian in Suitland, Maryland, which will house a million-object collection of Native American artifacts, arts and crafts.

• Lou was principal-in-charge for the Institute of American Indian Art’s new campus in Santa Fe. This is to name just a few of Lou’s projects.

Lou served as president for three years of the American Indian Council of Architects and Engineers, is a past president of the New Mexico Indian Business Association and served on the US Senate National Commission on Native Housing. He is also a founding member of the Native American Design Collaborative (NADC), a consortium of 23 Indian-owned professional design and engineering firms that form a team offering complete planning design services to Native American clients.

For his dedication to bettering Native Americans’ living conditions, Lou has received a number of awards and honors. Most recently he earned the American Institute of Architect’s prestigious Whitney M. Young Jr. award, given for meeting the architectural profession’s responsibility toward current social issues. Lou is the first Native American to receive this award.

This is a big year for architecture at UNM. The School of Architecture hopes to build its new structure with passage of the GO Bond in November. Van Dorn Hooker, longtime university architect whom we honored at Thursday’s Erna Fergusson luncheon, has published a comprehensive history of UNM architecture. And Lou Weller, whom we honor here today with our Zia award, embodies well the values, skills, talents and ethics that we hope UNM instills in its architecture graduates. Congratulations, Lou, and thank you for enlightening us with your sensitivities to Native American culture.

2001 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Randolph “Dolph” Barnhouse Laura Hueter Bass Sam J. Butler Michael J. Glennon Angela J. Jewell J. Howard Mock

2001 Zia Award Randolph “Dolph” Barnhouse

D

olph Barnhouse sees the world a little differently from the rest of us – and that’s good for all of us. Not only does he view life from the perspective of the Indian nations with whom he works (as a partner in the Gallup law firm of Rosebrough and Barnhouse), but he also views life from the perspective of those in need.

Perhaps his fluency in German, his internship with Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty in Munich and his experience teaching international trade at the Wuhan University School of Law in the People’s Republic of China influenced his non-conformist view of the world.

Well, perhaps it was Dolf ’s terms as president of the UNM Graduate Student Association and as a board member of the Alumni Association that really changed his outlook! The Lobo experience has a way of doing that.

In between stints of private practice in Phoenix and Gallup, Dolph served as executive director of DNA-People’s Legal Services in Window Rock, which provides free legal services to low income Hopi and Navajo clients in the Four Corners area. He is a member of the state and federal Bars of New Mexico and Arizona; the Hopi, Zuni, and Navajo Nation Bars; and the Ninth and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals. He serves as an appeals judge with the Southwest Intertribal Court of Appeals. Surely such “about-faces” keep his focus fresh.

Dolph served as the founding president of the food bank in Gallup, which has saved tens of thousands of dollars for not-for-profit

agencies throughout McKinley County, and brought more than 2 million pounds of food into the county last year. Previously, Dolph had worked with the board and staff of Battered Families Services in Gallup to turn the organization into a model domestic-violence shelter; last year he worked with the shelter to renovate and open transitional housing and a thrift shop. Dolph has surely seen a tougher side of life.

Wherever your outlook came from, Dolf, we appreciate both it and your contributions to your community. With perspective such as yours, we might all see the world a bit more clearly. We are honored to give you our 2001 Zia Award today.

2001 Zia Award Laura Hueter Bass

W

e wondered what we were in for when Laura Hueter Bass began her term as president of the Alumni Association by adorning her predecessor, George Friberg, with Mickey Mouse ears and pop-eye glasses. And this was at a time when we had some serious work to do: a Memorandum of Agreement to work out with the University and a large contract with a credit card company to negotiate! What were we to think?

Laura had impeccable credentials, and had served on our board the previous year.

She comes from a pioneering New Mexico family. Both her parents, Patty and Jack, graduated from UNM where Laura, also, earned both a bachelor’s of university studies and a master’s of public administration.

As executive director of the Albuquerque Community Foundation, she deals with assets of $28 million, up from $4 million when she took the job in 1991. Under her guidance, the Community Foundation was named New Mexico’s Outstanding Philanthropic Organization by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

But there she was in 1999, acting silly.

Before going to the Community Foundation, Laura had served as executive director of the New Mexico Bar Foundation and the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, Albuquerque Area. Pretty serious endeavors!

Earlier, she had served as a juvenile probation officer and education training director. The future of our youth was in her hands.

She’d served on and presided over numerous important boards and committees, including the Presbyterian Healthcare Foundation, the New Mexico Governor’s Commission on Alcoholism and DWI, Manzano Day School and Bosque Prep.

Yet this woman continued to present the light side of life.

That, we soon learned, was Laura’s unique gift: she is a rare combination of competence and fun. We negotiated the memorandum.

We signed the credit card contract. And we did it all with good spirits, jokes and laughter abounding.

Laura, thank you for being you. For all your hard work, your contributions, your accomplishments. But most of all for keeping us from taking ourselves too seriously and for showing us how to enjoy our work as well as our play! And seriously, it’s great fun to give you our Zia Award today.

2001 Zia Award Sam J. Butler

T

he folks in Farmington knew there was something special when Sam Butler moved there as a junior in high school and was elected president of the upcoming senior class in the spring. They still know Sam’s pretty special – and he knows they are, too.

That’s why, after 15 years of a banking career that took him from Phoenix to New York and from Okinawa to Karachi, Sam and his wife and kids came home to Farmington.

(After graduating with a bachelor’s in business administration from UNM, Sam had gone on to earn a second degree in foreign trade from the American Graduate School of International Management in Arizona.)

But Sam didn’t come home just to reap the benefits of Farmington’s flourish in the Four Corners. He came home to help make it flourish, either through his personal efforts or in his eventual professional capacity as president and CEO of the Citizens Bank of Farmington.

Farmington’s quality of life is sometimes kept a secret from other New Mexicans. Sam could tell you a thing or two.

As a member and past president of the San Juan Medical Foundation, Sam helped raise the money for the community’s outstanding new Cancer Treatment Center and Connolly House (similar to Ronald McDonald’s house).

As a member and past president of the San Juan College Foundation, Sam helped raise significant dollars for scholarships.

As a New Mexico Amigo, Sam has helped put Farmington on the map nationwide, traveling around the country as one of New Mexico’s goodwill ambassadors.

Sam is a member of Rotary, is on the Chamber of Commerce, is on the Country Club board and is honorary chairman of the Four Corners Home for Children. He is a director of the Western States School of Banking Foundation, and a board member of the Banker’s Bank of the West and of the New Mexico Independent Bankers Association.

Sam is the kind of guy everyone goes to when the community needs something, and he helps out.

That’s why Sam’s good friend Gwen Clothier immediately put him to work when he returned to Farmington – organizing their high school class’ 20th reunion. Everyone was always asking about Sam, Gwen says, so she figured he’d be the one who could do it. And, of course, he did.

Well, Sam, maybe we should draft you to organize a UNM homecoming reunion! We too are convinced of your leadership abilities and are impressed by your loyal and generous ways. We’re happy to honor you today with our 2001 Zia Award.

2001 Zia Award Michael J. Glennon

F

or TVI, “It’s All About Students.” For Michael Glennon, the president of Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute since 1997, whose background centers on finance, you’d think it would be “All About Numbers.” Instead, it’s all about communication – some of it with students, but much of it with faculty, staff, board members and legislators.

And we’re not talking memos here. When fall classes start and the problem of insufficient parking raises its head once again, you’ll find Michael picketing the campus with a sign that says. “Ask me about parking.”

When Michael thinks an employee has done an exceptional job, he communicates that with an award affectionately called the “Clapper” – two mechanical hands that clap while a recording of Michael’s congratulatory message plays.

Michael also uses a means dear to the hearts – and stomachs – of UNM alumni volunteers and staff to get the conversation going. At the conclusion of a meeting with the bigwigs, Michael personally delivers any extra cookies or other goodies to neighboring offices. And Michael has also begun a series of lunches devoted to communicating with employees, called “The Scoop on TVI.” The employees bring their own lunches, but Michael provides the ice cream cones and the scoops of ice cream.

Maybe we should say for Michael, “It’s All About Fun.” But while Michael does believe that work should be fun, he holds that belief under the theory that people who enjoy their

jobs will make TVI a better place. And his theory has worked.

In the short time Michael has been at the helm, TVI surveys have shown satisfaction on the rise. TVI has opened its new Workforce Training Center. A dozen new occupational majors have been added to TVI’s roster. Michael has brought a focus on quality throughout the school, including the “It’s About Students” leadership focus. Project Drop-In has begun, focusing on 16 and 17 year old dropouts. And the voters have okayed a $35 million bond for major TVI construction projects.

Even with his TVI finish, Michael got his start as a true cherry-and-silver Lobo. He received both his bachelor’s and his master’s degrees in business administration from UNM. And he worked as UNM’s assistant budget director, assistant comptroller and manager of accounts payable for at least a decade of his career. He got further higher education exposure as deputy director of the New Mexico Commission on Higher Education before being named vice president for administration at TVI. As for our Zia Award, Michael, it’s all about you! It’s about competence, contributions to your community and education, and the enjoyment of working and living well. We take great pleasure in presenting to you our 2001 Zia Award.

2001 Zia Award Angela J. Jewell

T

here isn’t much that Angela Jewel can’t tell you about relationships. As district court judge dealing with domestic violence, Angela has seen the good, the bad and the ugly. She has helped strengthen the first, improve the second and eradicate the last. It takes a special kind of judge – and judgment – to be able to figure out which is which.

Angela said in a Mirage story a few years back that growing up the oldest of nine kids taught her how “to shut out a large amount of noise in order to focus on what was really going on.” That undoubtedly helps her get to the crux of a case.

A goodly amount of experience and training helps, too. After graduating from UNM Law School, Angela went into private practice in 1981, opening her own firm with her husband, now Judge Tommy Jewel, for several years. But the chance to spread the word about domestic violence and to recruit lawyers to do pro bono work on behalf of its victims lured Angela to the Legal Aid Society and then to the Domestic Violence Division of the Second Judicial District Court as a Special Commissioner.

From that point on, her training has been intense – both on the receiving and the giving end. While she has completed coursework at the National Judicial College and at UNM, she has also conducted training for the Albuquerque Police Department, the Shelter for Victims of Domestic Violence, the Southwest Indian Law Clinic, the Neutral Corner, UNM Emergency Medicine Residents and countless other groups.

Angela is a member of Albuquerque’s Domestic Violence Task Force Committee, the Public Safety Advisory Board, the Attorney General’s Task Force on Violence Against Women, the New Mexico Medical/Legal Domestic Violence Committee and numerous other related, public committees. She also serves as a member of the New Mexico Supreme Court Task Force on Racial and Ethnic Bias in the Courts.

In the Mirage article, Angela expressed dismay about the victim-blaming she sees in domestic violence cases – in the court system as well as among individuals. Her efforts as judge and community member must surely be reducing that injustice.

Angela, we are grateful to you for your work, your wisdom and your tenacity. We are also very proud to claim you as a INM alumna, and to present you with our 2001 Zia Award.

2001 Zia Award J. Howard Mock

H

oward Mock is the kind of guy that educators love to honor. Because Howard does in life what educators do in theory: he gathers all the information he can, becomes as knowledgeable as possible about whatever he’s doing, then uses what he’s learned to come up with his own, often better, ideas.

Howard did that when he went back to UNM in the 80s to earn his MBA from Anderson Schools of Management. That helped Howard make the transition from civil engineer to chief executive officer, and ultimately to transform the Jaynes Corporation from a concrete sub-contractor into a major general contractor. Today Jaynes has 40 to 50 construction projects underway at any time – in Colorado, Texas, Utah, Arizona, California and Nevada – and a permanent staff of about 300.

Howard did that when he began attending sessions of the National Society of Fundraising Executives (now the Association of Fundraising Professionals) to find out all there was to know about capital campaigns.

As a result, Howard recently led All Faiths Receiving Home to completion of a major campaign, raising funds to rebuild and expand their facilities.

Whatever the cause, says one colleague – whether United Way or Presbyterian Hospital, the Albuquerque Economic Forum or New Mexico Amigos, the Governor’s Business Advisory Council or Heights Presbyterian Church – Howard isn’t involved just to have the organization’s name on his resume.

“When Howard takes on a commitment,” says the development director of Sandia Prep, “he completes it.”

Absorbing and modifying ideas … looking at a situation, sizing it up and gleaning the best from it … that’s what some folks call vision, others, leadership. Whatever they called it, the Associated General Contractors of America liked it, making Howard the president of their organization from 1997 to 1998.

In that position, Howard traveled nationally and internationally, always bringing the best ideas back to New Mexico, always thinking ahead, always gauging trends. Ready to lead the way.

Almost always a leader, Howard does know when to follow – especially when it comes to fish. Wily trout and salmon regularly lead Howard and his fishing companions into the San Juan Wilderness and the Alaskan waterways.

Howard also follows his faith and his family as he wends his way through life.

So, Howard, for all these reasons, we too love honoring you today with our 2001 Zia Award. Congratulations.

2002 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Alex Doyle Beach Fred Begay Breda Bova Tom Chavez William Federici Ramon Huerta

2002 Zia Award ALEX BEACH

M

ost of us get grayer as we work and age. Alex Beach has gone from gray to red, so there must be a secret to the life of volunteerism!

Volunteering has truly been a way of life for Alex, since her days as president of the Pi Beta Phi Sorority her senior year at UNM. She has remained involved with her sorority as a member and chair of the alumnae advisory committee, and received the Sorority Alumna Meritorious Award in 1985.

Alex served as president of the UNM Alumni Association from 1992 to 1993.

She has also served as longtime alumni representative to the Student Union Board, as well as chair of our Homecoming Decade Reunion and the Centennial Ball Dinner. She has received the Mortar Board Alumni Lobo Award, the Buick Volunteer Spirit Award for Outstanding Service to UNM and the UNM Student Service Award.

Alex has also worked hard on behalf of the Junior League of Albuquerque, serving as president from 1987 to 1988.

She received the honor of “Sustainer of the Year” for 1996 and 1997. She has served on the board of directors of the YWCA of Albuquerque and has remained involved in the Y ’s Guadalupe Partners, Inc. She was on the Board of Directors of both St. Pius X High School Foundation and Our Lady of Fatima School. She has served on the board of the Catholic Foundation Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Most recently, she chaired the Ronald McDonald House Charities 20-year celebration, and is on the

board of trustees of the Dominican Ecclesial Institute.

All communities need an Alex. We’re very fortunate she lives in ours. We’re pleased to present Alex with our Zia Award.

2002 Zia Award FRED BEGAY

O

ur next award recipient, Fred Begay, began life on the Ute Reservation in Towaoc, Colorado, and was trained in farming at BIA schools. Today he is a nuclear physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Between the farm and the lab, Fred served in the Korean Conflict, spent eleven years of hard work at UNM earning his BS, MS and PhD, and displayed a good deal of talent and inspiration.

Currently, Fred is a senior staff physicist at Los Alamos, assistant for science and technology to the president and vice president of the Navajo Government, and president of the Seaborg Hall of Science. The Seaborg Hall of Science is an independent, non-profit education and research institution dedicated to providing public services to the Navajo community in science and technology matters.

Fred has had teaching appointments at both Stanford and the University of Maryland.

Fred is a member of the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Nuclear Society.

He is especially concerned about public literacy in science and technology.

Fred has received the Ely Parker Award from the American Indian Society for Engineering and Science, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Science Foundation, the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science and other awards from the Department of Energy and the Navajo Government.

Fred’s life has been documented in three TV films and in numerous articles. We are pleased to be able to show our admiration of Fred with the Alumni Association Zia Award.

2002 Zia Award BREDA BOVA

W

ho in this room do you think knows more about NCAA requirements than anyone else? It’s not President Garcia. It’s not me. It’s Breda Bova, our next Zia Award recipient, a professor and associate dean at the UNM College of Education. Breda served as the faculty rep to the UNM Athletics Council for many years.

In some ways, Breda’s service on the Athletics Council typifies her approach to UNM and to the community. She’s a good citizen in both realms. She’s always available when needed, on campus or off.

Off campus, Breda serves on the boards of New Mexico Parent and Child Resources, We’re pleased to recognize her with our the APS Foundation, Golden Apple Alumni Association Zia Award today.

Foundation and the YWCA. She is a former chair of the board of the United Way of Central New Mexico and president of the Junior League of Albuquerque.

Breda received her PhD from UNM in 1979, and became a member of the faculty in 1981. She holds academic rank in the Educational Leadership Program where she previously served as the chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Organizational Learning. Her current research interests lie in exploring generational differences—so if you’re having trouble talking with your Generation Y youngster, you might speak with Breda.

Breda has been recognized with the YWCA’s Woman of the Year Award, the Governor’s Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women, the Teacher of the Year Award and the UNM Regents Lectureship.

2002 Zia Award Thomas Chavez

W

hen Tom Chavez isn’t fishing for trout, he’s fishing for stories of New Mexico’s history – or sometimes for the big one to support the National Hispanic Cultural Center. As a historian and executive director of the Hispanic Cultural Center, Tom doesn’t have much time for real fish.

Tom actually began his career at age 12, when he fished for unsuspecting Santa Fe tourists to guide through the Palace of the Governors at 25 cents a head. Much later, after earning a master’s and PhD in history from UNM, he would become the head of the Palace of the Governors, serving as its director for 21 years. Tom has recently been appointed executive director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

For most, the jobs alone would be sufficient, but Tom has the historian’s bug, and has continued to write, publishing five books – with three more in the works – about New Mexico’s history and the historic relationship between Spain and the United States.

Tom received a Fulbright Research Fellowship to Spain in 1987. He is a former president of the New Mexico Association of Museums, The Old Santa Fe Association and the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities. He is a recipient of the Distinguished History Award Medal from the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the 1997 Excellence in the Humanities Award from the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities. He also received the 1998

Mayor’s Recognition Award for Excellence in the Arts in Santa Fe and the Old Santa Fe Association’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to the People of Santa Fe. We’re honored to present our Zia Award to Tom, who weighs heavy on our scales of accomplishment.

2002 Zia Award William Federici

B

ill Federici is our own one-room schoolhouse story. Born in Cimarron, New Mexico, he attended elementary schools there and in Colfax – Colfax Elementary was a one-room county school.

From small beginnings came a big life. Bill would go on to become Chief Justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court.

Bill graduated from UNM in 1939 and then from the University of Colorado Law School in 1941. He served as an assistant attorney general of New Mexico in 1941 and from 1946 to 1948 – the US Army took up the intervening years. In 1948, Bill joined the law firm of Seth and Montgomery, and became a partner shortly afterwards. From 1977 to 1985, he served on the Supreme Court – the last two years as Chief Justice. Then he returned to the firm in the capacity “Of Counsel.”

Bill served as president of the New Mexico State Bar from 1990 to 1991 and was a member of the New Mexico State Bar Commission for many years. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Probate Counsel. His awards include the University of Colorado Law School Alumni Award for Distinguished Service in the Judiciary, the State Bar of New Mexico Professionalism Award and the American Inn of Court Professionalism Award for the US Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

Did you notice that I’ve said “served” a lot in this introduction? That’s because Bill has indeed served our state and community, and he serves as a role model for many.

Today I’m pleased to present Bill with the Alumni Association’s Zia Award for his service and contributions to New Mexico.

2002 Zia Award RAMON HUERTA

S

eñor Huerta, as our next recipient is known to many a Highland High grad, taught at Highland for 30 years before retiring. But leaving school didn’t mean he’d left education behind. Ramon Huerta served in the New Mexico State House of Representatives from 1988 to 1994, motivated to improve our schools.

In addition to teaching at Highland, Ramon also taught Spanish on TV for APS and for the UNM Peace Corps Training Center in the 60s.

As an aside, one of Ramon’s students mentioned that he liked to drink KoolAid—something she’d never seen other adults do. Perhaps we’ve discovered the secret to communicating with students!

Over the course of his career, he served as president of the Albuquerque Classroom Teachers Association, on various committees of the New Mexico Classroom Teachers Association and on the National Advisory Council of the Classroom Teachers Association of the United States. He also served on the board of the New Mexico Educational Association and on the board and executive committee of the National Education Association of the United States (1972-1974). He was a delegate to the World Conference of Teachers held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1972, and the invited guest of the Brazilian Teachers National Convention.

Today, Ramon is active in the Albuquerque Breakfast Lions Club, Elks Club, Albuquerque Association of Educational Retirees and Toastmasters International.

I’d like to raise my glass of Kool-Aid to Ramon Huerta, recipient of the Alumni Association Zia Award, for his dedication and service to his students and our community.

2003 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Gary Golden Yolanda King James B. Lewis Petra Jimenez Maes Mary T. Torres Robert Wertheim

2003 Zia Award GARY GOLDEN

E

very association needs a Gary Golden.

The bad news is: there’s just one of him.

The good news is: we are lucky enough to have had him – both at the university and at the Alumni Association.

Karen Abraham is responsible for Gary’s connection to both. She hired Gary in 1977 as assistant dean of students at UNM and suggested his appointment to the Alumni Association board of directors.

At UNM Gary began working primarily with student organizations and the Student Activities Center. Karen says the young Gary – who earned his Ed Specialist degree at UNM in 1981 – increased the traffic of women to the Student Activities Center twofold.

Gary went on to become associate dean of students and director of student activities at UNM until 1991 when he moved to Farmington to become vice president for student services at San Juan College. They too know how lucky they are to have Gary – and are determined to keep him there.

Why such a rare find? Karen says Gary is always there when you need him, and he can always make you laugh or smile! He enjoys interacting with people.

From the boss’ perspective, Karen appreciated a characteristic that Gary still demonstrates: he’s not high maintenance – he doesn’t expect adulation.

And when you ask him to do something he responds, ‘Oh, sure, we can do that.’”

That “can do” attitude extended to Gary’s service on the Alumni Association Board, as member – for a record 10 years – and president.

Gary made it from Farmington to nearly all the meetings – including monthly executive committee meetings – despite having to

reconnoiter New Mexico highway 44 both before and during its reconstruction.

There are plenty of associations in Farmington this day that are eager for Gary’s involvement – from the Convention and Visitor Bureau board of directors (which he chaired) to the rotary club (which he served as president). Gary is also involved in numerous professional organizations, chairing this committee and that, a well as with his fraternity, Delta Upsilon, which he served as international president.

There’s one other association Gary plays a dynamic role in, and that’s his family! Gary, along with his wife, Kathy-Jo, participates actively in the lives of their two sons, Greg and Eric. Up until their high school days Gary coached baseball, basketball, soccer… you name it.

Doing all this, it seems that Gary must actually be more than one person. Whatever the case, we’re certainly luck for the Garys of this world!

For his talent, his faithfulness and his generosity, as well as his contributions to UNM and our association, it gives me great pleasure to present Gary our 2003 Zia Award.

2003 Zia Award YOLANDA KING

T

hey say that when you speak to a group you should keep your sentences short. It’s easier that way for the listeners to understand you. Well, that’s tough when you’re introducing Dr. Yolanda Jones King. Dr. King is the technical advisor for the Spacecraft Technology Division in the Space Vehicles Directorate of the US Air Force Research Laboratory (that’s the AFRL). Before that she was the Technical Advisor for the Space Infrared Technologies Center of Excellence in the Space Vehicles Directorate. Her titles alone are longer than the recommended sentence! And her responsibilities are bigger than most of us can understand!

I’ll try to summarize her impressive vita: Yolanda received her BS in chemistry and her PhD in physical chemistry from UNM, researching chemical kinetics for high-energy laser systems. She went on to become a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the US lead and voting member for the NATO Sensors and Electronics Technology Panel.

For seven years after receiving her doctorate, Yolanda worked with the AFRL (remember?

That’s the Air Force Research Laboratory) to obtain a patent in beam sensing. She then became the manager of the Strategic Defense Initiative Office technology program within the AFRL. (Think Star Wars!) In 1996, she served as a Congressional Fellow for Rep. Ron Dellums of California, who chaired the House Armed Services Committee, advising on science and technology.

Going international, Dr. King later led the Space Based Radar integrated product team and the US/United Kingdom/Canada coalition space-

based surveillance program. For two years before returning to Kirtland, she directed the Lab International Office in Arlington, Virginia.

A frequent speaker and keynote at technical conferences in her field of space technology research and development, Yolanda probably knows how to shorten up these titles or say them really fast! Of course, she’s also speaking to audiences who know what they mean!

Just in case you have any stereotypes of either scientists or junior leaguers, Yolanda can put an end to both. She has been active in the Junior League of Albuquerque, as well as Mortar Board and Town Club Sorority alumnae, the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy, the New Mexico Space Commission and the New Mexico Network for Women in Science and Engineering.

She currently serves on the Network’s Board, which encourages young girls to pursue careers in math, science and engineering.

At UNM, Yolanda is currently an advisor on the Dean of Arts & Sciences Advisory Council and a member of the UNM Foundation Board.

Even with a resume like this, Yolanda and her husband, Gary, still call Moriarty home.

We are truly impressed by Yolanda’s long list of accomplishments and by the ways she has used her UNM education. And we are proud to present to her our 2003 Zia Award.

2003 Zia Award JAMES LEWIS

J

ames Lewis’ career history is the epitome of what anyone who earns a master’s in public administration would like to do. His experience includes posts with the United States government, the state of New Mexico, the County of Bernalillo, the City of Albuquerque. I’m sure the UNM division of public administration, where James earned his MAPA in 1977, would like to claim responsibility for such success – and no doubt some is rightly theirs – but most of it belongs to Mr. Lewis himself for his talent and hard work.

On his birthday, November 30, two years ago, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez appointed James to his current position: Chief Operations Officer of the City of Albuquerque. As such, James oversees 11 city departments, including transit, public works, environmental health and parks & recreation.

He also advises the Mayor on land use matters and downtown redevelopment issues.

He was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1999 to be director of the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity at the US Department of Energy. Confirmed by the US Senate, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson swore him in.

Before this time, James served as City Administrator for the City of Rio Rancho and, earlier, Chief Clerk for the State of New Mexico Corporation Commission.

In Governor Bruce King’s 1990-94 administration, James served as chief of staff.

Mr. Lewis has experienced public service as a politician as well, having run for US Congress (guess what party!) in 1990 after

having served two elected terms as New Mexico State Treasurer and one as Bernalillo County Treasurer. James was the first African American to be elected statewide in New Mexico, garnering more votes than any opposed candidate during the 1986 general election.

James began his career in the education field, directing the Afro-American Studies portion of the University of Albuquerque’s multi-cultural enrichment program for three years beginning in 1974.

Actually, James Lewis could be the Public Administration Division, his experience is so vast, and fortunately for UNM students, he often serves as a guest lecturer and his papers can be viewed at the UNM library.

We are honored today to present James Lewis with our 2003 Zia Award, for his many contributions to our community, our government and our university.

2003 Zia Award PETRA JIMENEZ MAES

I

t takes a wealth of experience—not just in the field of law, but in life – to make a good lawyer, judge, justice and chief justice. New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Petra Jimenez Maes has both.

Chief Justice Maes – known then simply as Petra—worked her way through UNM undergraduate and law school, finishing as one of the first two Hispanic women to graduate from the UNM School of Law in 1973. After two years’ private practice in Albuquerque, she went to work for Northern New Mexico Legal Services.

In 1981, New Mexico Governor Bruce King appointed her to the First Judicial District Court. There her assignments included four years in the criminal division, six in the family division and seven in the civil division.

In addition, she served as the Children’s Court Judge for 12 years and was elected chief judge for two terms, adding administrative responsibilities to her list.

In 1983, Judge Maes was widowed and became a single parent to four children. Yet, in 1984 she established the Family Court and served as the Family Court Judge for six years, implementing mediation in divorce cases and helping parents resolve custody issues in the best interest of the children.

In 1998, Judge Maes was elected to the State’s highest court and retained in 2002 for an eight-year term. This January she was elected by unanimous vote to serve as chief justice, ushering in a new era as the first Latina/Hispanic woman chief justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court.

Now Chief Justice Maes not only presides over the fivemember court but serves as head of the New Mexico Judiciary with more than 200 state-paid judges in 139 court locations across the state.

Justice Maes has received numerous awards recognizing her work in the legal field, including the “Latina Lawyer of the Year” award from the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Henrietta Pettijohn Award from the New Mexico Women’s Bar Association in 2001 and the Outstanding Hispanic Attorney Award from the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association in 2001 and 2002.

Justice Maes is a frequent speaker, whose audience varies from the Columbia Law School Hispanic Law Student Association to the graduates of Peñasco High School and the GED recipients at Albuquerque TVI. A proud grandmother of two girls, Petra has learned life’s lessons well, and now not only adds a wealth of experience to our legal system but a wealth of wisdom as well.

We thank you, Chief Justice Petra Jimenez Maes, and are honored to present you with our 2003 Zia Award.

2003 Zia Award MARY T. TORRES

T

eaching’s loss is the law profession’s gain.

But whether in teaching or in law, Mary Torres is UNM’s pride.

Mary, a native of Socorro – and a ninth generation Hispanic New Mexican – finished her undergraduate work at New Mexico Tech in 1983 and began teaching high school English, history, civics and accounting in her hometown. Those who knew her well might have foreseen her subsequent career change, as she also taught Constitutional Law and coached the school’s Mock Trial team, which won the state championship in 1987 and 1988.

Perhaps the glory of victory inspired her to apply to UNM’s School of Law, from which she would graduate three years later.

It just goes to show that teachers make good students – Mary received both the dean’s and the faculty award when she graduated, and was secretary and then president of the Student Bar Association.

Out of law school, Mary first worked for the Law Office of TA Sandenaw in Las Cruces. She was named Outstanding Young Lawyer by the New Mexico Bar Foundation in 1995. In 1996, she made the transition to the Las Cruces office of Modrall, Sperling, Roehl, Harris & Sisk in 1996 where she is a shareholder.

She became involved with the State Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division and various Bar commissions, moving on to hold various State Bar offices. In 2002 Mary served as president of the New Mexico Bar Association – the first Hispanic woman State Bar President in the nation.

While the list of Mary’s awards, appointments and activities is long, Mary

seems to gravitate to her roots in education, speaking to the Socorro High graduating class and judging the high school mock trial competition. She still teaches, although now her students are fellow lawyers at conferences and continuing education programs.

Mary also serves on US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s Dialogue on Freedom Steering Committee. The Dialogue on Freedom, initiated after September 11, brings together volunteer lawyers and judges and high school students to discuss our shared values as Americans, especially with other countries worldwide.

For all you’ve contributed to your profession and your community and for all we have learned and can learn from you, we are honored to present you, Mary, with our 2003 Zia Award.

2003 Zia Award ROBERT WERTHEIM

I

’d now like to introduce Bob Wertheim, Fort Sumner native son. A graduate of Fort Sumner High School, Bob studied finance at UNM, earning a BBA in 1956.

That was a really big deal in Fort Sumner – and elsewhere – in those days. Even today, just slightly more than 10 percent of the Fort Sumner residents 25 or over have a bachelor’s degree.

Billy the Kid used to be Fort Sumner’s most famous denizen, but now they all talk about Bobby the Kid. Bob joined Sigma Chi at UNM. Bob and his wife, Liz, also a UNM alum and a Kappa Kappa Gamma, still get together with a group of about 25 couple-friends they went to school with. Most of these couples were Sigma Chi’s and Kappas. According to Bob, the Kappas knew what was going to happen at the Sigma Chi meetings before the Sigma Chi’s did!

After he graduated, Bob joined the Navy.

There’s a lake about 15 miles outside Fort Sumner, but either Bob figured the ocean would provide views as far as Fort Sumner to Lubbock or the desert rat wanted to see sand someplace besides overhead.

Fast forwarding, Bob and a partner acquired Southwest Mortgage Company in 1976. At the time, the company had seven employees. Today, it has grown to become Charter Bank-Mortgage-Insurance, employing more than 250 people. Through the years, Bob has continued his professional education, studying at Northwestern and Harvard Universities, and earning his Certified Mortgage Banker (CMB)designation.

Of course, you can take the boy out of Fort Sumner, but you can’t take Fort Sumner out of the boy. Bob is still active in the cattle business in the Fort Sumner and Santa Rosa areas.

Looking back on it all, Bob must feel that UNM played a big role in his life. It certainly has played a big role since he graduated. Bob serves on the Anderson Schools National Advisory Board and once chaired the Advisory Council. He has also served on the Anderson Schools of Management Foundation. He was elected to the Anderson Schools Hall of Honor.

He was vice chairman of UNM’s centennial campaign and was active on the UNM Foundation board.

UNM isn’t the only place Bob has helped out. He’s very involved in the Albuquerque Economic Forum, has chaired Albuquerque Economic Development, Inc., is active in Acción New Mexico (a nonprofit organization that makes loans to small businesses) and chaired the Samaritan Counseling Center’s Capital Campaign, among many other professional and community activities.

So, Bob, we’re glad you left your hometown.

And we’re glad to give you our 2003 Zia Award. You’re not just one in 1200 (the current population of Fort Sumner) but one in a million. Thanks for it all.

2004 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS George Brooks ’71 BUS, ’80 MSPE Veronica Garcia ’73 BA, ’78 MA, ’03 PhD Thomas Kelley ’66 BS, ’68 MA, ’73 PhD, ’84 MA Karen Pharris ’68 BA Jacki Pieracci Riggs ’84 MA, ’92 PhD Duffy Swan ’68 BA

2004 Zia Award George Brooks

I

read that when George Brooks first came to UNM from Taos in1967, he intended to become a lawyer. Thank goodness he showed better sense! George, for those very few folks in the audience who haven’t paid attention to Lobo sports over the past 34 years, was the first coach—and remains the head coach—of the Lobo ski team.

George’s appointment as coach by athletic director Pete McDavid in 1970 came on the heels of George’s efforts as a student to change the ski club’s status to varsity sport. George gathered some 5,000 signatures to convince school officials of the worthiness of the cause.

The ski team became the southern-most ski team in the country. Thirty-four years later it became the NCAA champion ski team, bringing home the first championship of any sport, ever, to UNM. Through the years, George’s teams have placed in the top-10 at the NCAA championship tournament 20 times. The UNM ski team finished second overall in the NCAA’s in 1992.Under George, the Lobos have won nine individual NCAA championships and 13 team-event NCAA championships.

George has coached 113 All Americans and more than 100 Academic All-Americans. This year the ski team extended its streak to 16 years of holding the highest team GPA at UNM. George has been inducted into the Ski New Mexico Hall of Fame, and honored as the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association Coach of the Year and the Mountain West Coach of the Year. The UNM Alumni Lettermen’s Association this year named George its first Hall of Honor Coach

of the Year.

George has been a member of the US Olympic Committee Collegiate Sports Committee and has been selected nine times to coach the US Ski Team at the World University Games.

He has chaired the United States Ski Association Collegiate Ski Committee and has served as a US delegate to the Federation of International Skiing.

Closer to home, George serves on the UNM Alumni Lettermen’s Association board and has been an active Letterman for years.

But all these impressive statistics and accomplishments don’t give you the picture of the George we at the Alumni Association know best. Year after year, we’ve watch George dutifully, cheerfully and efficiently dole out hot dogs and Pepsis, on behalf of the Alumni Association, to UNM students at Welcome Back Days. Not just a hot-dog skier but a hotdog server!

Most of all, George has been part of the fiber of UNM for nearly four decades. George’s serving hot dogs is illustrative of his willingness to pitch in, his reliable support of alumni efforts, his dedication to his alma mater.

We thank you, George, for all you have done and all you do on behalf of UNM, its students and its legacy. Please accept our 2004 Zia Award.

2004 Zia Award Veronica Garcia

W

hen Veronica Garcia talks about New Mexico’s children “living their dreams,” she’s a living example. She credits her access to quality public education as her means of breaking the cycle of poverty at her Albuquerque home. The first to finish high school in her family, Veronica is New Mexico’s first Secretary of Education.

But she didn’t go straight from high school to the State Cabinet. Instead, she attended UNM, earning a BA in special education in 1973, an MA in special education in 1978 and an EdD in educational leadership just this past year. She began her career in education 30 years ago, first as a substitute at the New Futures alternative school. In the intervening years, she has served as classroom teacher, school psychologist, principal, regional superintendent for Albuquerque Public High Schools, superintendent of the Santa Fe Public Schools and executive director of the New Mexico Coalition of School Administrators.

She holds New Mexico certification in five areas: elementary education, special education (K-12), educational administration, school psychologist and speech/communications.

In 2003, Veronica was named Educator of the Year by the New Mexico Research and Study Council. She was nominated for National Superintendent of the Year in 2002 by the American Association of School Administrators, was named the 2002 Superintendent of the Year by the New Mexico School Superintendents Association, and was named a Top Ten Hispanic Woman in New Mexico by the New Mexico Legislature in 2000.

You can see that Veronica didn’t achieve her dreams without hard work. She earned her EdD as part of the College of Education’s Educational Leadership program offered nights and weekends.

Giving all children the means to achieve their dreams motivates Veronica day in and day out. “A quality system of public education is about social justice,” she says, “and giving all of our young people, regardless of where they live, the language they speak, or the color of their skin, an opportunity to become all they choose to be!”

Just as you, Veronica, are the chief advocate—and chief dreamer—for our public schools, we are your advocate. When you look at this Zia award, we hope you will remember that your alma mater is behind you all the way… Because you embody the dreams of this university—that it may give its graduates the means to go forth and make the world a better place.

Today we give you the 2004 Zia award – in honor of your big dreams.

2004 Zia Award Tom Kelley

W

e had it on good authority that we would know Tom Kelley by the pocket protector he’d be wearing. What we wouldn’t know so readily is the multi-talented, imaginative, intelligent, questioning and creative person inside the man wearing the pocket protector.

If you were to read Tom’s resume, you’d be clued in somewhat by its first sentence: “My parents tell me that I was born in Flint, Michigan…” Who among us has ever looked at our place of birth in quite that light?

The world needs people who see things in an out-of-the-ordinary way and make out-of-theordinary contributions in turn.

Tom moved from Flint to Denver to Los Alamos where he graduated from high school as valedictorian. After two years of college, he entered the seminary where he spent nearly three years. (An out-of-the-ordinary life experience.)

Rather than enter the clergy, Tom returned to New Mexico to complete his bachelor’s, master’s and then doctoral degrees in mathematics. Tom began his teaching career at Case Western Reserve University and then the University of Florida.

In 1976, Tom, his wife, Marlene – who was completing her master’s in biology at UNM when Tom met her – and their young son, George, moved back to Los Alamos where Tom began working for the Labs. Working in the radiochemistry group, Tom felt he needed more programming experience, so he pursued – and earned – a master’s degree in computer science at UNM-Los Alamos. PhD admits not knowing all. Extraordinary.

In 1984, Tom switched to the computer applications group at Los Alamos Labs where he worked until retiring early this year. Tom says he is proudest of his work on the ARIES project,

that shows the feasibility of safely “destroying’” nuclear weapons.

Tom provided software that would measure the amount of plutonium in the final product.

Tom and his team worked on a cooperative venture with the Russians to help them do the same, involving several trips to Moscow before the system was installed.

Extraordinary accomplishment.

Tom continues to teach as an adjunct professor at UNM-Los Alamos and at the Los Alamos Graduate Center. Now that he is retired, Tom says he devotes more time to his students. I hope that’s not an extraordinary thing for a professor to do, but it may be!

As if this isn’t enough, Tom has also enrolled fulltime in the Graduate Institute at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, where he is working on a master’s degree in Liberal Arts. Truly extraordinary.

I can’t stop before mentioning just a few more extraordinary points about Tom: He square dances and is a champion tennis-player. Did I mention that Tom makes a point of collecting and reading all the Pulitzer-prize winning books? That he has begun writing poetry?

Tom, you are an extraordinary example of a life-long learner, doer, thinker and contributor.

We are proud to give you our 2004 Zia Award for extraordinary achievement.

2004 Zia Award Karen Pharris

T

oo bad there aren’t more Karen Pharrises in the world. Think of all we could get done.

Think of the priorities we would choose. Think of the selflessness that would motivate us.

I say all this because Karen is a volunteer, one who “likes to give” but says she isn’t a good receiver.

One who started volunteering as the foundation was being laid at the Ronald McDonald House in 1981 and never quit. Karen’s good friend Alex Beach says there wouldn’t be a Ronald McDonald House in Albuquerque without Karen. She started there and never stopped. She chaired the operations committee that takes care of not only the roof, furnace and boilers, but also the policies for the House’s use. Eventually, Karen would chair the Ronald McDonald House Charities of New Mexico Board. “It makes a difference in people’s lives,” Karen says. “And you can see the results.”

One who served as president of the Albuquerque Junior League as it supported the Ronald McDonald House expansion, the Museum of Natural History opening and Explora’s evolution. Karen is still a sustaining member of the League. She enjoys the camaraderie, the choice of causes and, of course, the fact that it “makes a difference.”

One who had the not-so-common sense to organize Albuquerque High School’s AllNight Prom for her daughter’s class as a means to keeping all the attendees safe, sound and chaperoned. The school continued the tradition for at least 10 years.

One who took in a Japanese exchange student who in turn liked Karen’s family so much that she stayed an extra year. Miwa will be married in Tokyo in April, and Karen plans to attend the wedding.

One who started her own desktop publishing business for the newsletters of nonprofit organizations, donating many of her services and practically donating the rest.

One who thinks of being a room parent, serving on a parent advisory council, participating in the Parents’ Association, doing the soccer and tennis “thing,” serving on UNM Alumni Association committees and even chairing a ball as being “just the regular things” one does… By the way, the two kids who prompted some of these “regular things” are both married and living in Colorado. Karen makes frequent trips there to visit not just them but her two grandchildren as well.

We take exception to any of Karen’s actions as “just the regular things” one does. They are, in fact, quite remarkable.

Karen met her husband, Charlie, while she was attending Alamogordo High School – her family was in the military. She moved to Japan, where she graduated from high school, then to the Midwest, before returning to New Mexico and UNM, motivated by Charlie’s presence. She and Charlie were married while still in school; Karen graduated from UNM with a degree in history, Charlie, in law. Remarkably, these high school sweethearts are still together.

You, Karen, are remarkable. Your work as a volunteer – as one who would rather give than receive – has made our world a better place.

Giving you our Zia Award today, is our way of remarking upon your unique contributions.

2004 Zia Award Jacki Pieracci Riggs

S

urprise headline: Kids aren’t perfect. And some kids are less perfect than others.

Moving right along to higher ed.

Nobody knows that better than Jacki Pieracci Jacki wrote Riggs, who has studied, helped and advocated for her doctoral kids her entire career. Some near perfect, and the dissertation others pretty far from it. on gender Let’s start with the young ’uns. Jacki received differences in her BS from BYU in early childhood education, college students did research as a UNM fellow on culturally and with learning linguistically diverse exceptional children and disabilities. She currently serves on Lt. Gov. Diane Denish’s is a member steering committee on early childhood education. of the UNM Then there are kids with behavioral disorders.

College of Early in her career, Jacki taught severely Education Advancement Council. And she is disturbed 4- to 10-year-olds at the Children’s currently a member of the Governor’s Task Force Psychiatric Hospital, worked as a grad student on Higher Education. helping develop a new program at UNM in early Now that we’ve divided all these students up into childhood special ed and earned a master’s from separate groups, let’s put them back together and take UNM in special education.

Kids in correction got Jacki’s special attention. She a look at what Jacki has done for education in general.

Jacki served as a commissioner to the Education once directed the 2nd Judicial Court’s Alcohol Commission of the States for six years. Most Education Program for delinquents arrested recently, she was president and CEO of the New for alcohol related offenses. She was director Mexico Business Roundtable for Educational of Juvenile Facilities for the New Mexico Corrections Department before being appointed Excellence. Along with key community representatives, the Roundtable led the statewide Cabinet Secretary of the New Mexico Youth collaborative on school reform. In 2003, Governor Authority. She was the first woman in New Mexico to lead a correctional cabinet department Bill Richardson signed the School Reform Act creating greater school accountability and higher and one of only a handful in the nation at the teacher pay. time with those responsibilities. As Cabinet So you see, Jacki has all our learning and Secretary, Jacki worked to change the state educational imperfections covered, and has pointed us agency’s culture from a correctional focus to a in the right direction. Thank you, Jacki, for looking treatment-intervention focus. out for our kids and for us. We are pleased to Looking at those regular adolescents we all love.

Jacki served for a short time as admissions director honor you with our 2004 Zia Award. for Bosque Prep.

2004 Zia Award Duffy Swan

I

n a Mirage story a couple of years ago, Duffy Swan wondered at one day working for the phone company in Albuquerque and a few years later “standing in the Kremlin building a wireless telecommunication system with the government of a country that was once our arch enemy.” Life takes us to some wonderful places.

Duffy might also wonder at one day working part time while going to UNM to become a teacher and 30-some years later endowing three scholarships and serving as president of the UNM Foundation.

Duffy might wonder at one day retiring from USWEST as vice president for USWEST international and chief operating officer for USWEST’s joint venture in Malaysia (in 1997) and not even a year’s passing before beginning a mélange of careers: consultant for such businesses as Technology Ventures Corp, Western Assurance and Hosanna Ministries and director of development – twice! – at UNM. Let’s hope that Duffy wonders – because surely there’s no direct connection – at one day serving as UNM’s director of development and a month later president and COO of French Mortuary!

I suppose you know by this time that Duffy is a pretty wonderful – and unassuming – guy who, along with his wife, Jean Ann, has had some amazing adventures around the world and has made a major impact at home.

In addition to Duffy’s involvement with the UNM Foundation and Development Office, he • chaired the Golden Apple Foundation of New Mexico for five years

• served as a member of the Albuquerque Economic Forum since 1998, chairing its education forum three times • chaired the Hosanna Ministries Foundation Board since last year • co-founded Leadership Albuquerque and Leadership Farmington • chaired the Greater Albuquerque United Way Campaign • chaired the Albuquerque Business/ Education Compact • chaired the Governor’s Drug Awareness Program • served on the board of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce • served on the First Interstate Bank Board and the National Exchange Carrier Association • and was a member of the UNM Anderson Schools Foundation board.

It’s a wonder that Duffy has kept it all in perspective: running, biking, fishing, hiking, listening to music, traveling, reading and spending time with his family.

It’s no wonder that we’re awarding Duffy our 2004 Zia Award, for his accomplishments, his generosity and his loyalty to his alma mater and state.

2005 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Jim Belshaw Briggs Cheney Michelle Coons Michelle Lujan Grisham Lynda Morgan Lovejoy Waneta Tuttle

2005 Zia Award Jim Belshaw

I

n some sense Albuquerqueans have known Jim Belshaw for 23 years—the length of time we’ve had the pleasure of reading his column in the Albuquerque Journal.

Most mornings, Jim shares his insights and observations with us as though we were his friends, sitting around his kitchen table with a cup of coffee. In the course of this one-sided conversation, we’ve learned a lot, not just about human nature but also about Jim. We’ve learned about Jim’s grand sense of irony. Jim takes life just seriously enough, and then laughs—not at us, but with us. We’ve learned to take Jim seriously because he doesn’t take himself that way.

We’ve learned that not much gets past Jim. He has spent a lot of time wondering about what makes people tick. He recognizes what is real and what is ego, what is important and what is bluff.

We’ve learned to trust Jim—his perspective, his gentility, his compassion.

Jim graduated with a degree in journalism from UNM in 1973 – or 4. He worked for a while at the UNM Public Information Office – now called Public Affairs – and then for five years as reporter, copy editor, assistant city editor and feature editor at the Journal.

Born in Chicago, Jim came to New Mexico while in the Air Force. Jim is a Vietnam vet and an Air Force canine handler. He was in charge of about 30 dog-handler teams that patrolled the perimeter of the Thai base he was assigned to.

Jim still contributes to the VVA Veteran, a monthly publication of the Vietnam Veterans of America, and he has twice accompanied

VVA delegations to Vietnam, subsequently writing about a VVA project to locate solders missing in action.

Jim is co-author of a very important book, Closing the Chart – A Dying Physician Examines Family, Faith and Medicine, which is now part of the curricula of the medical and nursing schools of four major universities.

Jim’s work has been recognized by the Associated Press Managing Editors and the New Mexico Press Association. He has been honored by the ARC of New Mexico and Adelante Development Center, the Brain Injury Association of New Mexico and the New Mexico Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

While not on his resume, I should also mention – with reverence or irreverence perhaps – that Jim is a full-fledged member of the forever-standing Tuesday Night Poker Club, whose members all have a UNM connection.

It’s hard to find the words for a man of many wonderful words, but it’s not hard to say how much we appreciate his sharing them with us!

Thank you, Jim Belshaw. Please accept our Zia Award as a show of our appreciation.

2005 Zia Award Briggs Cheney

A

fter our Awards Committee decides upon our Zia recipients, we send a letter to each requesting an up-to-date resume.

Briggs Cheney honored our request with not just his resume but an insightful letter about his life. We’ve asked Briggs if we might share his thoughts with you, and we are so pleased he said yes.

Briggs writes: I am always reminded when I review my resume how sterile it seems. I am sure there was a point in my life when I thought it described me, but for whatever reason, it doesn’t seem to capture my life as I view it today. Maybe it is a good sign that I am outgrowing my vitae.

I have been blessed with a wonderful partner in life who I met at UNM and we have three wonderful children.... I have spent the first 33 years of my working life as a lawyer. Many refer to me as “the lawyer’s lawyer” and I imagine it describes well my professional career. If pressed, I would admit that I am proud of that description and I have been honored to have been recognized in five editions of Best Lawyers in America for being a lawyer’s lawyer.

Representing and helping lawyers has naturally led me to be involved in bar association work. I am most proud of having been recognized by the Albuquerque Bar Association as its Outstanding Lawyer and most recently to receive the State Bar’s Distinguished Service to the Bar award. … even before “mediation” had arrived in New Mexico as a tool for dispute resolution, I was asked by other lawyers to assist them and their clients in resolving and settling their lawsuits amicably without having to go to trial. I have found considerable joy in this process of helping

people find “middle ground” and being able to move on with their lives.

But what is not reflected on my resume is my greatest personal failure, a failure which has evolved into what is probably the most significant part of my professional and personal life - my struggle with alcoholism.

In 1986, I helped form the Lawyer’s Assistance Committee for the State Bar, which is dedicated to helping lawyers who suffer from the disease of addiction. I have shared my own struggle publicly around this state and around the country. It has been and will continue to be my greatest challenge.

But that struggle has brought a joy to my life, which I would have never discovered.

I understand sharing one’s greatest failure is an odd thing to include in this situation, but this struggle is probably the accomplishment of which I am most proud.

Briggs, we want to honor you today for your courage, your honesty and your triumph.

Your resume reveals a person whose career has contributed to the legal profession and community in ways that alone would qualify you for this award. But your candid letter reveals a person of thought, determination, anguish, action and humanity. We admire the steps you’ve taken on not just your own behalf but on that of many other searching souls.

We’re proud to give you our Zia Award today.

2005 Zia Award Michelle Coons

M

ichelle Coons is on a mission. She wants New Mexicans to know that being probusiness can also mean being pro-community.

Michelle’s career and commitments back up her position.

Michelle graduated from UNM in 1983 with a bachelor’s of business administration. She went immediately into a training program at Wells Fargo Bank in Albuquerque, moving up in a variety of positions to become vice presidentcommercial lending in 1988. She served in that capacity for five years then was promoted to senior vice president and business banking manager III in 1993. Four years later, she was named president of Wells Fargo-Santa Fe. Along the way, Michelle attended the New Mexico School of Banking at UNM’s Anderson Schools of Management.

Michelle has headed the Santa Fe bank for six years now, managing its growth from $25 million to $400 million. She oversaw the merger of three other banks with Wells Fargo during that time, consolidating 197 employees at 10 different locations.

Michelle’s community involvement began in 1991 with her service on the UNM Alumni Association Board of Directors. She stayed with us for six years, including one as president.

We must have trained her well! She has served on and chaired multiple boards since then, including the Albuquerque Children’s Museum and Explora! Science Center; the United Way of Santa Fe County; the Santa Fe Children’s Museum;

New Mexico First; and the Anderson Schools of Management Foundation.

She still serves on the boards of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, St. Vincent’s Hospital Foundation, Anderson Schools of Management and the Santa Fe Railyard Community Corporation.

Michelle just completed a term as president of New Mexico’s Association of Commerce and Industry.

Along with her many honors such as induction into the Anderson Schools Hall of Fame and designation as a YWCA Woman on the Move, Michelle should probably receive an award for stretching time! She balances time spent on her career and community with time for her husband, William, and her one-and-ahalf-year-old son, William Patrick.

We’re happy to give Michelle our Zia Award for finding time to do what’s important – for being a committed leader in her business and in her community and for her desire to make the world a better place for her family.

Thank you, Michelle.

2005 Zia Award Michelle Lujan Grisham

I

like the objective Michelle Lujan Grisham lists in her resume: “To lead and develop a comprehensive system of health and social services that allow all New Mexicans to live up to their own potential.” I like it because it doesn’t stop at developing a system of services.

It goes on to address the human potential of our state.

When it comes to potential, Michelle is an admirable example of someone realizing hers.

Michelle graduated from UNM in 1981 with a BUS in energy engineering and public administration. Two years later she enrolled in UNM Law, receiving her JD in 1987.

It became immediately apparent that Michelle would follow the human side of the law, beginning work as a staff attorney for the state Bar Association’s Lawyer Referral for the Elderly. Within months, she became director.

Three years later, Michelle was named director of the New Mexico State Agency on Aging, responsible for administering a full range of services for New Mexico’s senior citizens – from healthcare to employment.

When Governor Richardson elevated the agency to the cabinet level in 2004, Michelle’s position changed to Secretary, Aging and Long-Term Services Department. In addition to her former tasks, Michelle also had to oversee the transfer of programs from HSD, Health and CYFD to create an entirely new department.

Six months later, Governor Richardson appointed Michelle Secretary of the State Department of Health, where she develops policy related to mental health and substance abuse; hospitals and longterm care facilities;

developmentally disabled, brain trauma and early childhood intervention; public health; and emergency preparedness related to biohazards and bioterrorism.

Hubert Humphrey reflected that the moral test of a government is the way it treats its young, its elderly and its needy. Under Michelle’s guidance, New Mexico should pass the test.

Never has Michelle lost sight of the people she serves. Her common-sense approach knocks down bureaucratic barriers. Nothing good seems impossible to her. She epitomizes the words of another Democrat, Bobby Kennedy, who said: “Some see things and say why—I see things and say why not.”

There’s no question as to why Michelle is deserving of our Zia Award. For her admirable combination of leadership, vision and caring – and a grand dose of humor – we are pleased to give Michelle Lujan Grisham our Zia Award today.

2005 Zia Award Lynda Lovejoy

A

lthough she began her career at UNMGallup studying education, Lynda Lovejoy never became a teacher. She did, however, enter into some pretty rigorous fields of learning: the New Mexico State Legislature and the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. In both arenas she has unraveled and created laws and regulations for the betterment of New Mexicans.

The granddaughter of a Navajo chapter president, Lynda herself served as secretary of the chapter before enrolling at Gallup.

After finishing her associate’s degree there, she left for Northern Arizona University and a degree in public administration. Returning to Crownpoint, she worked as program manager for the Navajo Tribe’s Department of Youth Services.

The story goes that her Crownpoint neighbors urged her to run for the state legislature. She asked how much the job paid, and promptly decided against the idea.

Pondering the difference she could make in people’s lives as a legislator, Lynda changed her mind, and ultimately became the first Native American woman to serve in the state legislature. As a legislator from 1989 through 1998, Lynda always remembered the needs of rural New Mexicans and those without access to power.

In 1999, Lynda was elected to the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, where she is now serving a second term as the first and only Native American on a statewide regulatory body. The PRC regulates public utilities, telecommunications companies and insurance companies. Elected chair three

times, Lynda has shepherded regulations requiring electricity companies to develop renewable energy. She worked on regulations allowing Qwest to provide long-distance service. She initiated an investigation into State gross receipts taxes on Tribal lands. She re-crafted a regulatory plan for phone carriers to address both rural and urban needs. And she played a key role in analyzing and repealing electricity deregulation along the lines of the unsuccessful California plan.

Highly compassionate and deeply principled, Lynda reaches out to others, providing hope and inspiration. Her own example is proof of the possible – starting as a child who spoke only Navajo and herded sheep going on to state leadership and recognition as a top power-broker by New Mexico Business Weekly and a New Mexico Woman of the Year by the Governor.

For her commitment and caring, her integrity and acumen, we are delighted to give Lynda Lovejoy our Zia Award.

2005 Zia Award Waneta Tuttle

Y

ou never wanted to be in the same class as Neta,” says Karen Abraham, who shared a few undergraduate classes with Waneta Tuttle.

“Neta would skew the curve.”

On the other hand, you never want to be without Waneta Tuttle, because she has the vision and the ability to realize the vision that the rest of us may lack.

Waneta earned her BS from UNM in 1967; her master’s in biology in 1970; her doctorate in biology in 1973. For 23 years she held positions of increasing responsibility at Lovelace Medical Foundation, the last being vice president and chief operating officer of the biomedical research organization. While there, she established the National Clinic Research Consortium, bringing together medical research groups from around the country, and she formed a clinical trials and technology development subsidiary.

As her entrepreneurial interests began to gain traction, Waneta returned to UNM to earn an MBA in 1985.

Recognizing the pull of the market for medical technology innovation, Waneta soon left Lovelace to found Southwest Medical Ventures. This company’s mission is to find capital for startups in the life sciences and health services. And this it has done, launching four highly successful startups.

The first, Indigo Medical, produces a laserbased device for treating prostate abnormalities. It was purchased by Johnson and Johnson in 1996.

The second, Patient Technologies Inc., developed a means of non-invasive patient diagnosis. The third, PhDx Systems, provides outcome data to medical products companies

via proprietary web software.

In 2002, Waneta founded her most recent venture: Exagen, which has developed genetic tests for treating breast cancer and hepatitis C. Waneta has served as startup CEO of each of these companies, and remains CEO of Exagen today. She believes that CEOs are their best at differing stages of company development, and that her forte is in the startup phases.

It’s the vision thing.

Fortunately, Waneta’s vision is focused on New Mexico. A native New Mexican, Waneta not only attended UNM but married a UNM grad and brought up two children here. The more than $10 million she has raised in startup funds were invested in her home state.

For many years, Waneta served on the board of directors of the UNM Science and Technology Corporation and on the boards of New Mexico Technet, the Rio Grande Technology Foundation and the National Center for Genome Resources.

You may not have wanted to be in a class with Neta, but we’re certainly lucky to be in the same state and to benefit from Neta’s insight, intelligence and innovation.

We’re honored to give Waneta Tuttle our Zia Award today.

2006 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Jane Shuler Gray Dick Knipfing Janice Lucero Tommy Roberts Marty Wilson Judith Nakamura

2006 Zia Award Jane Shuler Gray

W

e often associate justice with the scales of balance, weighing both sides of an issue. You know the image of blind justice, holding the scales of balance in her hand. And of course there’s no question that a good judge does balance the pros and cons of both sides.

To do that, the judge has to be centered – to have a solid understanding of herself and of people in general. The people of New Mexico’s Fifth Judicial District – those living in Chavez, Eddy and Lea counties – are lucky to have gained a judge recently who meets those criteria: Jane Shuler Gray.

Home centers many of us. When Jane came home to Carlsbad, where she had grown up, after training at both UNM and Pepperdine School of Law, she returned to her home town. It takes a certain confidence in oneself and appreciation of others – to come home to and remain in a small community – especially when you become that community’s first woman attorney and later its first woman district judge.

Jane’s pride in and respect for her family history centers her as well. Her parents established a medical clinic, the Shuler Womack Clinic, in Carlsbad as World War II began. Jane partook of that experience herself when she returned to UNM to earn a BUS in nursing in 1998 and to work for a while as a critical care nurse. Today Jane credits her mother – who raised her children singlehandedly after their dad died early on – as a role model of strong women.

Concern for others besides oneself shows a sense of centeredness. After all, you can’t reach out if you’re afraid of falling down.

Jane reaches out not just professionally but through community service in the areas that have moved her in her practice in family law and as a juvenile court judge. She was a founding member of the Carlsbad Battered Families Shelter and has been a board member of the Carlsbad Mental Health Center, the AWARE program helping teen mothers complete high school and care for their children, and the Carlsbad Safehouse for child victims of sexual abuse.

Through CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) Jane also trains volunteers to work in the courts on behalf of abused and neglected children.

The judicial system, New Mexico, Carlsbad, UNM and we are fortunate to have Jane Shuler Gray front and center today. Judge Gray, thank you for offering your balanced outlook to our communities.

2006 Zia Award Dick Knipfing

D

ick Knipfing needs no introduction in New Mexico. He’s kept us in touch with local news for 43 years. Many of us have followed him through tenures at each of the local networks. I doubt that any other face or voice in our state can command such loyalty.

Had Dick not been attending UNM 43 years ago, he might not be the familiar presence on TV that he is today. Actually, had Dick been able to follow his dreams of that time, he would have been a fighter pilot.

Instead, he found himself studying English, without any clear career direction. One day he noticed a job posting tacked onto a bulletin board at the Student Placement Center: Wanted: reporter-photographer at KGGM-TV. No experience necessary.”

Dick applied, and went on to work as reporter, anchor and news director at all three major Albuquerque TV stations. He is now back where he began – except the station is called KRQE instead of KGGM, and he is now senior anchor. Experience necessary.

After Dick’s career began to take off in the late 1960s, he decided it was time to finish his degree. He had a wife, Charlene, and two kids at the time, but he was determined. Not having to worry about finding a career, he was able to pursue a subject he loved: history. He received his degree in 1976.

Throughout his broadcasting career, Dick has received numerous awards for writing and reporting. In 1996, Dick was inducted into the prestigious Silver Circle Society of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which presents the Emmy awards.

Dick tells a wonderful story about his long career in New Mexico. I’ll tell you the story using Dick’s words: “Some friends and I were eating hot dogs in Costo when a man came up and introduced himself. He was from Pecos.

He said that he had been in the kitchen of his home a few nights earlier and his TV was on in another room. The news came on and he heard my voice. When he heard it the thought came to his mind that ‘Dick Knipfing is like the smell of piñon burning in fireplaces in the winter, or like the taste of chile... he’s part of New Mexico.’ What better could I hope for?”

We can’t hope for anyone better than Dick Knipfing to receive our Zia award today. He’s a proud example of a UNM alum serving our community and loyal to our state.

2006 Zia Award JANICE LUCERO

T

ake one part violinist in the Albuquerque Youth Symphony. Stir in 15 years of teaching gifted middle schoolers in Albuquerque, blended with 2 years’ directing special ed in Dulce, New Mexico. Toss with 18 years of part-time basket sales. And finish off with a family of five. Simmer for a few years of state contract work in DWI awareness, mandated for new residents wanting a New Mexico driver’s license.

What kind of concoction is this? Only a master-entrepreneur could create a flavorful dish out of it, as Janice Lucero did. She seasoned it with a pilot program of providing drivers licenses onsite, and…

MVD Express emerged – a statewide company that has assisted more than 1 million New Mexicans in acquiring drivers licenses or other similar needs – quickly and courteously.

There are three other basic ingredients in this recipe: a willingness to take risks, a passion for the job and an appreciation of good employees.

For each of the past six years, New Mexico Woman magazine has named Janice’s company one of the state’s top-25 Woman Owned Businesses.

Janice credits her experiences with the Albuquerque Youth Symphony, the many years of teaching and all of the work she did at UNM for being able to transition from education to business.

Playing in the symphony was of special importance: “It had such a positive impact on my life,” Janice has said. “It not only helped me cultivate a lifelong love and appreciation of music, but also was a key factor in developing important

skills—goal setting, work ethic, teamwork—that I need every day to run a business.

Today her daughter Katie – one of Janice’s three kids – is following Janice’s musical tradition.

Janice served on the AYSO board for seven years and is now focusing her energy on the organization’s capital campaign for a permanent building. She and her husband, Art, are contributing $50,000 to the fund.

Musician or business-woman, entrepreneur or philanthropist, Janice is a stellar example of a New Mexican and a Lobo who does her state and her university proud. The UNM Alumni Association is proud to give Janice our Zia Award today.

2006 Zia Award Tommy Roberts

W

e should have seen it coming…

• When Tommy Roberts had the most assists of any Lobo on the 1972 and 1973 basketball team…

• When Tommy Roberts led the team in free throws in 1972…

• When Tommy Roberts played more minutes than any other player in 1972…

• When Tommy Roberts was Academic All American in 1971, 1972 and 1973…

• And perhaps most of all when Tommy Roberts received one of only 15 post-graduate NCAA scholarships in 1973—the only Lobo to do so in the school’s history.

From his field goals we should have predicted his accuracy in business and law.

Tommy has been an oil and gas attorney in Farmington since graduating from law school in 1976.

From his assists and from the number of minutes he played, we should have predicted that Tommy would generously give his time and energy to his community. Tommy has served on the Farmington Board of Education and the City Council – as mayor pro tem the past four years. He has been a stalwart of the Connie Mack World Series – the national baseball tourhament for 17- and 18-yearold boys held annually in Farmington for 42 years. (By the way, Tommy also lettered in baseball.) He has served on the boards of the Farmington Boys and Girls Club and the New Mexico Boys and Girls Ranches.

From his academic honors, we should have predicted Tommy would succeed in a demanding career. Tommy is a boardcertified specialist in oil and gas law, and he

has served as president of the board of the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico. And we should have predicted he would be a big supporter of education – helping form the Foundation for Educational Excellence in Farmington and recently serving on the curriculum committee of Leadership New Mexico.

If we had known about the Alumni Association Zia Award when Tommy graduated from UNM, we could have predicted that he would one day be its recipient.

And had Tommy known us as his fans through the years, he could have predicted how pleased we are to give him this Zia Award today.

2006 Zia Award Marty Wilson

M

arty Wilson doesn’t take things for granted. And her sense of appreciation for what life has given her – and maybe for life itself—may come from her determined fight against breast cancer. But it probably predates that challenge. It’s part of her character, and part of the reason for her personal and professional success.

Marty began her professional career at Albuquerque’s Hoover Middle School, where she taught for 16 years after receiving her BA from UNM. During that time she also earned her MA in curriculum and instruction. She was chosen “Outstanding Teacher” twice. She taught three more years at La Cueva High School before APS and UNM sought her services in supervising and evaluating student teachers. More than 70 of these benefited from her skills.

In 1993 Marty made the move to administration, becoming the APS coordinator of Curriculum Outreach. The job called upon not only her skills and knowledge but upon her character as well.

Marty developed and revised the K-12 curriculum in language arts, math, science, PE, health and music; coordinated K-12 music instruction; directed the district’s NCAA compliance; and dared to deal regularly with APS assistant principals.

She also coordinated the district’s Character Education program, in conjunction with the Character Counts! Program. She became a certified trainer for Character Counts!, conducting workshops across the country. The powers-that-be obviously recognized character when they saw it.

In 1999, Marty left APS to lead the Golden Apple Foundation of New Mexico.

Knowing our public schools’ strengths and needs, Marty developed a teacher awards program, summer institute and academy.

Grateful for her time there, Marty was also grateful for her retirement. She says she should now list her occupation as “chief dispenser of warm chocolate,” “caretaker and friend to residents of La Vida Llena retirement community,” and “grandma extraordinaire” since those are her daily – but not her only – pursuits.

Again out of gratitude for her own options, Marty has begun volunteering for the Komen Breast Cander Foundation and the YWCA. “I know how lucky I have been to be able to afford the best treatment options,” she says, “and have tried to give back for women who need assistance.”

Marty also serves as president of the Golden Apple Foundation board of directors.

As president of the UNM Alumni Association board in 1994, Marty presented our first set of Zia Awards. We are pleased to have her on the receiving end this morning. It is an award well-deserved.

2006 Zia Award Judith Nakamura

C

hief Metro Court Judge Judith Nakamura has received many accolades. One we’re particularly in tune with this morning concerns her ability to juggle a heavy caseload with extra duties. Today that skill has come in handy. While you were still yawning this morning, Judith was looking down at us all from her hot air balloon, “Bounce.” Since then she has somehow managed to land, fight freeway traffic and be with us now.

As appreciated as her time management skills are – and as important as they are to an efficient system of justice – Judith has also been praised recently for more compelling matters. Mothers Against Drunk Driving awarded her their 2006 National President’s Award for Judge of the Year.

As chief judge of Albuquerque’s Metro Court since 2002, Judith has taken numerous steps to deter DWI, including raising jail bonds, promoting supervised probation for first-time offenders and mandating ignition interlocks.

Judith was elected to Metro Court in 1998. She fills her days judging criminal misdemeanors, of which DWI is one and domestic violence and first-time felons are others. With her election and re-election to chief judge have come administrative duties, such as directing court business, supervising court finances, assigning cases and serving as the Court’s liaison to state government.

Ever happy to take credit for the success of our alumni, we like to think that some of Judith’s skills and civic passion stem from her days as an active college student. A UNM Presidential Scholar, Judith served as

news and managing editor of the Daily Lobo, an ASUNM senator and a Trailblazer before graduating with a BA in political science and journalism in 1983. In law school, she served as representative to the Graduate Student Association and president of the Student Bar Association before receiving her JD – and the Dean’s Award – in 1989.

Interspersed with her studies, Judith became active in Republican politics, working on campaigns and in Senator Domenici’s office. After work in the State Land Office, the Vigil law firm and seven years with Miller, Stratver & Torgersohn, Judith took the plunge into the Metro Court arena.

Two years ago Judith was honored by the American Bar Association with its Outstanding Judge Award. Today we want to add our appreciation of Judith’s accomplishments with our Zia Award.

2007 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Monica Armenta Steve Bacchus (posthumous) Sandra Begay-Campbell Brian Burnett Leonard DeLayo Chuck Wellborn

2007 Zia Award Monica Armenta

W

e’d become so accustomed to hearing and seeing Monica Armenta anchor KOB-TV’s morning newscast and co-anchor its noon public affairs talk show, Eye on New Mexico, that her renewed public presence as spokesperson of Albuquerque Public Schools seems natural.

It’s certainly a natural for Monica, who considers public education to be among the most important topics in America.

Monica began her career at KOB-TV as a news intern studying journalism at UNM in 1982. After completing her BA in 1984, she was hired as a reporter and fill-in anchor at the NBC affiliate. Within two years, she became co-anchor of what would become the state’s highest rated morning news show.

Over the next 20-plus years at KOB, Monica won the New Mexico Associated Press Broadcasting Award for the Best Spot News, was selected by the Albuquerque Tribune as the rising star of local media and by the YWCA as a Woman on the Move. She received a coveted Rocky Mountain Regional Emmy Award. And New Mexico Business Weekly named her one of 40 rising stars under the age of 40 in Albuquerque.

She also loved teaching journalism at West Mesa High School.

Monica made the move from KOB to APS in 2005 when she was appointed executive director of the APS Foundation.

This past summer her talents were commissioned by the APS Leadership Team looking for a communications director to oversee the district’s internal and external communications.

Monica takes her mission seriously, saying, “Our job is to ensure that the media, public, staff and students get the most accurate and detailed account of all events that impact student achievement in this district.” She also wants to make sure that Albuquerque is informed of the many reasons to celebrate our students and teachers.

Because of her accomplishments and goals, Albuquerque the Magazine named Monica one of the “Most Likely to Change Albuquerque in 2007.”

Monica and her husband, Edward Vigil, who are the parents of two sons, believe that family comes first. Her work in the public schools puts all of our families first, for which we are grateful.

Thank you, Monica, for keeping all of us informed and for putting issues of importance to our lives and community foremost in the media and in our minds. You are a stellar example of New Mexico public education.

We’re proud to present you our 2007 Zia Award.

2007 Zia Award Steve Bacchus

T

oday we’re remembering Steve Bacchus with the Zia Award that we presented to him in his last days. And we’re remembering him with a smile.

Steve was someone we could count on. We could count on him to be funny and irreverent.

And we could count on him to be insightful and reverent.

Steve’s combination of reverence and irreverence was unique. It not only touched us all personally; it affected the course of the Alumni Association, on whose board Steve served as member and president. And consequently, it affected the course of our university.

Talking with Steve engendered both laughter and respect. People listened when he spoke. Given that backdrop, our two Steves – Bacchus and Ciepiela – were able to give new life to the idea of turning Hodgin Hall into the UNM Alumni Center. The Regents listened and responded favorably, and today alumni have their own place when they return to campus.

The one thing Steve and Jane were not able to do – although they gave it the old college try – was teach us to sing the UNM alma mater. Under Steve’s presidency, Jane and her talented friends made the attempt at an Association awards dinner. But while he was good, even Steve couldn’t pull off miracles.

Steve was a basketball letterman, who understood not only the importance of sitting on the bench, but also the camaraderie and spirit that athletics and team sports bring about. Steve coached his

young sons’ teams, keeping the perspective that we wish all youth coaches could maintain: sports are for enjoyment.

There was never a question of how Steve maintained his positive outlook. The pillars of his life were his family and his church, Sandia Presbyterian. We credit Jane (Steve’s wife of 37 years); Brett and Claudia, Scott and Erin, (Steve’s sons and daughters-in-law); his mom and late dad; his brothers and sisters-in-law, many of whom are here today.

So, as we remember Steve with a smile, we also remember him with a sense of gratitude for an example to follow of a life well lived. We thank you, Jane, for sharing him with us. We’d like to present this Zia Award to you and your family today.

2007 Zia Award Sandra Begay-Campbell

I

f Sandra Begay-Campbell had chosen international relations as her major at UNM, today she would be a diplomat, interpreting one country’s character to another in a way that brings mutual understanding.

Instead, Sandra earned a BS in civil engineering at UNM and an MS in structural engineering at Stanford, and is a principal member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories. In her own way, however, she is a diplomat, crossing cultures instead of countries.

Throughout school, Sandra enjoyed math and problem-solving. But myth said girls weren’t supposed to excel at math. Myth, meet Sandra, who is profiled in an enlightening new book: Changing Our World: True Stories of Women Engineers.

As a student at UNM, Sandra became involved with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. Years later she would direct that organization in its efforts to recruit Native Americans into those fields. Science and engineering, meet Sandra.

City dwellers assume that the benefits of bringing electricity to members of the Navajo nation living in rural Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado would be worth any cost— even $27,000 per mile. Huh-uh. Sandra helped the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority place solar units on individual homes to generate electricity for $75 a month. Urbanites, meet Sandra.

In 2001, Sandra was appointed Regent of the University of New Mexico. Her service culminated in a Tribal Summit, bringing together leaders of the university and of all the New Mexico’s Indian tribes for a singular and productive discussion. Higher education, meet Sandra.

In an interview at Montana State University, Sandra is quoted as saying, “Success is to understand what it is like to be a minority and understand what it means to be unique. The reality is that Native Americans will never be in the majority of the US. The numbers are not going to change. Take that as a fact and understand what it is to be you, to be unique in society.”

Whereas some of Sandra’s uniqueness may come from being a Native American woman in a field dominated by white males, most of it comes from her remarkable insight into many cultures and her ability to make all of us question our assumptions.

For Sandra’s exceptional experience, knowledge and guidance, she has been recognized with many awards, including the UNM School of Engineering Distinguished Alumnus Award and the Stanford University 2000 Multicultural Alumni of the Year Award.

She was also selected as a recipient of the Governor’s Award for Outstanding Women from the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women.

We are pleased to be able to add the UNM Alumni Association to Sandra’s list of admirers, with our Zia Award today. Sandra, we congratulate you for your accomplishments and thank you for generously sharing your insight with us all.

2007 Zia Award Brian Burnett

I

n 2003, the Albuquerque Tribune headlined a story about Brian Burnett and several other community leaders “The Powers that See.” There couldn’t be a more telling title.

To begin with, Brian sees people, really sees them. Not just a nod in your direction, but a dedicated look, a how-are-thingswith-you, and an interest in your response.

Whether you’re the receptionist of the Alumni Relations Office or the president of the University, Brian focuses on you.

Second, Brian sees the situation, he sees the need, he sees what works and he sees how to make it work. (Maybe that sums up an engineer’s outlook.) Brian was president of the UNM Alumni Association in 1988, a pivotal time in the association’s history. He was able to reaffirm with the university the importance of the association and of its independent leadership. (It helped that Brian’s mentor in the School of Engineering, Gerald May, was president of the university at the time.) Brian had received his BS in civil engineering from UNM in 1978 and his MSCE, focusing on hydrology and water resources, in 1980.

Brian was the first association president that our executive director, Karen Abraham, worked with. He used an engineering model to help create a strategic plan, one that went into minute detail, Karen says. He clipped UNM news stories weekly and sent them to board members. He and Karen met weekly at 7 a.m. to go over Association business. In fact, Brian was so conscientious and fastidious that Karen jokes that she almost had second thoughts about her new job! And it really is a

joke because even now she looks at Brian as an ideal Association leader.

Brian is president of Bohannon Huston, a nationally recognized engineering firm with offices in Albuquerque, Dallas, Las Cruces and Denver. So when Brian makes public his vision of water use and availability in New Mexico, both the business community and the Governor listen. Brian helped found the Business Water Task Force, bringing economic and job creation values to the table, and currently chairs Governor Richardson’s Blue Ribbon Water Task Force.

Brian made his water expertise available to the university not just once but twice in chairing its DH Lawrence Ranch task force in 1985 and again in 1998.

Brian has also championed the need for wide public-private cooperation to make infill easier and economically viable in Albuquerque and New Mexico.

Brian, we see your dedication to the university time and time again. And not only now, but every time you respond to a request from the university, we see how deserving you are of our Zia Award. We are thrilled to see you receive it today.

2007 Zia Award Leonard DeLayo

T

hings get nice as I’m leaving. That’s the story of my life,” Leonard DeLayo joked at the opening of the new Albuquerque Public Schools board meeting room last February.

For someone who had spent the past 25 years sitting in APS board meetings, Leonard was well acquainted with the “before” version of the new digs.

As for the “things get nice part,” if you look at it from our perspective, things were nice because you were there, Leonard! Imagine having the vision, the patience and the desire to contribute to our public schools without fail all those years. That, at the same time as running a private law practice. (Leonard received both his BA and his JD from UNM.) To a certain degree, Leonard came by his interest naturally. State Superintendent of Public Instruction for many years, Leonard’s father received the Association’s Rodey Award in 1987.

For five board terms, Leonard served as president of the APS board. He also participated in four superintendent searches.

As you know, the district is going through a new search now. It needs “a visionary, a leader and a motivator as it enters the second decade of the 21st century,” writes the Albuquerque Tribune… Are you interested, Leonard?

Current Board President Paula Maes sums up Leonard’s contributions in this way: “He had such an understanding of the Albuquerque Public Schools. There was not an issue that I could have needed guidance or advice on that he wouldn’t know the history behind. He would gently guide me in the right decision. He truly cared about the

children, their families and employees of APS. Even in the most difficult times his sense of humor would bring everything back into focus.

Leonard received a much deserved honor about two years ago when the board’s committee room was named after him. We hope his wise presence will remain with his name.

Leonard, you epitomize the sort of community leadership that UNM stands for, and all of us in this community are the better for it. We are pleased to give you our Zia award today.

2007 Zia Award Chuck Wellborn

T

here are movers and there are shakers, then there are those who simply, quietly act.

Chuck Wellborn belongs to this group, steadily helping shape our community—developing jobs, entrepreneurship and cultural opportunities.

Trained in economics, then law at UNM and NYU, Chuck began a 30-year career at Modrall Sperling in 1966, first representing individuals in general law, then gravitating toward businesses.

A shareholder in New Mexico’s largest law firm, he soon began promoting technology-based start-ups and economic development, serving on the State’s Venture Capital Investment Advisory Committee. During this span of his career, Chuck served as president of the Albuquerque Bar Association, the State Bar of New Mexico and the New Mexico State Bar Foundation.

In 1995, Chuck ventured forth to became the president and CEO of Science & Technology Corporation at UNM – a sort of start-up venture itself, the first of its kind at UNM and in the state. Later renamed STC@UNM, its mission was to evaluate technology developed

by UNM researchers and to commercialize it.

Chuck excelled at teaching techies to write a better business plan, backing the idea of a small business incubator that would share expertise among several start-ups.

Five years later, Chuck left STC@UNM to form his own consulting business, Wellborn Strategies, which enabled him to broaden his stroke upon the state. He has worked primarily with the McCune Charitable Foundation, creating economic development projects in rural and low-income areas of New Mexico. He has helped create New Mexico Community Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in companies with the potential of benefiting the community,

even though investment in them may produce small financial returns.

Chuck has worked with the Historic District Improvement Company, controlled

by McCune, which has developed the Century Theatre Block, Gold Avenue Lofts and the Crossroads Building, all key to downtown Albuquerque’s revitalization.

In 2003, Chuck was appointed to the board of the New Mexico Small Business Investment Company, a state-created corporation that helps fund new and small businesses. As chair, he oversaw the growth of investments from $100,000 to over $30 million, in such organizations such as ACCIÓN, New Mexico Community Development Fund and WESST Corp., which make micro-loans to low-income entrepreneurs, non-profits, minority businesses and cultural development projects.

As a volunteer at UNM, Chuck has served as vice chair of the UNM Foundation, on the board of the Anderson School Foundation and on many search and other committees, and he remains on the board of STC@UNM. Chuck, today we want to honor you for your dedication, your generosity and your enabling vision for our community. We are proud to extend to you our 2007 Zia Award.

2008 Zia Award Recipients Jimmy Santiago Baca Teresa Balcomb and James Tryon Joe Garcia Patrick Gurley Terry Huertaz Carol Radosevich

2008 Zia Award Jimmy Santiago Baca

S

ome people travel a long way in their lives – those who travel from darkness into light probably the longest way of all. Jimmy Santiago Baca traveled from destruction to creation, from silence to expression, from imprisonment to freedom.

Jimmy speaks eloquently of finding language and its power while in a maximum security prison, where he learned to read and to write at age 20. He sent three of his poems to the poetry editor of Mother Jones, which published them in 1979, the year he was released from prison, and the year he earned his GED. He completed his bachelor’s degree in English at UNM in 1984; in 2003, the University bestowed upon him an honorary PhD in literature. An amazing journey.

Since his first poems, Jimmy has had published more than a dozen books of poetry along with other works of prose. He has received the Pushcart Prize, the American Book Award, the International Hispanic Heritage Award and the International Prize for his memoir, A Place to Stand. In 2006 he won the Cornelius P. Turner Award, which recognizes one GED graduate each year who has made outstanding contributions to society in education, justice, health, public service and social welfare.

Language continues to sustain Jimmy, and he believes it can sustain others, conducting writing workshops in prisons, detention centers and schools for at-risk kids. In 2005 he created Cedar Tree, Inc., a non-profit foundation that uses the power of writing to transform lives in underserved communities. Cedar Tree also includes an internship program that provides live-in scholarships at Wind River Ranch in Albuquerque’s South Valley.

Jimmy has three documentary films in post-production that chronicle Cedar Tree writing workshops.

He is collaborating with the UNM College of Education to develop a writing workshop curriculum for schools and facilities across the country.

Jimmy is in demand for readings and workshops around the country, and has made radio and TV appearances on NPR, Good Morning America, PBS’ Language of Life with Bill Moyers and CBS Sunday Morning.

In an interview at the University of Illinois, Jimmy said, “I think language gives us courage ...

(It) gives us insight into the darkness that we all stumble into today. (It) connects me to beyond the world I live in, … to a cosmic kind of destiny that helps me towards living a good life.”

We laud your personal courage, Jimmy, your unique voice and your energy and determination to show others a way to travel from darkness to light. We are pleased to give you our Zia Award today.

2008 Zia Award Teresa Balcomb

M

ost of us think of physicians as providing service in their day-to-day practices. They attend to people with medical needs, whether in a hospital, clinic, or office. They share their experience, knowledge and care. So when physicians go beyond their daily duties, step outside their already hectic lives to respond to the needs of those without the means to seek and find care, it is a truly extraordinary action.

And the doctors who take that action are truly extraordinary people.

So, let’s take it further and add that a couple who take such steps together must be one in a million… or more.

Teresa Balcomb and Jim Tryon, both graduates of UNM School of Medicine, have tended patients in Albuquerque for 20 years – Teresa as an orthopedist specializing in hand surgery, and Jim as a family and emergency medicine physician. Their choices as doctors have harkened back to the belief in medicine as a noble – a helping – profession, unadulterated by the draws of prestige and power.

In 1992, Jim and Teresa founded St. Anthony’s Pharmacy to provide pharmaceutical support in Bosnia during the Bosnian war.

On the first supply trip, medicine was brought over from the US and stored in St. Anthony’s Church, to prevent theft. The friar there pronounced, “Jim, you have turned my church into a pharmacy... it is now St. Anthony’s Pharmacy!” Over the next four years, with grants and donations, St. Anthony’s supplied over $1 million of medicine.

Since the war’s end in 1996, St. Anthony’s Pharmacy has provided assistance in Haiti, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Mexico and Nigeria. In

each country, the key has been to work with local consultants and resources.

In 2006, St.Anthony’s changed its name from Pharmacy to Alliance, to cover its expanded endeavors.

Teresa has also organized five surgical missions to Guatemala as part of Healing the Children New Mexico, and is a founding member of the board of Guatemala Healing Hands.

All this after participating as a teenager in Amigos de las Americas, where Teresa learned to give shots to an orange!

Jim, on the other hand, came to medicine from the Merchant Marines. This desert dweller is licensed to captain any ship of any gross tonnage, on any ocean, without restriction – qualifying him to have authored a recent editorial in the Albuquerque Journal entitled: Healthcare Is a Rudderless Ship.

We understand that Teresa and Jim’s son and daughter are also contemplating medical careers—possibly beginning at UNM School of Medicine. We hope so. New Mexico and the rest of the world need doctors the likes of you, Teresa and Jim. You are great models not just for your kids but for all of us. We’re pleased to give you our Zia Award today.

2008 Zia Award Joe Garcia

A

leader needs great vision.

When Joe Garcia delivered the sixth annual State of Indian Nations address to the country in January, he declared he was looking through a child’s eyes.

He remembered looking through a parent’s eyes at the birth of his children, realizing the joy and responsibility of new life… how children’s lives are shaped less by their own decisions than by ours.

He looked at the world through a student’s eyes – studying hard to earn his BS in electrical engineering in 1985, while raising a family. He advises today’s Indian students to draw strength from their culture, their language, their ways.

And not to give up.

As an engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, he looked at the world through the eyes of scientists and the eyes of tribal leaders who had land bordering the national lab. Joe’s political life began here as he became the negotiator between the two groups.

At home in Ohkay Owingeh, Joe looked at the world through the eyes of his pueblo, serving two terms as lieutenant governor and then two as governor. Under Joe’s leadership, the Pueblo changed its name from San Juan to Ohkay Owingeh, Place of the Strong People.

As chairman of the All-Indian Pueblo Council, he looks at the world through the eyes of 19 pueblo peoples.

As president of the National Congress of American Indians, the largest national Indian organization, Joe looks at the world through the eyes of over 250 member Tribal nations from throughout the US.

Joe looks at the wisdom of past Indian leaders and at the practical efforts of current government.

He looks at his heritage, at the accomplishments made and at the needs remaining.

But he comes back to looking at the world through the eyes of an Indian child. He says he sees more risk than opportunity, despite the strides that have been made. NCAI lobbies for economic opportunity, for better education, for turning around lives of those who have made poor choices, for safety and for equity in healthcare for the Indian nations.

All these differing perspectives come together as one in Joe’s rare insight and great empathy, as he works “to change the views through all eyes, all across the land.”

In our eyes, Joe, you are remarkable. Your work, dedication and vision will change the lives of countless Native Americans across the land, to the betterment of us all. We’re happy to see you the recipient of our Zia Award today.

2008 Zia Award Pat Gurley

I

n some ways, business and community leadership in a small city takes on a significance even greater than in a larger arena.

Leaders in a small city are highly visible.

Their actions are acknowledged by all. The community development they undertake affects everyone. The employment opportunities they create are well known. Their employee treatment is legendary. Their family history is communal. And their successes translate into leadership opportunities on a larger scale.

Pat Gurley, who owns Gurley Motors in Gallup – population less than 25,000 – can attest to this. His Ford dealership is the oldest in New Mexico, and its sales, service, financing and insurance businesses are all-encompassing.

Pat’s dad, Clair, bought the business in 1933; Pat became president in 1966, and his son Steve will continue the tradition.

But the Gurley family tradition is about more than Fords. It’s about treating employees well—once a Gurley employee, few want to leave—and designing business methods that work well with the Native American customers that are the mainstay of the Gurley operation.

It’s also about giving back. The Gurleys donated the land for Gallup’s hospital and clinics, the Gallup fitness center and UNM-Gallup.

There’s a Gurley Avenue in Gallup and there’s Gurley Hall at UNM-Gallup.

And of course, there’s the Gurley tradition of helping grassroots efforts, like toy drives, Fourth of July Celebrations and teacher appreciation. There’s Kiwanis, Trail Riders, Chamber of Commerce (Pat was named businessperson of the year), the Airport

Committee and Boy Scouts (Pat received the “Silver Bear” award, the highest level achievable by an adult still active in scouting).

Don’t get the idea that this small town guy hasn’t been around. After being voted outstanding Marine of the UNM’s NROTC 1959 graduating class, Pat served four years in the US Marines, leaving as a 1st lieutenant in 1964. He also serves on the board of directors of First Interstate, United New Mexico, Norwest and Wells Fargo banks. He’s past president of the New Mexico Automobile Dealers Association. And he’s been featured in national publications—including Time magazine and the New York Times—focusing primarily on Gurley Motors’ unique relationship with the Old West and Native American transportation needs.

Pat, you serve as an example to us all of how we can take our own niche and make it a huge success and take our own small corner of the world and make it the best place possible. For that, we are giving you our Zia Award today.

2008 Zia Award Terry Huertaz

W

hen Terry Huertaz was offered the job as victim advocate for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) in 1995, she wasn’t sure she wanted it—until she attended a Victims Impact Panel in which victims convey their experiences to offenders—not an easy thing to listen to. Terry said she found the stories so compelling, so powerful that she couldn’t walk away.

So she took the job. Soon she became director of victim services. But the organization was in disarray and on the brink of closing. In 1998, Terry was appointed executive director – a job she left only two months ago to launch an underage drinking program called ACE – Alcohol Community Education.

Terry took MADD from what the Good Guy Award program called a “floundering garage-based nonprofit into a credible, professional organization with ten full-time employees and thousands of volunteers overseeing dozens of programs.”

Terry worked hard on passing laws to stop drunk driving and prevent underage drinking – and DWI deaths in New Mexico have dropped to an historic low. She practiced a theory developed by the late UNM communications professor, Ev Rogers, who stressed the importance of getting key decision-makers and leaders to buy into a behavior change, to serve as role models and ambassadors. Terry and her staff formed a distinguished advisory board of Albuquerque’s most influential citizens, and organized victim families to communicate the need for change to district attorneys, judges, school officials, law enforcement and government officials.

Terry facilitated victim support groups and coordinated the Albuquerque Victims Impact Panel, MADD’s Tie One On for Safety program and many state candlelight vigils and DWI Marches. In 2000 she organized a “Town Hall Meeting on Underage Drinking,” an Emmy award-winning TV special. She secured funding from the Governor’s Office to bring MADD’s Protecting You/Protecting Me alcohol use prevention programs to schools statewide – First Lady Laura Bush observed the program in an Albuquerque elementary school.

Still, it was the victims who motivated Terry. She says the courage families showed in the midst of crisis was amazing. When faced with adversity, they picked themselves up and turned around to be strong for the next family and to work for change. Terry says that every day she was at MADD made her feel more grateful for her own family and their life together.

You, Terry, make us feel grateful that you’re giving your skills and talents to fight a horrible crime, to support its victims and to educate young people about the risks of drinking and driving. We’re pleased to give you our Zia Award today.

2008 Zia Award Carol Radosevich

N

ew Mexico wouldn’t be the place we know today without the efforts of Carol Radosevich. Carol assisted in either the recruitment or the expansion of dozens of companies that have millions – even billions – of dollars of impact upon the state.

Economic development officer at PNM for more than 20 years, Carol knows how to grow business in New Mexico possibly better than anyone else in the state. That’s through marketing and financial and tax incentives – many of which came about because of Carol’s lobbying efforts in Santa Fe. Basically, Carol likes to connect people who can help each other. So, it fits that she was one of three women who founded WESST Corp in 1988. WESST stands for Women’s Economic Self-Sufficiency Team, and its name implies its mission: helping low-income women and minorities achieve financial selfsufficiency through sustained self-employment – although WESST’s services are available to any New Mexico resident seeking to start or grow a business.

Twenty years later, Carol is back on WESST’s board, as president. WESST’s executive director, Agnes Noonan, told Carol that all she wanted for Christmas was to have her re-up for WESST’s board, and Carol couldn’t say no. Agnes says WESST’s new business incubator facility in downtown Albuquerque is largely due to Carol’s leadership. “She’s always thinking, planning, trying to figure out how to advance the agenda – even when she’s sleeping!”

Carol’s friends marvel at her ability to strike up a conversation, often with perfect strangers.

“She’ll walk into a room full of people,” one friend says, “and enter into the middle of whatever people are talking about.”

Combine her people skills and her business acumen, and you can see how Carol created the Metro New Mexico Development Alliance, which pools the marketing efforts of all the community economic-development groups from Santa Fe to Belen.

You can see how she founded Enchantment Land Certified Development Company, chartered by the SBA, that has funded over $750 million of loans statewide.

You can see how she was instrumental in establishing a PNM Chair in microsystems, commercialization and technology at UNM’s Anderson School of Management – where Carol earned her executive MBA. You can also see why Carol needs a haven to go home to. And she has just such a one that she designed in Placitas – decorated with works of glass art that she collects.

This morning we’d like to add another piece to Carol’s collection – our Zia Award.

We’re honoring you, Carol, for your contributions to our state and for serving as a role model of how to use your talents to better your community.

2009 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Herman Agoyo I Gene Baca Gary King Carolyn Ramos Brian Sanderoff Kathie Winograd

2009 Zia Award Herman Agoyo I

H

erman Agoyo the First has always been a runner. He ran around his pueblo as a boy… sprinted down basketball courts and around baseball diamonds in high school… outpaced his teenage son on cross-country runs … and set running records at the Senior Olympics.

But it’s a different type of running talent that truly defines Herman – and that’s his talent for running communities, programs and events.

Herman grew up on the Ohkay Owingeh (Oh-keh’ O–wing–eh’) Pueblo – formerly the San Juan Pueblo – under the watchful eye of his grandfather who taught Herman the old ways and the Pueblo philosophy of putting community first. In the mid-1950s, after graduating from the Santa Fe Indian School, Herman left home to attend Manhattan College in New York City on an athletic scholarship. He was the first person in his family to go to college.

When Herman returned to New Mexico, he worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, taught in Española’s public schools, and earned his master’s degree in guidance and counseling from UNM. He also dedicated himself to helping run his Pueblo. He was lieutenant governor four times, governor once, and he continues to serve as a lifetime member of the Tribal Council.

A defining moment in Herman’s career was the placing of a marble statue of Po’Pay (po–peh’) at National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol Building. Po’Pay was an Ohkay Owingeh member and the leader of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Herman worked tirelessly on the effort and the unveiling of the

statue was the culmination of his 30-year commitment to honoring the great leader.

Those in attendance say that, on that day, Herman was just as big in stature as Po’pay.

Because of his warmth and talent for sharing Pueblo history and culture, Herman has become a well-respected ambassador for all Pueblos. His dedication has earned him many accolades. He’s been named a living treasure by the New Mexico Living Treasure Association, received a lifetime achievement award from the New Mexico Community Foundation and been named one of the 50 most influential Americans by Newsweek.

Herman also publishes poetry and articles.

And, yes, he still finds time to go out for a jog now and then!

For his dedication to the entire Pueblo community, his willingness to share his culture with others and his talented leadership, we’re proud to present this Zia Award to Herman Agoyo.

2009 Zia Award Gene Baca

H

omecoming 2009: Lobo Knights. We really didn’t choose the theme with Gene Baca in mind, but we probably should have!

Our very own knight in shining armor came to the rescue of an older damsel in distress as she screamed at a purse-snatcher at the grocery story last weekend. Gene took out after the rogue at full tilt. True, the bad guy got away, and Gene’s armor got more than a bit dinted, but it’s reassuring to know these days that there are still good guys around bent upon making the world a better place!

Gene’s wife, Christine, says Gene has “an overdeveloped sense of duty” – yet another knight-like quality. But those of us on the receiving end, as are we on the Alumni Association Executive Committee – are highly appreciative of it. Gene is the Association’s treasurer and past chair of our investments committee. We recently persuaded him to re-up for treasurer duties, even though he had already made commitments to the New Mexico Chile Association, as its founder and chair, and to the Association of Commerce and Industry.

That’s in addition to his role as senior vicepresident of Bueno Foods and as “puff-Daddy” at home.

Yes, this gentleman with a bachelor’s degree from UNM and a law degree from Harvard, whose vision and ideas have increased sales at the Baca family’s company tenfold, is known as a marshmallow because, Christine says, he’s a softy with their four kids.

But, frankly, that couldn’t please him more, because his family is his joy. Gene spent his recent birthday at the Harvest Festival of his 4-year-old’s preschool, because, says

Christine, “that’s what we do.” The close-knit family hangs out together, literally, staying close even in their own home. “We kind of travel through the house as a herd,” Christine says.

Gene is one of those rare people who is what he seems to be, who does what he says he’ll do. He’s modest, and appreciative of everyone’s talents and contributions. He’s proud of being a part of New Mexico’s first family of food, and proud to promote our state’s culinary traditions and heritage. Bueno Foods – led by Gene, his sisters and mother – is a good friend to its Barelas neighbors.

The Alumni Association recently named the Bacas “aluminarios” for their Good Grades Program that encourages the children and grandchildren of their employees to work hard in school and continue their education.

Today, we dub you a Lobo Knight, Gene, and are proud to give you our Zia award in appreciation of your talents, loyalty, dedication and sense of duty to your family and community.

Your armor shines brightly for us.

2009 Zia Award Gary King

G

ary King is a polymath… Not familiar with the term? A Greek word, polymath, is translated as: “having learned much.” You’re probably more familiar with the word’s synonym: Renaissance man.

Lawyer. Saxophone player. Chemist.

Politician. Flutist. Photographer. Science fiction buff. Outdoorsman. Community volunteer…

Gary King is, indeed, a Renaissance man.

According to a long-time friend, Gary was also a Renaissance boy – curious, focused, and a person who was – and still is – a very quick study.

That combination of character traits along with hard work has led to a very successful career.

Gary received his bachelor’s in chemistry from New Mexico State University, then earned his doctorate in organic chemistry from Colorado University at Boulder. In typical Gary fashion, he graduated from CU on a Friday and started law school at UNM the next Monday!

After graduating from law school, he started his own law firm, King and Stanley, in Moriarty in 1984. Later, he served as corporate general counsel at an environmental law firm. Then Gary was elected to the New Mexico State Legislature where he served for 12 years. For most of that time he was chairman of the Consumer and Public Affairs Committee. In that role, Gary focused on health care, environmental and civil rights issues. Then he moved to the Department of Energy in Washington D.C. where he created a program to foster cooperation among federal, state, local and Native American governments to enhance clean-up activities.

Gary was elected Attorney General of New Mexico in 2006. Perhaps the hallmark of his term to date is his effort to pass new legislation

making it a felony to engage in human trafficking – the modern day equivalent of slavery. The United Nations recognized his work and invited Gary to come to Geneva to present the legislation as a model for ending slavery for other nations around the world.

No matter how busy he is at work, Gary generously volunteers his time and vision to community organizations. They are too many to name here, but at the top of the list is the UNM Alumni Association, followed by the Rotary Club, Boy Scouts of America, Keep New Mexico Beautiful and Music Theater of the Southwest. He and his wife, Yolanda, are also donors to the UNM Presidential Scholarship program.

Clearly, Gary is accomplished and generous.

His friends also say he’s an astonishingly complete individual … friendly… usually right, but never righteous... enthusiastic…. and fun loving.

We give the Zia Award to alumni living in New Mexico who have distinguished themselves in philanthropic endeavors, public office, service to the University, and other volunteer activities, business or professional fields. In true polymath fashion, Gary King qualifies in all those categories. So it’s our honor to present this Zia Award – and our thanks – to Gary King.

2009 Zia Award Carolyn Ramos

C

arolyn Ramos is probably in a New York state of mind, even though she’s here with us in New Mexico today. Her beloved Yankees have returned home for final combat with the Angels for the World Series’ berth and Carolyn has some exciting baseball to look forward to….

Born and raised in the Big Apple right around the corner from Yankee Stadium, Carolyn grew up cheering on the Yanks and even tried out to become a batgirl for the team.

She didn’t become a batgirl, but she still has a childhood claim to fame. Two years before kindergarten, Carolyn was one of the first bilingual children on Sesame Street!

Big Bird did well in instilling in Carolyn the importance of learning her ABCs: after graduating from Middlebury College years later, she joined Teach for America Corps and was a bilingual elementary teacher in Washington D.C. After fours years of teaching Carolyn decided to go to law school. Her mother, a physician who had moved out to Albuquerque, encouraged Carolyn to consider UNM. Carolyn wanted to be nearer to mom and was willing to give the school a try. She loved it and now calls UNM’s law school one of the state’s “best kept secrets.”

Carolyn earned her JD in 2000. Today she is a shareholder and director with the law firm of Butt Thornton & Baehr in Albuquerque.

Colleagues say Carolyn is a successful attorney because she evaluates cases well, prepares for them thoroughly and adapts quickly to a situation. Her engaging and friendly personality works in her favor as well, as does her ability to be stern when needed.

Carolyn’s dedication makes her an asset to the many professional and community organizations she supports.

Carolyn is a past-president of the New Mexico Defense Lawyers Association and a past-chair of the State Bar of New Mexico Young Lawyers Division. She also contributes her time and talent to the boards of Middlebury College and La Puerta de los Niños Preschool and volunteers for UNM School of Law Mentorship Program.

Lawyer. Mentor. Community volunteer.

Yankees fan. Sesame Street graduate. Also, writer and chef. Carolyn has many talents and interests. The title she is, perhaps, most proud of ? Mother to her 5-year old son, Santiago.

I’m guessing he’s going to grow up to be a Yankee’s fan, too….

This morning we add another role to that list – Zia Award winner. With this award, Carolyn, we want to tell you how much we appreciate your unique blend of talent, experience, professional expertise and character. Congratulations.

2009 Zia Award Brian Sanderoff

I

f you were to conduct a survey of New Mexico’s business and government leaders – or even a survey of TV news-viewers – and ask them to name the top research and polling expert in the state, I’d venture to guess that 100 percent of respondents would name Brian Sanderoff. And that’s with a zero percent margin of error.

Brian knows New Mexico county demographics, who won what political race and by how much. He can report on the performance of the state’s District Court Judges, and can tell you where New Mexicans stand on the day’s most pressing social issues.

He can probably even give you the exact percentage of New Mexicans who like green chile versus red!

As president of Research & Polling, the state’s largest survey and research company, Brian has his finger on the pulse of business, public opinion and more in New Mexico and around the country.

All three branches of state government depend upon Brian for technical, professional and demographic services. New Mexico’s leading corporate and non-profit organizations seek his expertise. Brian’s team also works closely with the state’s top advertising agencies, public relations firms and planners to measure how effective their ads are and to refine their marketing campaigns.

With all of his knowledge and knowhow, Brian is a frequent guest on local and national TV – especially during elections.

You’ve probably seen him on news shows – he’s appeared on CNN, MSNBC, FOX, BBC and the Jim Lehrer News Hour and serves as

the on-air election analyst for KOAT-TV Channel 7. Brian is recognized nationally for his accuracy.

Leaders who collaborate with Brian say that his is one of the most respected minds in the state. They cite his uncanny ability to interpret complex information and make it understandable – and relevant – to others. They say Brian is always ready to help organizations understand what’s happening in the world.

Most of all, they say Brian is a generous, caring person with a great sense of humor who is a wonderful role model to his daughter. He is also a proud Lobo.

So, the data are in and the results are clear: Brian Sanderoff is a talented, respected, all around great guy. And, by a unanimous vote, we agree that he deserves to be recognized for his success with this Zia Award.

E

2009 Zia Award Kathie Winograd

arlier this year you heard the news that a New Mexican made a real splash in Kentucky… You probably recall how Mine that Bird surprised just about everyone by winning the Kentucky Derby. Well, this is the story of how someone from the Bluegrass State has made good in the Land of Enchantment – with much more enduring results.

Kathie Winograd hails from Cumberland, Kentucky where she grew up fishing with her dad, exploring the Appalachian Mountains with her siblings and riding her bike. Her earliest jobs foreshadowed her future career.

She attended Georgetown College in Kentucky where she earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology and therapeutic recreation. She went on to the University of Louisville where she received her master’s in higher education administration. Kathie worked in several education positions in Kentucky before moving to New Mexico in 1996 to take a job at UNM’s College of Education. In 1997, she moved to CNM – then known as TVI – where she steadily moved up the ranks.

While she was completing her PhD in educational leadership at UNM in 2007, Kathie was elected president of CNM by a unanimous vote. Her many supporters cited her passion for expanding educational opportunities for students and her communication skills as winning qualities.

Just two years into her post at CNM, Kathie has already made great strides to improve education for generations of New Mexicans.

Together, she and UNM President David Schmidly have developed an agreement among CNM, UNM and APS that creates a clear pathway from pre-school all the way through

college for APS students. The WinogradSchmidly duo also led the effort to establish an agreement between CNM and UNM that makes it easier for students at both places to get the services they need. It’s a true breakthrough in higher education for the state.

Given her ability to navigate complex partnerships, it’s no surprise that Kathie is called a “uniter.” She’s also called smart, joyful and caring – and she’s known for her self-deprecating sense of humor. You’d have to have a great sense of humor to enter a tricycle race against your predecessor as Kathie did during a United Way event. Pedaling and laughing all the way, she won.

Despite a busy schedule, Kathie still finds time to share her vision and talents with the community. She serves – actively – on the boards of United Way of Central New Mexico, Special Olympics and the UNM Alumni Association.

During rare down-times, Kathie still fishes and bikes, now with her husband, Peter, in the Land of Enchantment.

Kentucky’s loss is definitely New Mexico’s gain. Kathie, for your leadership, your work to reform education, your talent for building strong partnerships, and your dedication, we’re honored to present this Zia Award to you this morning.

2010 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Kara Bobroff Sue Daulton Jerry Dominguez Ed Mazria Bradley Smith Amy Wohlert

2010 Zia Award Kara Bobroff

S

ome people have vision and don’t act.

Others act but don’t have vision. Kara Bobroff is a visionary who acts. She makes good things happen.

About 10 years ago, a group of Albuquerque educators, parents, professionals and leaders had a bold vision: a school that prepares Native American kids for college and life. From that vision, with Kara as founding principal, the Native American Community Academy became a reality.

Sixth through 12th graders at the APS charter school take a college prep curriculum, perform community service and have the opportunity to learn Tewa, Navajo and Lakota, as well as Spanish.

Kara says the school’s strength comes from the community. Volunteers – including UNM students – tutor, coach athletics, give lectures, help with the annual powwow and serve on the governing council.

Kara, who is Navajo and Lakota, earned a bachelor’s in education, a master’s in special education and an education specialist degree in educational administration at UNM. A Danforth Scholar, Kara worked in middle schools in APS, on the Navajo reservation and in California.

In 2005, Kara received a fellowship from Echoing Green for her leadership with NACA. Echoing Green is a nonprofit organization that provides seed funding and support to individuals and organizations around the world for creating innovative social programs.

Her recognition from Echoing Green attracted the attention of the Obama

administration.

When President Obama opened the Office of Social Innovation in June 2009, Kara was one of 100 guests invited to attend a celebratory dinner at the White House.

As you might imagine, numerous professional associations and boards – from Harvard’s Urban Principals Center to the New Mexico Native American Soccer Organization – have sought after Kara for her insight and advice.

When Echoing Green asked Kara for advice for others starting a social change organization, she responded with words pertinent not just to social entrepreneurs but to her students and all the rest of us: Go with your gut and what your heart tells you – your vision for change. Be organized, plan and assess your progress. Find those who share your dream and vision. Always remember who you are and what you are about; the rest will come with time. Life is sweet. Patience, perseverance, dedication, family and good friends will see you through.

Kara, not just for the gift you’ve given Native American kids and all of us in Albuquerque, but for being who you are, we’re delighted to give you our Zia Award this morning.

2010 Zia Award Sue Daulton

A

ll you have to do is meet Sue Daulton.

Within minutes you’ll call her your friend. She’s just like that… outgoing, with an easy smile, comfortable to talk with… Before long, you’ll be talking about the Lobos and UNM, and you’ll soon realize that Sue Daulton is UNM’s friend as well – a great friend.

What makes a Sue a great friend?

For one, a great friend is someone you’ve shared time with.

Sue and her late husband, Paul met at UNM in the 1940s. Their lives would be intertwined with UNM as alumni, parents, fans and supporters for the decades to come.

A friend is someone who listens to you.

Sue has been a member of PEO – a women’s group committed to education – for many years.

At one meeting, a UNM nursing student made a presentation, sharing her circumstances of going to school as an older student, struggling financially. Sue was moved to find out more.

While talking with the development staff at the College of Nursing about the possibility of supporting scholarships for students, she heard about the huge need for nurses in the community and for nursing faculty to train them. She listened, and heeded, and offered her support to nursing faculty as well…

Which leads us to this: A friend is someone who thinks about someone other than herself.

Sue and Paul were among the original participants in the Presidential Scholarship Program that began more than 20 years ago.

The PSP is unique in that donors and the students they support have the opportunity to know one another. At the annual donor-student dinner, Sue isn’t just the donor at the table with

the seven scholars she currently supports – she’s the PSP Mom. The students simply respond to her, an observer says.

Sue is the real mom and grandmom to her son, Tom, his wife, Janet, and their three kids who live in Dallas and are the lights of her life.

Of course, a friend is also someone you laugh and have fun with.

Sue drives a snazzy Lobo-red Cadillac.

Right away you know this is a woman who enjoys life. And who enjoys Lobo sports. Sue is an avid Lobo fan as was Paul. You’ll find her at most football and basketball games. She is a faithful donor to the Lobo Club who assists with their 5th year scholarship program.

A friend is someone who cares about you, wants the best for you and wants you to succeed.

Whether it’s sports, scholarships, or a new building for Architecture and Planning, Sue wants UNM and its students to succeed.

It’s not a matter of ego. There are no hidden agendas. Sue is a rarity in today’s world who is purely motivated by young people who want to pursue higher education to give back to their community and to better their lives. It’s basic.

It’s sincere. It’s joyful. And it’s laudatory.

Sue, you teach us all what being a friend means – not only to our alma mater but to one another. And that’s the biggest gift of all.

We thank you and are delighted to give you our Alumni Association Zia Award this morning.

2010 Zia Award Jerry Dominguez

I

n the 1970s and early 1980s, Jerry Dominguez took educational opportunities to New Mexico’s communities personally.

By car. Others called it onsite training and evaluation. He called it windshield time.

In the mid-80s, while serving as dean of the UNM Division of Continuing Education, Jerry began exploring ways to spread learning opportunities without getting behind the wheel. With help from Sandia National Labs, Jerry set up interactive TV classes between UNM and the labs, and then expanded his efforts to 75 “receive sites” around the state.

In 1999, Jerry became the founding vice provost of Extended University. Since then, students have traded Jerry’s windshield for their own computer screens – without having to pay for gasoline.

Extended University has taken off by leaps and bounds, reaching students in almost every New Mexico County. From a dozen courses in 2000 to more than 350 courses in 2010.

From a couple of hundred students to many thousands of students. The notion of access to education at anytime from any place has become not just an option for students, but an expectation and a demand.

Jerry is an avid basketball and golf fan. Like the arc of a basketball or golf ball aimed unerringly toward the net or the hole – the arc of Jerry’s career has aimed toward one goal as well – extending education to all. For Jerry, there should be no barriers to learning.

We see this in his choice to major in speech pathology for his BS at Eastern New Mexico University and then in communication disorders for his MS at UNM.

We see it at the beginning of Jerry’s career when he worked on behalf of deaf and blind children with the state and UNM. We see it in his outreach efforts to teachers and children – especially kids with disabilities – across the state.

We see it in his doctoral work at UNM in special education.

We see it in his training programs for educators and counselors in the areas of alcohol and drug abuse.

We see it in his training program for bilingual teachers.

We see it in his selection as a Kellogg MSI Leadership Fellow by the Alliance for Equity in Higher Education.

And, of course, we see it in his work at Continuing Education and Extended University.

For Jerry, no sort of disability… no primary language difference… no distance… and no family or work obligation should keep New Mexicans away from the opportunity to better themselves and their lives.

A colleague says that Jerry is one of the “committed people.” His commitment has touched and continues to touch thousands.

We are grateful to you, Jerry. We’re grateful to you for keeping your focus through the years on educational access for all. We’re grateful to you for applying your spirit and energy to making UNM’s endeavors successful.

We’re also very happy to give you our Zia Award today.

2010 Zia Award Ed Mazria

H

ere’s a shocker for you: the largest consumer of greenhouse gases in the world is not cars and trucks and things that go. It’s not industry. It’s the built environment. Buildings.

There was a time when buildings were designed with respect to their environments.

There was no air conditioning, so buildings were positioned in the shade, with cross ventilation. There was no central heat, so south-facing walls were included to absorb the winter sun. In New Mexico, our thick adobe walls insulated our homes.

As heating and cooling technologies became pervasive, the possibilities for design became limitless. An all-glass building – once ridiculous because of local climates – becomes a thing of beauty supported by fossil-fuels.

Ed Mazria, an internationally recognized architect based in Santa Fe, became known originally for The Passive Solar Energy Book, a sort of bible for passive solar construction, which he wrote. Now he is known for his vision that just as design has contributed to untenable consumption levels of fossil-fuels – coal in particular – so can it contribute to the turnaround of those levels. Buildings are the problem, but buildings are also the solution.

In 2002, Ed founded a non-profit organization, Architecture 2030, in response to climate change. Its goal is to achieve a dramatic reduction in the building sector’s climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions by reforming the way buildings and developments are planned, designed and constructed.

The group’s 2030 Challenge was adopted in 2006 by the 80,000-member American Institute of Architects. Subsequently, numerous organizations and government entities worldwide have adopted the challenge as well.

Ed received his bachelor’s of architecture degree from the Pratt Institute and his master’s from UNM where he has also done research and taught. His buildings have been featured in architectural digests, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. He lectures internationally about the 2030 Challenge and the means to meet it.

Ed has changed the world dialogue of climate change and the built environment.

His work will have a profound impact on our future.

While Ed was unable to be here today, we are grateful for his work and proud to honor him with our Zia Award, which his wife will accept for him.

2010 Zia Award Brad Smith

O

nly the military can come up with job titles as long as Colonel Brad Smith’s was before he retired last June: Commander, Phillips Research Site and Materiel Wing Director, Space Vehicles Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base.

It would be easier if we could just say proprietor, Brewsmith.com, which is Brad’s current career moniker.

But then we wouldn’t be talking about what qualified Brad for this award. Except that developing your own brew-making software and successful Internet marketing and sales plan takes creativity, independent thinking and organized work. Those are the same qualities that Professor Chaouki Abdallah found in Brad’s work as a PhD candidate in the department of electrical and computer engineering in the early 90s.

Brad was a captain when he enrolled at UNM. He’d already completed a BS and MS in computer engineering, as well as an MBA. At UNM Brad came up with a new way to search large data bases, pushing a limit that engineers had thought was finite for years and years. It was a groundbreaking discovery.

In his last Air Force Assignment, Brad led a team of nearly a thousand military and civilian employees working on space vehicle research and space-based command. The team comprised the nation’s Center of Excellence for military space science and technology, research and development.

Brad has led the effort to establish a collaborative space weather program between the Air Force Research Laboratory and

the UNM School of Engineering.

This effort will bring millions of research dollars and excellent job opportunities for School of Engineering graduates.

We could stop here, praising Brad for his enormous accomplishments and his responsibilities well carried out. But I’d like to go further and talk about Brad as a person.

When Brad retired from the Air Force, a 3-star general flew in to commend him. His peers praised him. His subordinates raved about him.

“He’s a truly nice guy,” a buddy of his says. “Loyal to people, committed to his kids, his wife and his work. A genuinely good friend. The kind you want to have…”

Brad has a mind that doesn’t stop and talents that don’t end. His quest to learn and contribute has taken him far. Most recently it has taken him to the river bank as he learns to fly fish and creates the software to teach the rest of us … “I’m living the dream,” he says.

Brad, for your accomplishments, your contributions to your country and to learning, and the human qualities you’ve managed to keep and develop throughout, we’re honored to give you our Zia Award today.

2010 Zia Award Amy Wohlert

I

n today’s world of bluster and agitation, of noise and interruption, of demands without reciprocation, it’s good we have Amy Wohlert.

When the world around her is in an uproar, Amy stays calm. When a situation becomes heated, Amy considers how best to de-escalate it … and somehow manages to. When pressed to speak, Amy thinks carefully about what she says.

In today’s campus environment of doomand-gloom budget scenarios, of increasing demands and decreasing resources and sometimes of jumbled priorities, it’s good we have Amy Wohlert.

Amy earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at UNM and her doctorate in communications disorders from Northwestern University. After teaching at Ohio State and Purdue, she returned to UNM in 2000 to chair the speech and hearing sciences department.

But within four years, the UNM administration drafted her as interim associate provost of academic affairs. The joint position of vice provost for graduate education and dean of graduate studies followed. She was soon drafted again to fill the role of interim Dean of the Anderson School of Business. In 2009 she returned full-time to her job as dean of Graduate Studies.

Amy is a bright light in the administration.

How can she keep on shining?

Mostly, she focuses on students. Her assistant says she takes students into account with every decision she makes.

Students talk with her. She never says no when they ask to speak with her, even if she ultimately redirects them to their own dean.

Writing about the students at Anderson when she left there, Amy revealed her approach to students in general.

She wrote … that she was swept up by the enthusiasm of the students … that watching their talents develop made her job fun and the school’s future bright … that she would take some of the students’ accumulated energy back with her to Graduate Studies because students, with their boundless desire to do well, do good and do right, are the ultimate renewable resource.

While there’s no belittling resources of spirit, those of cash are good, too. Just this week Amy and the Office of Graduate Studies learned that her proposal to establish a Graduate Resource Center at UNM had been approved to the tune of $570,000 annually for the next five years. The Title V grant is directed at serving Hispanic students primarily but will benefit and be open to all graduate students.

It’s good we have Amy to remind educators to keep their ideals as their beacons and student success as their goal, and to find joy and pleasure in the enthusiasm of their students.

It’s also good we have you here, Amy, to receive our thanks, our congratulations and our Zia Award.

2011 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Larry Abraham Steve Ciepiela Michael Currier Nedra Matteucci Dennis PeĂąa Elba Saavedra

2011 Zia Award Larry Abraham Photographer. Mayor of Los Ranchos

time, he’s held many positions de Albuquerque. Realtor. Chef. Husband. on regional Entrepreneur. Furniture store owner. Banker. governing bodies Father. UNM supporter. Avid sportsman. including the Hobby Rancher. Contractor. Community Mid-Region leader. I could go on, but that list gives you Council of idea of who Larry Abraham is. Maybe it would Governments. just be easier to say that Larry is a Renaissance True to his nature, that’s not all Larry man — and the model one at that. is doing. He continues to serve on various But what sets Larry apart from other community boards and his service to his successful renaissance types is that he does so alma mater is exceptional. Beyond his long much in the service to his community. Larry time involvement with the Lobo Club, Larry says his ultimate goal as a public servant is to was also a founding member of the Tom L. have a great influence on the direction of the Popejoy Society, UNM’s giving society. quality of life in New Mexico and especially When he’s not leading a meeting, serving how higher education relates to the quality of on a board, or attending a community life in our state. event, Larry can be found working on his Born in Santa Fe, Larry moved to photography business, spending time with Albuquerque in 1972 and attended UNM family and friends…and dogs…and like all where he earned a business degree. Then he went about the business of putting that degree great renaissance men, cooking!

Larry still has years of career and to work. In the following decades he would start, own, or manage more than 15 successful personal success ahead of him and he’ll undoubtedly continue to make an important businesses including a leather furniture store, difference in our community, but he’s already a realty firm, a turquoise company, a cellular met his goal of improving the quality of life for phone company, and an automotive services people in New Mexico. company just to name a few.

Larry, because you have dedicated so much A friend says Larry is straightforward, of your life and talent to improving the lives of fair, highly respected, and a “real doer” — others, and also for your long time support of someone who gets things done. In that spirit, UNM, it is our honor and privilege to present Larry was elected as mayor of Los Ranchos to you our 2011 Zia Award. Congratulations, de Albuquerque in 2004 and was re-elected Larry! in 2008. As mayor, Larry has put the Village on stable financial ground and elevated it from a sleepy burg to a dynamic, vibrant and name recognized community. At the same

2011 Zia Award Steve Ciepiela All business owners — from the owner of

the small corner store to industry giants like Steve Jobs — get to a point where, for one reason or another, they want to hand over the reins of their company to someone else. That’s when they often say: “Now what?”

A good answer to that question would be: call Stephen Ciepiela. Co-founder and now President of Charles Stephen and Co. Incorporated, Steve is the “go to” guy for expert counsel on transition planning, retirement planning, and investment advice.

During his 30-plus years in business, Steve has created many proprietary processes to ease life’s important transitions. His Strategic Blueprint Formula helps clients achieve financial independence and attain their goals. And Steve’s Retirement Planning Optimization Process helps clients with retirement and transition planning.

Smart strategies and financial expertise — Steve has them. But, perhaps more importantly in his line of business, he has a way with people. One of Steve’s associates says he’s the ultimate people person, one of those “never met a stranger” types. He instinctively knows when to be serious and when to use humor and he’s just got a good touch. And that’s critical when you’re advising someone on what to do with their future and life savings.

Steve’s roots stretch back to Chicago’s South Side. He received an undergraduate education at the United States Air Force Academy before earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UNM. But he wasn’t done learning. Throughout his career Steve has continued to earn additional accreditations.

Now he has a whole alphabet soup after his name for all his designations he’s earned including Certified Financial Planner, Accredited Investment Fiduciary, and Certified

Retirement Counselor.

Adding to his accolades, Money magazine named Steve one of the top 200 financial planners in America by his peers. It’s not just his industry and clients that benefit from Steve’s talents and enthusiasm. Our community and university does too.

Steve gives back to his alma mater by sharing his enthusiasm and expertise with the UNM Lettermen’s Association and the UNM Alumni Association, having served as President to both. He has also dedicated considerable time and energy to Roadrunner Food Bank and serves on the food banks’ board of directors.

His good work and charitable spirit hasn’t gone unnoticed. Steve earned the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce Good Neighbor Award — given for service to the community.

Here at UNM we recognize a caring, talented, and dedicated alum when we see one too.

Steve, for your work in helping others envision a secure future and helping the UNM Alumni Association do the same, we want to add another recognition to your list: UNM’s 2011 Zia Award. Congratulations, Steve!

2011 Zia Award Michael Currier In business, on the gridiron, in his community

— even on the dance floor — Mike Currier blends a competitive nature, charm, excellent people skills, quick wit, and propensity for cutting to the chase to successfully lead in everything he does.

When Mike graduated from UNM in 1965, he worked in New Mexico and Texas in title insurance and property management.

After a few years, he joined the family business, Currier Abstract Company in Artesia and Guaranty Title Company in Carlsbad. The last name Currier and the land and title business in New Mexico are almost synonymous. Mike was the third generation in his family to run the companies.

It wasn’t long before he was elected president of the New Mexico Land Title Association. He was the third generation in the Currier family to hold that office following in his father and grandfather’s footsteps.

Mike’s hard work and industry advocacy lead to his election as president of the American Land Title Association, a national trade group. During his tenure, he and his wife Linnie traveled from New York to California and Alaska to Florida attending state conventions. It was at a convention in Dallas that Mike made his infamous entrance wearing a ten-gallon hat and sitting astride a White Longhorn Steer!

Mike has also used his leadership skills to serve at the helm of the Carlsbad Department of Development and the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce.

He doesn’t just lead in the business world — Mike leads in everything he does. And

while he’s at it, he makes friends wherever he goes.

A good friend of Mike’s says he seems to know everyone and can walk into any airport anywhere and know somebody.

Mike was quarterback for the Artesia High School Bulldogs and state student council president in high school. He served in leadership roles as a student at New Mexico Military Institute and was president of Sigma Chi, his fraternity at UNM. He’s a role model and wonderful father to his daughter Missy. He leads his wife Linnie onto the dance floor to do the jitterbug, and heads up a group of golfing buddies to hit the links at courses around the country.

Mike is even a culinary tastemaker. He enjoys good food and through his extensive travel, he’s gotten to know the best eating establishments far and wide. Locally, you’ll often see him leading the way to Garcia’s where he indulges in red chile enchiladas.

There are many natural born leaders, but few who lead so successfully in such a wide range of pursuits from career to sports to … well, dancing … and so much in between.

Mike, because of your exemplary leadership and ability to make a mark in everything you do, we want to recognize and honor you with our 2011 Zia Award.

2011 Zia Award Nedra Matteucci Enter some fine art galleries around the

also own Morning Star Gallery, which world, in Paris, New York or London, and features Native you’ll find beautiful art. But you also might American antiquities. find that the ambience — especially if you’re Nedra has built just there to look — can be rather cold. her galleries into Not so at Nedra Matteucci Fine Art, a destinations for art world-renowned gallery in Santa Fe. When collectors and art you step inside the spacious adobe compound lovers worldwide. In you receive a warm welcome and are invited to explore the galleries and the tranquil sculpture the process, she’s established a reputation for honesty, professionalism, approachability, and garden out back at your leisure. generosity.

That inviting attitude is a direct reflection Nedra shares her passion, expertise and Nedra Matteucci’s view of art and her energy with the art industry and in her approach to her business. She was recently community. She is active in the Fine Art asked what accomplishment she’s most proud Dealer’s Association and is on the board of of, and she said that her gallery “has always directors of the National Sculpture Society. been a welcoming accessible destination for Closer to home Nedra has been on the the simple, pure enjoyment and appreciation of art by visitors of all ages and interests.” She’s board of the Santa Fe Opera for years and has a member of the New Mexico Amigos since come a long way, and yet remains relatively 1990, serving as the group’s president in 2006. close to home. Nedra hails from Dexter, a As an Amigo, Nedra is a business ambassador small farming community in southeastern New Mexico. She attended high school in El for the state nationally and internationally.

And by all accounts Nedra is a wonderful Paso, Texas and earned her bachelor’s degree from UNM. Nedra had a passion for art from amiga to many people. A close friend says an early age and learned about the art world by Nedra is a fun, people person who loves to be surrounded by friends and family. It sounds working in the gallery she now owns. At the like wherever Nedra goes she has friends — or time it was known as the Fenn Gallery. can make one quickly.

She opened her own gallery on Canyon In Nedra, the art community, the state of Road in 1986 and two years later purchased the Fenn Gallery, renaming it Nedra Matteucci New Mexico, and UNM have a wonderful, warm, and generous friend indeed. Nedra, Galleries. The gallery specializes in 19th and through your hard work and generous spirit, 20th-century American art, including artists you have made the world a more beautiful of the American West and Taos Society place for us to experience. Congratulations, we Artists. O’Keefes, Remingtons and Russels present you with our 2011 Zia Award! are on display beside up and coming painters and sculptors. She and her husband, Richard,

2011 Zia Award Dennis Peña In pursuing his career as a pharmacist,

In that time he sponsored 42 laws, Dennis Peña has gone well beyond dispensing all but one of which prescriptions to help cure patients’ ills: he’s remain on the books dispensed wisdom, leadership, and vision today. His legislative to shape his state and his profession. The record focuses on result of his life’s work is a much healthier initiatives to improve community for all of us. Well, that and a medical care and the beautiful U.S. postage stamp. But more on that medical profession. in a minute.

Bills that Dennis Dennis hails from tiny Bosque, New sponsored include mandatory continuing Mexico but grew up in Santa Rita. He education for all health care professionals attended the UNM College of Pharmacy, in New Mexico, protecting parking for the where he exercised his talent for leadership handicapped, and requiring immunizations for serving on Student Senate and as president New Mexico’s children, for which he received of the student chapter of the American a citation for meritorious contribution to the Pharmaceutical Association. He also pursued state from the New Mexico Immunization his talent — and lifelong passion — for music Coalition and First Lady Barbara Richardson. by playing in the UNM band.

Dennis served as the president of two state After graduating and serving as a pharmacy associations and continues to be pharmacist for the Air Force stationed in involved with the UNM College of Pharmacy.

Germany, Dennis returned to New Mexico to His long, dedicated service leads a close open his own pharmacy in Nob Hill. At the associate to call him “a statewide treasure.” same time he supervised two other community The oath that all pharmacists take pharmacies and practiced at UNM Hospitals. starts with the following: “I vow to devote It was around this time that Dennis tried my professional life to the service of all his hand at postage stamp design. He met with humankind through the profession of success. His design commemorating the 120th pharmacy.” There is no better model for anniversary of the American Pharmaceutical upholding that oath than Dennis Peña. The Association became a U.S. Postal Service State of New Mexico and all New Mexicans eight-cent stamp. are lucky to have had Dennis working to make Dennis is a caring, tremendously principled the Land of Enchantment a better place to person with the highest level of integrity, live. Dennis, UNM is proud that you are one known for his focus on what is right and of our own and honored that you have given fair. Dennis took that focus and used it to so much of yourself to help the University and shape important legislation in our state. state. We honor you today with UNM’s 2011 He was elected to the New Mexico House Zia Award. Congratulations, Dennis! of Representatives and served for six years.

2011 Zia Award Elba Saavedra Dr. Elba Saavedra’s official title is Assistant

and master’s degrees. She Professor for Research at the UNM College earned her of Education and Senior Fellow at the Robert doctorate in Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health community Policy. But perhaps a more fitting title would education be: the Ultimate Comadre. Comadre is a term from UNM in used to describe a close female friendship 2004. Since often found in extended families in the Hispanic and Latino communities; a comadre then she’s received grants to extend her good work and accepted awards acknowledging is a godmother, female friend, neighbor… or her community contributions including the simply someone who supports you.

In Elba, women in the Hispanic and Latino 2005 Governor’s Award to Outstanding New Mexico Women and the 2007 Women community have a powerful, warm-hearted, Making A Difference Award. dedicated comadre on their side. And we all It takes vision, passion, diligence, and have someone to look up to. hard work to start a program like Comadre a Elba is the founder and director of Comadre. Elba has all of those characteristics.

Comadre a Comadre, a community-based It takes tenacity to keep it going. Elba has program that offers advocacy, education, information, resources, and support to improve that, too. She’s been described as someone who is fiery and exuberant but also reflective, breast cancer outcomes among Hispanic and Latina women diagnosed with the disease. The sensitive, and filled with a generous spirit.

One associate says that Elba simply glows program uses culturally sensitive, one-to-one when her comadres share their stories. support delivered by trained comadres who When Elba isn’t helping others she loves guide patients through their medical journeys spending time with her grandsons, enjoys and offer emotional support. The comadres dancing and cooking. One friend says you are breast cancer survivors themselves and never leave Elba’s home hungry. represent the culture of the women they’re Throughout her career Elba has seen people helping. The comadres are a lifeline. in need and she’s extended her hand — and The Comadre a Comadre Program her heart. She’s given advice and guidance. exemplifies the focus of Elba’s career: She’s been a shoulder to cry on. She’s provided addressing cancer disparities and improving encouragement. And she’s trained more people cancer care for the Hispanic and Latina to do the same. Elba, you are the ultimate community. For years Elba has provided comadre who continues to touch countless outreach, conducted research and offered lives. For your unique vision, selfless work, and counseling within the Latino community.

Originally from Puerto Rico, Elba came to true dedication, we honor you with our Zia Award. Congratulations, Elba.

UNM in the 1980s and earned her bachelor’s

2012 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Brian Colรณn John Cordova Aileen Garcia Edward Gonzales Rhonda King Baker Morrow

W

2012 Zia Award Brian Colón

hat’s the first image that pops into your mind when you think of Brian Colón? That’s easy.

He’s walking toward you with a smile on his face and his hand extended—for a handshake first, then possibly, just possibly for a vote or a contribution to a worthy cause.

contributing hours and dollars to the causes that move him, from the United On his resume Brian lists fund-raising and politics as Way to the his hobbies. It takes a charming personality to be able Spanish to raise money for as many organizations as Brian does Colonial Arts and still have friends. But people brighten Brian’s days Society to as he does theirs. the Hispanic College Fund Brian’s political career started even before college, to UNM at Los Lunas High School: he was student body Lobos for president, class president, and the representative to Legislation the New Mexico and the U.S. Boys Nation. Brian was to Special on the 10-year plan at New Mexico State. He started Olympics in sales in order to finance his education, but was so successful he almost never stopped. He credits his wife, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters. The bottom line is that it’s all about supporting people who need support.

Aleli, for putting him back on track. But it may also have been a matter of learning who he is and what For UNM, Brian’s greatest impact to date has probably was important to him: The idea of working for the been upon Popejoy Hall. Brian founded the Popejoy community’s future rather than his own.

Hall Leadership Team and served as its chair for five He hit law school at UNM like a whirlwind, serving as president of the Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA) and the Associated Students of UNM (ASUNM), which is the undergraduate student government; ex-officio member of the Board of Regents; and chair of the Student Fee Review Board.

At about this time, the Alumni Association met Brian.

We were working together with the GPSA to create the Lobo license plate. Karen (Abraham) says Brian brought new energy and legitimacy to the GPSA, making it an integral part of the university’s decision making. And Brian has been integrally involved with the university ever since.

Brian is a partner with Robles, Rael & Anaya attorneys. He was named State Bar Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year in 2004. We have counted 16 non-profit organizations that Brian is currently a member of. He is in high demand and seemingly can’t say no! But when he says yes he takes it seriously,

years. The team was critical to Popejoy, turning its prospects around for the better. We’re hoping he’ll work the same magic for the Alumni Association’s current project—a memorial garden surrounding the Alumni Memorial Chapel. We asked him, and he said yes! “If Brian makes a commitment to what is important to him, he goes forth wholeheartedly,” Karen says.

We know Brian wholeheartedly supports the New Mexico Democratic Party. He served as the party’s state chairman in 2008 and as the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in 2010.

Brian, your smile signals so much more than your pleasure at meeting someone. Because behind that smile is your compassion, your energy, your enthusiasm, your positive stance, and your word that you will help those in need. That makes us smile as well. We are proud to present you our Zia Award this morning.

2012 Zia Award John Cordova

J

ohn Cordova majored in business at UNM but could qualify for a PhD in networking. Since his days on the Lobo track team, John has known the importance of relationships and connections.

He’s not trying to rub elbows and be seen. He is genuinely interested in people and in history, politics, business, and current events. Every day John reads multiple newspapers, online publications, and blogs.

He operates his own clipping service. Many of us here today have probably been the recipients of John’s findings.

John began his career with the City of Albuquerque where he met City Council candidate Pete Domenici.

Impressed by John’s marketing skills and abilities, the eventual Mayor Pro Tem appointed John to head a community development department and later, the Model Cities program. When Senator Domenici moved to Washington in 1977, he took John with him to organize and manage the first joint office for the New Mexico Congressional Delegation.

John loved the energy of the nation’s capital. He loved the politics of politics—talking about issues, strategizing, and yes, networking. The door to John’s home office is covered from top to bottom with John’s collection of political memorabilia—bumper stickers, buttons, and more.

While you might suppose that John is a Republican, he is a staunch Democrat whose network of contacts and friends extends across the aisle. When you’re truly interested in people—where they come from, what their histories are—you don’t stop with their political party.

John is interested in his own family’s roots as well. He doesn’t have to look far for subjects: he has more than 100 first cousins.

Ten years after moving to DC, John returned to Albuquerque to try his skills in the private sector at Hirst Public Relations. In 1997, John bought the company, which would become Cordova Public Relations. Through the years, John has developed

a broad business network with numerous regional and national clients. His success lies in part with his belief that his and his clients’ actions should be in the public good.

Given his comprehensive understanding of people and their projects, John is in demand on a variety of volunteer boards—including several related to UNM: the UNM Foundation, Hospital, Alumni Association, and Alumni Lettermen have all benefited from his service, as have the Albuquerque Museum and Lovelace Hospital.

But John’s interests fit most aptly with the US Senator Dennis Chavez Foundation, of which he is the president. For years John has researched and admired the country’s first elected Hispanic senator, an early advocate of civil rights. In 2009, the Foundation made a gift of $100,000 to the UNM Law School to establish the US Senator Dennis Chavez Endowed Lectureship/Symposium on Law and Civil Rights.

John, we need more people like you in our community who are interested in their fellow citizens, are willing to reach out to them, and make the effort to understand them. We are proud to present our Zia Award to you, and hope it will encourage you to keep up the good work!

2012 Zia Award Aileen Garcia

A

ileen Garcia would be a prime candidate for a Grammy Award. Just ask her two grandsons, whom Aileen and her husband, Bill, pick up every afternoon after school. They adore her and call her Grammy.

Aileen’s relationship with her grandsons speaks to more than the joy of everyday experiences. It speaks to her connection to generations past, present, and future, in both her family and in the community. It speaks to the timeless quality of Aileen’s passions.

Aileen was an educator for 40 years—first as a teacher, then a principal in the public schools. Since her retirement, she remains an educator, but now as a volunteer and community leader. Aileen’s wasn’t just a career: It was a way of life. Aileen’s father was a teacher in Las Vegas, New Mexico, where she grew up. Now her son, Kevin, is a teacher in Santa Fe. A bit of history. A bit of the future. Teaching itself is timeless. Aileen quotes Henry Adams, who said that “a teacher reflects eternity: He can never tell where his influence stops.”

member of Partners in Education, a foundation benefiting all of Santa Fe’s primary and secondary schools. She served on the Advancement Committee of the UNM College of Education.

Today, besides her grandchildren, Aileen’s passions center upon two organizations that affect them and subsequent generations of children in New Mexico. Aileen is a board member and emerita director of the Golden Apple Foundation, which recognizes exemplary Aileen taught in 14 different public schools in teachers and invests in their continuing education. three different states, with over 38 years dedicated Recipients of its Golden Apple award serve as to education in New Mexico. She taught Spanish, mentors to current and future teachers. Like Aileen, French, home economics and special education at the Golden Apple Foundation is passionate about all levels in Santa Fe, Socorro, Gallup, Las Vegas, ensuring that New Mexico’s next generation of Albuquerque, Arizona, and Georgia. She was named New Mexico Home Economics Teacher of the Year in teachers is successful in helping students learn.

1985. She was one of the group of teachers to plan and For the past six years she has served on and guided open Capital High School in Santa Fe. After earning the board of the National Hispanic Cultural Center her master’s degree at UNM, she became Principal of Foundation. Her affinity to the Center is deep, Carlos Gilbert Elementary School in Santa Fe. and her connection determined. She sees it as her She only thought her school days ended with her retirement. She was called back again and again afterwards to serve as interim principal at various schools in Santa Fe and Rio Rancho. She also worked as an adjunct professor at Highlands University.

Governor Richardson appointed her to the Public Education Commission in 2004. There she was instrumental in designing the process to authorize charter schools in New Mexico. She was a charter

responsibility to foster the Center in memory of “all those who value the uniqueness of Hispanic culture,” today and tomorrow.

Aileen, you have spent countless hours making a better world for all of our children, grandchildren, and the many generations who will follow them. There is no more important work. Its benefits are timeless. Because of the appreciation and admiration we hold for you, we are proud to give you our Zia Award today.

2012 Zia Award Edward Gonzales

A

rt. The universal language. It speaks to the soul within each of us. But sometimes it’s harder to find the message when it doesn’t speak your language.

When it doesn’t reflect your traditions. When it doesn’t look like your people. That’s what Edward Gonzales realized at a young age, when he began to create art, and looked to great artists for inspiration. Its absence would inspire Edward Gonzales’ art.

Edward was born in Los Angeles but moved to Albuquerque at age one. His father had grown up in the village of Sena in northern New Mexico. His grandmother recognized his artistic talent early on and encouraged him.

Edward read every art book in the neighborhood library. He wondered why he never saw any positive depictions of Hispanic culture. Instead he saw cowboys, Indians, and an occasional Mexican with a sombrero. He didn’t find images of the close-knit families, of the hard-working, proud people he knew.

After three years of studio art at UNM, Edward was drafted into the military. Returning from Vietnam, Edward completed his BFA in 1971. He determined then that he would create art that would focus on the Chicano identity.

Edward’s paintings and prints go back and forth in time. They depict mostly Hispanic—but sometimes African American and Native American—culture.

They depict strong families. They convey a positive role model of fathers. They convey the importance of education and positive values. Edward passionately wants to motivate young people to learn and do well in school.

He began a bilingual poster series that is now used across the country. The posters show children and adults learning, teaching and helping others. One shows a teacher and students in the classroom saying the Pledge of Allegiance. The words on the board are in English and Spanish. In 2003, the White House exhibited that painting and used the poster on the President’s invitation to Hispanic Heritage Month events.

Edward’s accomplishments are many. In the last decade or so, he:

• • • •

•

• founded the Organization of Hispanic Artists and directed the first Contemporary Hispanic Market, in conjunction with the Traditional Spanish market in Santa Fe. • participated in the New Mexico Public Schools Artist-in-Residence program, creating 28 murals and projects throughout the state. illustrated Rudolfo Anaya’s beloved children’s classic, The Farolitos of Christmas. He would also illustrate its sequel, Farolitos for Abuelo. co-authored the definitive biography of his role model, Patrocinio Barela, the one Hispanic artist he had read about as a child in the library. served as New Mexico’s honorary chair for the National Education Association’s Read Across America. his contributions to promoting literacy and family learning were so remarkable that APS named a new public school for him: Edward Gonzales Elementary. the American Association for Hispanics in Higher Education awarded him the Outstanding Latino Cultural Arts Award for advancing understanding of Hispanic culture.

His work contributes to the truth of that statement.

Inclusive of us all, it shows more convincingly than ever that we are all more alike than we are different.

Edward, we thank your gift to us all—for your insight, your dedication, and your talent. We are proud to extend our Zia Award to you today.

2012 Zia Award Rhonda King

R

honda King makes “politician” a compliment.

With Rhonda in mind, you could say to someone, “You look like a politician today!” and they’d thank you. You could say, “How very much a politician your child is!” and they’d say “thank you.” Or on an exceptionally fair day you could say, “The weather today reminds me of a politician!” and we’d all know it was sunny and clear.

That’s because Rhonda epitomizes graciousness and service in the public’s interest. She has served District 40—which encompasses portions of Bernalillo, Santa Fe and Torrance Counties—as state representative since 1998. Rhonda had tried to persuade her dad to run for the legislature in the wake of her cousin Gary’s leaving to run for governor. The effort backfired and she was persuaded instead.

Here’s what makes her outstanding: • she cares about her constituents, inquiring about their families and lives • she listens to her constituents, taking the time to sit down and talk with them • she welcomes constituents to her office, no matter how long the day or how many people she’s seen • she understands the ins and outs of getting legislation passed • she shares her knowledge • she is always polite to those on the other side of the aisle—carrying this equanimity so far as to marry an Aggie!

• she doesn’t ruffle easily; she neither under- or overreacts • she is quick to smile and quick to laugh • she says what she means and means what she says

And most importantly for us, she is a staunch advocate for education in New Mexico.

Excellent education for all of our children stands at the top of her legislative goals, along with quality health care for all citizens, economic development to attract jobs, and government accountability. During her 14 years in the House, Rhonda sponsored the Teacher Professional Develop-ment Fund, the Teacher Certification Reading Courses Act, and co-sponsored the first Statewide Reading Initiative.

Rhonda is vice-chair of the House Education Committee.

She is also a member of the House Appropriations and Finance committee.

In 2010 she was appointed chair of that committees new Higher Education Subcomm-ittee, which recommends the budget for the state’s coll-eges and universities. Rhonda has worked diligently to preserve higher education funding and to prevent cuts during the economic downturn. She also took the lead in developing a new funding formula for colleges and universities, one that would fund research universities such as UNM equitably.

During her years as a legislator, Rhonda married Johnny Montoya and became a mom to now-7-yearold Ashleigh Dawn. She has decided not to seek reelection this year in order to spend more time with her family. It was a value-based decision, one that recognizes the importance of a well-rounded life. An Anderson grad who runs her own real estate business, Rhonda and her family live in Stanley. There she will continue to support the New Mexico Girls and Boys Ranch, 4-H Councils and Clubs, and the Bethel Community Store House. The stage may not be as big, but her impact will remain so.

So, maybe we won’t be able to use “politician” as a compliment after all. Instead, we’ll have to use “Rhonda.” What a “Rhonda” morning this is for me to have the opportunity to present our Zia Award to Representative King. Rhonda, we appreciate your caring, your work, and your accomplishments on behalf of education and all New Mexicans.

2012 Zia Award Baker Morrow

B

aker Morrow has traveled many paths … on the ground. Some are paths that you too have traveled. But I’d be willing to bet that he saw more than you did. Because Baker notices the paths’ surrounding plants, the paths’ material, the vistas, his fellow travelers, and their mode of travel.

Baker has traveled many paths … in his mind.

He’s imagined paths as ancient travelers must have seen them … where they started and ended … why people traveled them … what they looked at while they traveled … what they’d built and how nature influenced their ways. Then, Baker has traveled paths inside the minds of others, following the words and descriptions that long-gone travelers wrote of their journeys.

If you haven’t yet guessed, Baker is a landscape architect. For 41 years he and the firm he founded— Morrow Reardon Wilkinson Miller—have created landscapes that have made our surroundings more beautiful. Among the many notable projects are the Big I, the Lead-Coal corridor, and Balloon Fiesta Park.

Along the way, Baker’s firm has won more than 110 design awards or citations of excellence. Baker is the first native New Mexican to be named a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architecture. Former US Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall presented Baker with the Udall Cultural Landscape Preservation Award for his research on historic landscapes.

A historian at heart—and a Latin American Studies major at UNM—Baker has translated the writings of two Spaniards, most recently the explorer Cabeza de Vaca who recorded his journey for the King of Spain. For that, the Spanish government recently Baker its Ministry of Culture Award. With V.B. Price, Baker has also written about ancient architectures and landscapes of the Anasazi and the American Southwest.

Fortunately for us all, Baker shares his path with others. In 1975 he began teaching landscape architecture at the UNM School of Architecture and Planning. He then became coordinator of a landscape design program. In 1990 he was named Associate

Professor— Adjunct of Landscape Architecture.

In 2009 he became the University’s first Professor of Practice.

For UNM grad students in architecture, Baker created a new destination—a master of Landscape Architecture Program. The program was first fully accredited by the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board in 2003. Its graduates will make our environments more beautiful, with our culture and climate at heart.

We are grateful that Baker’s path has crossed ours at the UNM Alumni Chapel, as we make our idea of a Chapel Garden come to life. Baker designed a garden of simple elegance, in keeping with the chapel’s Franciscan Mission architecture. The centerpiece of the garden is a celebration wall with tiles of photographs of alumni and others—a sort of historic record of the many celebrations, memorials, and other events held at the chapel.

Baker, because of your powers of observation, your insight into our surroundings, your knowledge, your talent and your work, our paths and our journeys are enriched and the quality of our lives is enhanced. And because you teach and write, we know others will continue to benefit. We are happy to give you our Zia Award today.

2013 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Gig Brummell Leslie Hoffman Madeline King Jay Rosenblum Peter Sanchez Frank Sedillo

I

2013 Zia Award Gig Brummell

suppose it would be inappropriate for us to ask Gig Brummell to take his shirt off. I’ve been told there’s an S on his t-shirt beneath. But those who know Gig don’t need to see the S . . . they already know how Super he is.

Gig was a Super Athlete even before coming to UNM. A Santa Fean by birth, Gig moved to Boonville, Missouri at age 6 to live with his grandparents after his mom died. There his best friend was Chicken Shellnut, and his best ally was athletics. He and the nine boys in his class played sports year-round.

As a high school senior, Gig received letters of interest from more than 40 colleges and universities, and was actively recruited by many, including UNM. Gig decided to return to his home state and become a Lobo . . . a Super Lobo.

In basketball, Gig became team captain and leading scorer, and placed in the top ten percent of free-throw-shooters nationwide.

In baseball, Gig earned all-conference honors and first-team Skyline conference. After graduating, he signed with the Albuquerque Dukes, then an affiliate of the Kansas City Athletics. Had bursitis not flared in his pitching arm, Gig might have become a Super Star.

While in school, Gig met his future wife, Jeannie who would make him a Super-Husband, -Dad, and -Granddad.

Gig has always been a Super Leader. He led his teammates on the field, his fraternity brothers in Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and his classmates on campus.

He also led in his 37-year career in investments at Dean Witter/Morgan Stanley. He was named one of the top five branch managers. Under his leadership, the Albuquerque branch became number one in the Southwest for nine years, and one of the top 10 nationwide.

His friend since college days, Jack Kennedy, says Gig guided others, not through judgmental criticism, but through true leadership.

You could not be around Gig and not try to do what was right.

Add to the list of superlatives that of Super Volunteer. At UNM alone, Gig has served as president of the Alumni Lettermen’s Association and on the UNM Athletic Council and the Dean’s Council of the Anderson School of Management. He is an inductee of both the Alumni Lettermen’s Hall of Honor and the Anderson School Hall of Fame. Gig is vice-chair of the Sandia Foundation, and serves on numerous other boards and committees.

As a side-note, we might also add that Gig is a Super Prankster. Just ask his friends around the table at Barelas Cafe where they get together monthly.

Pranks or no-pranks, Gig is a Super Friend. In a world of givers and takers, Jack says no one better fits the example of a person who understands that the more one gives, the more one receives.

Gig is anything but an ordinary man. With a twinkle in his eye, Gig can kid; with the beat of his heart, Gig can comfort. Whichever it is, Gig is thinking about the other person.

Gig would give you the shirt off his back . . . but then we’re back to the t-shirt with the S . . .

Gig, for your outstanding accomplishments and good will, we’re super-pleased to give you our Zia Award this morning.

W

2013 Zia Award Leslie Hoffman

ith one short affirmative, Leslie Hoffman takes on life.

“Gotcha!” she would say to an assignment at the Albuquerque Tribune. And with that, editor Phill Casaus knew that she understood not just the facts to be pursued—but the reasons behind and the implications of the story. Because Leslie’s mind is like that: expansive, analytical, quick.

And her approach is straightforward.

So, when Leslie was assigned the story of Wen Ho Lee’s indictment as a spy in 2000, Phil was not surprised at her competent, even extraordinary coverage. The “22-year-old kid,” Phil says, “dominated the case up until the day ‘Lee Goes Free’” headed the paper. The previous night, Leslie had interviewed Lee and his family in Los Alamos, driven back to the paper, written the story and fallen asleep behind Phil’s desk.

“She wrote the best story in America that night,” Phil says. The senior editors at the Tribune nominated her for a Pulitzer.

Gotcha! Leslie would say to her work with the Peace Corps in rural El Salvador. There she organized citizen advisory groups to address infrastructure and community needs.

Gotcha! She would say to her charge at Acción New Mexico * Arizona * Colorado, first publicizing the micro-lending agency’s efforts, then participating in them, and finally directing them as vice president.

Pratt Moreno, owner of Albuquerque’s Golden Panadería Bakery and an Acción client, knew Leslie “got it” from their first meeting. “She has an analytical mind and can apply it to actual circumstances,” he says.

Gotcha! Leslie says to the challenge of teaching students at CNM and UNM about the ins and outs of entrepreneurship.

Gotcha! She says to the requests of her clients in her new business, LEH Consulting Group, in which she helps nonprofits and small businesses look ahead and grow.

Helping both an organization and a community at large is the hallmark of Leslie’s work, says Alexis Kerschner Tappan, a lifelong friend on the administrative staff of CNM. Leslie recently developed a forward-looking model for the college’s dual-credit financial literacy program.

A third-generation Lobo, Leslie serves on the board of the Anderson School of Management Alumni Council. She has helped establish several scholarship programs, including the Perseverance Award for UNM Executive MBA students and the Hank Trewhitt Daily Lobo Alumni Award for UNM student journalists. She serves as vice president of the Albuquerque Public Schools Foundation.

“Leslie wants to do something that directly contributes to the state she covered as a reporter with such dedication and insight,” Alexis says.

“In whatever form it takes, Leslie wants to make the world better,” Phill says. “She won’t just stand back and let things happen.”

Gotcha, Leslie! You do make the world better.

From personal interaction to world vision, your positive attitude is infectious, and your talents are tremendous. We are delighted to present you our Zia Award today.

L

2013 Zia Award Madeline King

ooking back, Madeline King has been looking forward since she was a child.

The terrarium she populated with insects in her Gallup elementary school made her look forward to science classes.

Volunteering at a pharmacy in high school made her look forward to pharmaceutical studies in college.

Her husband’s love made her look forward to graduating while juggling school, work, and their child.

Her grandmother’s strength and her parents’ support made her look forward to succeeding.

A residency at the Veterans Affairs Health Care System made her look forward to a career serving our country’s vets.

Looking at Madeline King now, we know that she is forward-looking as she plans, delivers and teaches in her field.

As one of the first critical care pharmacists in the state and at the VA, Madeline helped define and expand the role of a pharmacist who works as part of a team alongside physicians, nurses, and technicians to best serve patients—a forward-looking plan.

Recently Madeline extended that opportunity to UNM Pharmacy students by initiating the Valor Program. Two students each year learn medication delivery alongside a team of other healthcare professionals.

Madeline is in charge of pharmacy strategic planning—both inpatient and out-patient—and learning resources for the VA. A forward-looking endeavor. A trailblazer in the field, only two others in the country hold similar positions.

Madeline coordinates the UNM College of Pharmacy Student Experiential Program at the VA. She serves as the primary preceptor for those students’ pharmacy rotations. Pointing students

forward.

Madeline directs the pharmacy residency program at the VA. The careful supervision residents ensures their careful practice in the years ahead.

As a member of the College of Pharmacy admission committee, Madeline helps decide which applicants will attend the college, and thus helps determine their future, the college’s, and the profession’s.

As clinical assistant professor at the UNM College of Pharmacy, Madeline instructs future pharmacists.

Really, the future and Madeline’s commitment to moving forward are all about growth and education—her own and that of others—says her friend and colleague Nina Resch. Madeline makes others better, not just clinically but personally, by listening, collaborating, and helping.

She pushes herself to be better all the time, Nina says, and by doing that she makes others want to follow suit.

Somehow, Nina says, Madeline manages to do it all calmly, conscientiously, and humbly, always putting others first.

We’ve been looking forward to giving you our Zia Award, Madeline, for your example, your accomplishments and your commitment to moving healthcare in New Mexico forward.

I

2013 Zia Award Jay Rosenblum

t was no surprise when Jay Rosenblum became a lawyer. His sense of justice propelled him even as a teenager, and continues to propel him as president and CEO at Sutin,Thayer & Brown.

It was a surprise when at age 30 Jay learned to play the bass guitar and began a parallel career of western swing with Albuquerque’s Curio Cowboys.

His friend and bandmate, fellow-lawyer John Feldman, says Jay combines the best of Gandhi and Waylon Jennings.

Ghandi, himself a lawyer, said his joy was boundless when he learned the true practice of law: to find the better side of human nature and to enter men’s hearts . . . and when he learned the true function of a lawyer: to unite parties riven asunder.

Country music singer, songwriter and bass-player Waylon Jennings, sang about the courage and heart of the hero, and the empathy of the listener: Loud, don’t always mean stronger Shy, don’t ever mean weak The less you can say sometimes can mean more If you choose to use the right words to speak.

John points out that the managing lawyer of a large firm must strike a balance between making decisions and not making decisions for a group of strong-willed professionals. The bass player in a band must set the chord structure and rhythm for a group of strong-willed musicians. Jay is able to do both, wisely.

Jay specializes in business and tax law. He also specializes in integrity, leadership, and communitybuilding, his sister, Gail, says, treating clients, colleagues, students and community members with equanimity. They sense that his motivation lies in doing what is right.

Jay works with lawyers of all generations. At the UNM Law School, he works with students in

interviewing, counseling and negotiating. He helps them think about the kind of lawyer they want to be, John says... not what specialty to pursue, but what qualities of character to strive for.

Gail says Jay is non-judgmental, even though he works in a judgmental profession. While he could have become hardened and cynical, he is innately kind.

Pro bono, which means for the good, defines all of Jay’s work, whether or not it is billable. Jay has served as chairman of the New Mexico Community Foundation, general counsel to the New Mexico Economic Development Corporation, president of the Del Norte Rotary Foundation, vice chair for public policy of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, and with Leadership New Mexico and Leadership Albuquerque. For more than 10 years, he has served on the board of directors of the David Specter Shalom House.

Jay, your wise ways and true heart sing to us.

We are honored to present our Zia Award to you today.

W

2013 Zia Award Peter Sanchez

hen Peter Sanchez left New Mexico, he wanted to get away from the culture he perceived as a negative influence on his life. When he returned, he embraced it wholeheartedly.

Peter left New Mexico 25 years ago after graduating from UNM with a business degree in accounting.

He had been recruited as a financial analyst and project comptroller at ARCO Oil and Gas in Houston. There he earned a law degree from the University of Houston. He then moved to New York to work as a tax consultant for Deloitte & Touche.

He held senior financial and executive positions in three separate technology ventures in New York and Texas before becoming Chief Financial Officer of Bradmark Technologies, a utility software company headquartered in Houston.

Few can rival his resume. And even fewer can rival the degree of self-motivation and determination it took to build it.

If there’s anything Peter likes to do, it’s build.

He built his life up from a low point as a teenager in trouble. One of nine children growing up in a tough area of the South Valley, with few positive role models, Peter resolved he would leave the past behind and create a better life away.

But leading a life of career enhancement simply wasn’t Peter’s way. Knowing the power of education and self-awareness, Peter hungered to better the lives of the people he had grown up with. So Peter came home, sensing that the very culture he had wanted to escape could in fact offer unique benefits, including pride, community and possibility.

And that’s exactly the premise of the Atrisco Companies, which Peter began building as CEO in 2007. Five community-based entities—four not-for-profit—comprise the Atrisco Companies.

All are dedicated to supporting the education, culture and economic development of the heirs to the Atrisco Land Grant and the community in general. Today, there are approximately 50,000

Atrisco Land Grant heirs linked to the earliest settlers of the region extending from the Rio Grande to the Rio Puerco. Peter is one of these heirs.

The five companies are the Rio Grande Educational Collaborative, the Atrisco Heritage Foundation, El Campo Santo, Atrisco Oil and Gas, and Mariachi Spectacular. The companies have awarded more than $300,000 in scholarships. They run an academic before- and after-care program for more than 50 elementary schools across the state, employing more than 150 contractors. They operate three cemeteries to alleviate the high costs of burials for low-income families.

Recently, working in collaboration with UNM and APS, they have begun a pilot program in Atrisco Heritage Academy. The Guide to Greatness curriculum addresses the emotional readiness of students for higher education—dealing with values such as persevering, overcoming obstacles, not accepting mediocrity and embracing one’s heritage.

Peter’s colleague at Atrisco Companies, Carolyn Ortega, says Peter’s genuine compassion for the people he serves as well as for his staff has enabled them all to grow.

Peter, we are full of joy that you have returned, and full of optimism that your endeavors will continue to succeed and grow on behalf of all New Mexicans.

We thank you, and are proud to present you our Zia Award today.

F

2013 Zia Award Frank Sedillo

rank Sedillo has been a role model for kids ever since he was a kid himself. His principal at Albuquerque High, Richard Romero, says “Frankie” was an athlete and a smart kid who would talk with everybody.

As an adult, Frank coaches football, baseball and basketball, and as a Metropolitan Court judge he remains, proudly, in touch with everybody.

Good coaches and good judges—and Frank— hold a lot in common.

• A good coach is tough, but fair. So is a good judge. So is Frank.

• A good coach treats his players with respect, although that respect has to be earned. Not unlike a good judge. Not unlike Frank.

• A good coach understands a player’s weaknesses and strengths. Not unlike a judge. Not unlike Frank.

• A good coach is a good observer. So is a good judge. So is Frank.

Frank tends to see things differently, Richard Romero says, not just as an athlete-student-lawyer, but as one of the people. He has empathy, due partially to his upbringing.

Frank’s mom was a hairdresser and his dad a miner, railroad worker and machinist. They made a loving home for their three sons, teaching them the value of hard work and regard for others.

After playing three sports at Albuquerque High and graduating in the top of his class, Frank lettered in football at UNM. He earned Western Athletic Conference all-academic honors four years in a row, and received the Stan Bates Award as the WAC’s top scholar-athlete.

A business grad, Frank sampled the Washington scene as an aide to US Senator Pete Domenici for a year before earning his JD at UNM in 1987.

A practicing lawyer for 13 years, Frank was exposed to the full gamut of law—civil and criminal, family

and corporate.

About the same time Frank began practicing law, he went back to practicing ball, but this time as a coach. He gave his time and heart to kids, emulating the coaches who had played such a role in his own youth. He is a licensed football coach and official with the New Mexico Activities Association. He served as president and on the board of directors of the Young American Football League.

An avid Alumni Letterman, Frank has served on the board of directors since 1994, including a term as president and multiple years’ co-chairing the Hall of Honor.

In 2000, Frank was elected a judge in the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court.

When not at court, Frank volunteers for APS, the New Mexico State Bar, and the Center for Civic Values—almost always on behalf of young people. He continues to coach, but now he coaches his son’s team.

Frank also hosts “The Advocate,” a City of Albuquerque television show that answers and instructs citizens in legal matters.

Recently, Frank officiated at a gathering of couples wed in the UNM Alumni Chapel over the past 50 years who were renewing their vows. He instructed them to love, honor, and cheer for the Lobos.

Frank, you are a role model for us all. We are honored, your honor, to give you our Zia Award.

2014 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS John Draper Charles Lanier Damon Martinez Don Power Ruth Schifani Barbara Vigil

I

2014 Zia Award John Draper

t’s a big deal for a lawyer to argue a case before the United States Supreme Court. Most attorneys never get there and for the few that do, that Supreme Court oral argument is the highlight of their career.

Then there’s John Draper.

John has argued before the justices three times, representing Western states in interstate water disputes.

In a 35-year legal career, John has built a reputation as the dean of water law in New Mexico and one of the preeminent natural resources lawyers in the country.

None of it comes as a surprise to his law school classmates. Harold Lavender, a friend of John’s from Highland High School, attended UNM law school with John and describes John as “one of the wizards” of the class of 1975. Lavender went to class and got a fine legal education, but he says he could have simply sat on a couch in the lounge and listened to John argue with fellow classmates and learned everything he needed to know.

“John,” his friend says, “is one smart dude.”

John went to Princeton and earned an electrical engineering degree before returning to UNM law school, where he graduated magna cum laude and was the editor of both the New Mexico Law Review and the prestigious Natural Resources Journal.

A Fulbright Scholarship took him to Sweden where he studied Swedish law. This one smart dude speaks Swedish and also Greek. He has a graduate degree from St. John’s College and in his spare time you might find him sailing on the waters off Greece or Sweden or Cape Cod or making his way through Homer’s Odyssey or Iliad — in Greek, of course.

Friend Michael Campbell describes John as curious, intellectual and a scholar who is meticulous in his legal work and enjoys puzzling out the complicated

hydrology and engineering issues of water law cases.

While his friends and legal publications sing his praises, John quietly goes about his law work and his community service on behalf of arts and educational institutions. He sits on the board of the International Folk Art Foundation, an interest he shares with his wife, Lucy, and also on the Presidents’ Council of St. John’s.

“He’s always been quite reserved,” his friend Campbell says. “But you talk to him for thirty minutes and you know that he’s one bright guy.”

John, your quiet competence and lifelong commitment to intellectual pursuits make you the perfect ambassador for a UNM education.

We’re pleased to give you our Zia Award.

T

2014 Zia Award Charles Lanier

here is a saying in the business and philanthropic world: If you want something to get done, assign it to a busy person.

Over decades in Albuquerque, that person has been Chuck Lanier.

We could list all of the civic organizations Chuck has donated his care and attention to — if we wanted to stretch this breakfast into the lunch hour.

So let’s limit the list to the organizations on which he served as president or chairman: the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, the Albuquerque Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Forum, the Industrial Foundation of Albuquerque, the Albuquerque Boys Club, the Greater Southwest Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the United Community Fund, the Albuquerque Metropolitan Development Committee, the state Personnel Board.

Is it time for lunch yet?

While pursuing a career in finance and land titles, Chuck also found time to serve in government, as city commissioner and flag waver for a number of bond campaigns.

The next time you settle in with a helmet sundae at Isotopes Park, you can tip your cap to Chuck. He was the treasurer of the park’s bond campaign in 2001.

Charles Lanier was born in Aztec in 1921. He graduated from UNM in 1943 and then duty called.

Chuck served as an officer in the Navy during World War II aboard four different aircraft carriers.

After the war ended, Chuck came back to UNM and, like a lot of guys, he was looking for a job. President Tom Popejoy took a chance on the young veteran and put him in charge of UNM’s golf course, which at the time was a nine-hole affair between Mesa Vista Hall and Girard. The clubhouse was a little shack where Hokona Hall now sits.

Under Chuck’s management, the course grew to 18 holes and then 27, expanding onto North Campus.

John Perovich, the university’s controller, was Chuck’s boss and wasn’t surprised when Chuck told him he was leaving for a job in business. The move was good for Chuck.

He was president of New Mexico Title Company for 30 years. And it was good for Albuquerque.

Chuck dived into civic affairs with gusto. Whenever an opening came up on a board or a civic chore needed doing, Perovich says, “He’d either volunteer, or they’d fetch him.”

Chuck founded the Economic Forum in 1982 and was its chairman for four years. In his 90s now, he could rest on his laurels, but he’s still helping to make Albuquerque a better city. According to current Economic Forum president Bob Murphy, “He seldom misses a meeting — and if he does he has a damn good reason.”

There are plenty of good reasons to honor Chuck and thank him for his decades of helping Albuquerque and UNM. We are honored to present him our Zia Award.

A

2014 Zia Award Damon Martinez

s a career federal prosecutor, Damon Martinez has gone after international drug cartels, weapons traffickers, gangs and organized crime bosses.

As a member of the U.S. Army Reserves, he was called to Washington to help organize the Reserves’ legal command.

And as a major in the New Mexico National Guard, he left his family and New Mexico and spent months in the Sinai working in support of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Diplomatic. Poised. Steadfast. Principled. Calm.

Organized. Efficient.

Colleagues and friends use those words to describe Damon. In recommending Damon to serve as New Mexico’s United States Attorney, New Mexico’s two United States senators, added to that list “excellent public servant.”

Last November, the president agreed, and nominated Damon to serve as our U.S. Attorney, the top federal law enforcement officer in New Mexico. In May, he won unanimous Senate confirmation.

Damon is an Albuquerque native. He graduated from St. Pius and moved on to UNM. At UNM, Damon developed a habit of picking up two degrees at a time. In 1989, he received Bachelor of Arts degrees in both economics and political science. He pursued post-graduate degrees in law and business at UNM, overlapping the two three-year degrees and receiving his JD in 1992 and his MBA a year later.

Did I mention he’s organized and efficient?

Damon joined the U.S. Attorney’s office, first in Las Cruces and then in Albuquerque. Colleague Greg Fouratt describes Damon as “serious and quietly effective, reliable and steady” as a prosecutor.

“A good guy to have at the helm of the ship if you want to not hit the rocks,” Fouratt says.

Also a good guy to have on your ship if you’re trying to make a difference in the world. Despite a high-level career, a busy family life and the demands of being a citizen soldier, Damon found time to volunteer at the Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd’s ministry to the homeless in downtown Albuquerque. Brother Gerard at the Good Shepherd Center, which provides shelter, meals and clothing to people living on the street, was surprised several years ago when the assistant U.S. attorney came by and offered to help and then stayed for years.

Brother Gerard adds “compassion” to the list of superlatives to describe Damon. “Family, faith and the community are his priorities,” he says.

Damon, for your outstanding record of service to the country and to New Mexico, we’re honored to present to you this Zia Award.

I

2014 Zia Award Don Power

n an interview several years ago, Don Power outlined some of the mottos that have guided his success in business.

Motto Number One: “You can’t be in construction unless you like being a problem solver.”

Through a 45-year career with Jaynes Corporation, Don has been involved in all aspects of the construction trade as chief problem solver — from negotiating multi-million dollar contracts to mobilizing teams of tradesmen to get the job done.

Motto Number Two: “Timing is everything.”

Don is a St. Pius grad and he stayed in Albuquerque for college, working on his degree at UNM nine months out of the year and in the summers working as a laborer for what was then a small concrete contractor called Jaynes. He wore rubber boots and shoveled a lot of concrete.

After he graduated from UNM in 1971 with a degree in history and geology, Don — a lover of the outdoors — might have headed off to an adventure in Alaska teaching middle school. But his bosses at Jaynes recognized a smart guy with a strong back and they offered him a full-time job.

Don started as a concrete form setter and a year later he was promoted to concrete estimator.

Howard Mock ran Jaynes back then and he knew Don was destined for the executive suite.

“He worked hard,” Mock remembers. “And he can meet and talk to anybody. He has a great personality.”

Don became vice president for the building division, then estimating and then marketing before being named president of the company in 1988 and its chairman in 2006.

Along the way he earned another degree from UNM, the Anderson School’s executive MBA.

And now to Don’s Motto Number Three: “You have to have a plan and then have a backup plan.”

Don’s plan was to take Jaynes Corporation into the 21st century as a solid, employeeowned company handling projects all over the Southwest and acting as a good civic citizen. Under his leadership the company expanded into California, Nevada and Colorado, weathered the Great Recession and built many of the buildings we pass by every day — Isleta and Route 66 casinos, Rio Rancho’s Cleveland High School, Albuquerque Studios and on the UNM campus, the School of Architecture and Planning and the Children’s Hospital.

He retired earlier this year and now he’s excelling at his backup plan — fly fishing on the San Juan River, snagging salmon in Alaska, hunting elk and pheasants, and camping in the Gila.

We talk about business leaders helping to build Albuquerque. And in Don’s case, that’s literally true.

With thanks for all your hard work and dedication to the community, Don, please accept our Zia Award.

R

2014 Zia Award Ruth Schifani

uth Schifani needs only to drive around Albuquerque to see her family’s legacy of public service. There’s Milne Stadium, named for her grandfather, John Milne, who served as Albuquerque Public Schools superintendent from 1911 to 1956. And on the UNM campus, Sara Raynolds Hall, named for her late mother.

Ruth is carrying on the family tradition She has served as president of the University of New Mexico Alumni Association, president of the Y.W.C.A. of the Middle Rio Grande and president of the Albuquerque Bar Association.

Currently, she serves as chair of the UNM Honors College Advisory Board and treasurer of the board of New Mexico Appleseed, a nonprofit that works toward better public policy for New Mexico’s most disadvantaged.

That’s what Ruth does in her spare time. Well, not all her spare time. Ruth and all of her brothers were competitive swimmers in their youth and Ruth still finds a lane at the university pool and makes sure she gets her laps in.

Professionally, she’s just as impressive.

As a shareholder with the Modrall Sperling law firm, Ruth is the go-to lawyer for complex real estate and banking cases and she is the queen of bond transactions.

But beyond being a great lawyer, she has been a friend and mentor to young attorneys joining the firm, especially young women. Maybe that’s because she was one of the pioneers who helped blaze a path for women in the law in Albuquerque.

Ruth’s roommate at UNM law school, Suzanne Barker Kalangis, paints the picture of the law school back in the early 1970s — there was only one women’s bathroom and it was shared by students and staff.

When she received her JD in 1976, Ruth got a job at the Modrell firm — only the second female lawyer the firm had ever hired.

Her colleague, Joan Drake, says Ruth has always made time to help younger women find their footing.

“Ruth has always been a mentor and a role model for all the women in the firm,” Drake says.

At the law firm, she’s described as friendly, collegial, collaborative, welcoming and kind.

Kalangis, who has remained friends with her law school roommate for 40 years, adds fun, funny, brilliant and outgoing. “Everyone loves Ruth,” she says.

And Ruth loves New Mexico and has given of herself to make it better. We’re proud to give to you this Zia Award, Ruth, for all you have done.

W

2014 Zia Award Barbara Vigil

hen she was a child, the chief justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court had her feet planted firmly in the earth. On her mother’s side were farmers who grew vegetables and sold them at a stand on North Fourth Street in Albuquerque.

On her father’s side were ranchers who raised cattle in a small village outside of Abiquiu.

Through law school, 15 years as a practicing attorney, 12 years as a District Court judge and nearly two years now on the Supreme Court, Barbara Vigil has continued to stay grounded.

She is described by colleagues as analytical, logical, well-organized and having “a famous work ethic.”

Another word used frequently to describe the newest chief justice is “humble.”

If there is a theme that runs through Chief Justice Vigil’s work, it is children.

After she graduated from UNM with a law degree in 1985, Justice Vigil went to work for a firm in Las Cruces and began representing the interests of child victims in abuse and neglect cases. That sparked a life-long interest in advocating for the most vulnerable.

When she started her own law practice in Santa Fe, she specialized in representing children and the elderly and some of her proudest moments have been winning sizable judgments for victims.

In 2000, when a Children’s Court Judge position opened up in the First Judicial District in Santa Fe, she ran in a contested primary election, won and spent 10 year presiding over cases involving adoption, child abuse and neglect and criminal cases involving defendants under age 18.

Celia Castillo, a former judge on the Court of Appeals, says Judge Vigil did not just hear cases, she worked as an advocate for funding for programs to help high-risk kids and to make the court responsive to children’s needs.

“She didn’t want to just put kids in jail,” Castillo says.

“She wanted to give them opportunities to become better people.”

Barbara Vigil was born in Albuquerque and moved to Santa Fe when she was in the third grade. When she was 12, her mother passed away suddenly from an aneurism, leaving her father to raise her and her five siblings alone.

She and her sisters became boarders at St. Catherines Indian School, spending the week in the dormitories and returning home on weekends.

Experiencing tragedy and hardship at a young age sometimes can derail a young adult. And sometimes it can make them stronger and build a commitment to a life of service. Outside of the courtroom, Justice Vigil has served on the American Red Cross and serves on the Santa Fe-Spain sister city organization.

Castillo describes Justice Vigil as an outstanding role model for young women and especially young Hispanic women.

If it please the court, we would be honored to bestow this Zia Award on Chief Justice Barbara Vigil.

2015 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Cynthia Arndell Bette Jo Sisneros-Ciesielski Kirk Gittings Rene Matison Frank McCulloch Coleman Travelstead

W

2015 Zia Award Cynthia Arndell

hen she’s teaching UNM medical students about health disparities and the social factors associated with good or poor health, Cynthia Arndell doesn’t just preach from the lectern.

She takes her students out on the streets to meet the patients she’s talking about – the homeless and the mentally ill – and see first hand their special challenges.

Cynthia has made helping those less fortunate her life’s mission.

From her early days as a volunteer in junior high … to her nursing career where her worked with poor women and children … to her early years as a doctor at Healthcare for the Homeless in Albuquerque.

Cynthia has showed compassion and care for the kinds of populations many people turn away from. It sounds like a cliché, but Cynthia is committed to making the world a better place.

On the UNM faculty, she has developed groundbreaking curriculum that introduces each firstyear medical student to the special needs of the homeless and the importance of engaging with communities to meet their needs. In a fourth-year rotation, her students gain more experience with treating special populations.

Her colleague, Dr. Cynthia Geppert, calls Cynthia intense, driven and intellectually gifted and an amazing teacher. Due to her commitment, every new doctor who leaves UNM will look at homeless patients through new eyes and will have the skills to meet their unique medical needs.

We are privileged to count Cynthia as a double-UNM alum and to present her with the Zia award.

Cynthia Arndell, Class of 1980 and 1994: • Alpha Omega Alpha Physicians’ Honor Society Fellow in Leadership Award recipient • UNM Presidential Luminaria Award recipient • Good Shepherd Homeless Shelter and Rehabilitation Center board member • Saranam, United Methodist Homeless Ministries board member

B

2015 Zia Award Betty Jo Sisneros-Ciesielski

ette Jo Ciesielski has been the backbone and mainstay of the New Mexico Community Health Worker Association for more than 20 years. If you’re not familiar with community health workers, let me tell you a little about them. Known as CHWs, they are frontline public health workers from the communities they serve.

Working as liaisons between health and social services, they are a vital link in assuring that everyone gets the medical care and social services they need.

That mission has been Bette Jo’s passion. She started out on those front lines as a CHW herself. Since 1995, she has been training CHWs and has managed community health worker programs under UNM Hospital and the Gila Regional Medical Center.

Over the years, she has been a patient mentor, an energetic fundraiser and a fierce advocate of the community health worker model. Seeing that local CHWs needed continued training, she looked for a source of funding to send them to annual conferences. Not finding one, she opened a thrift boutique to raise funds, recruiting friends, neighbors and family members to pitch in to staff the store.

That was 12 years ago. Today, if you want to find a stylish outfit and help out the Community Health Worker Association, you can head up to Juan Tabo and drop some cash at the Passion for Fashion resale boutique.

Bette Jo will thank you. And we thank her for her dedication to a great cause.

We’re proud to recognize her hard work and dedication to health care in New Mexico with the Zia Award.

Bette Jo Sisneros-Ciesielski, Class of 1990, Serves on: • The American Public Health Association CHW Section Governing Council • The New Mexico Public Health Association • The Bernalillo County Comprehensive Health Council • The New Mexico Department of Health Office of CHWs Advisory Council • The New Mexico Breastfeeding Task Force

2015 Zia Award Kirk Gittings

K

irk Gittings describes himself as obsessed with the cultural landscape of the southwest. He finds himself most alive in unpopulated places … lonely places … places that have been abandoned.

His fine art photographs capture that loneliness, its energy and its spiritual power—often under a towering New Mexico sky.

Then there are Kirk’s architectural photographs. In this body of work, he captures stunning homes and beautiful interior designs.

These two sides of Kirk’s work have made him one of the leading photographers in the Southwest.

Highly decorated, he has been exhibited in more than 100 gallery and museum shows. He’s been published in books and magazines.

And if you subscribe to New Mexico Magazine, you probably think of Kirk as an old friend.

Kirk’s friend, the poet V.B. Price, calls him “a true master” and “a great artist.” The two worked together on a book of photographs and poems about Chaco Canyon. They visited Chaco more than a dozen times and walked through wind, snow, rain and lightning storms. It’s part of Kirk’s process: waiting, watching and waiting some more. Until the light is right, the clouds line up and he can capture the power of emptiness.

In thanks for all the beauty you have captured over your career.

Kirk Gittings, Class of 1972: • Taught photography at UNM and the Chicago Art Institute • Teaches at Santa Fe University of Art and Design • Included in 27 public art permanent collections • National Endowment of the Arts major grant winner • Honored by New Mexico State Legislature proclamation

2015 Zia Award Rene Matison

R

ene Matison is fast. In the time it takes me to tell you he was a four-year letterman in track and field at UNM …. Rene would have finished the 100-yard dash. That’s right—In just over 9 seconds.

Rene came to UNM from Gary, Indiana, to be part of the lean and mean sprint machine that was the Lobo track team in the 1960s.

He set a school record for 60 yards and he was a two-time AllAmerican, competing in the 440 and mile relays.

In his fifth year at UNM, things really got interesting. Rene took his speed to the football field, even though he had never played before.

He scored touchdowns.

Pro football scouts were watching. And in 1969, Rene was the 13th round draft choice for the Dallas Cowboys. That’s what Rene did on the playing fields.

He excelled in a career in human resources in California, but Rene never forgot his undergraduate major—education. He coached youth in soccer, track, and basketball.

And he volunteers his time mentoring African American students in athletics through the Zest for Excellence in Athletics & Learning program.

ZEAL as the program is known, pairs freshman athletes with successful black professionals in a mentoring relationship geared to spur them to the same success Rene has had had in sports and in life.

Rene Matison, Class of 1969: • NFL draft pick • UNM Black Alumni Association board member • Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club vice president • UNM Letterman’s Hall of Honor inductee • UNM Athletic Hall of Honor inductee

A

2015 Zia Award Frank McCulloch

sked by a local newspaper reporter about his artistic process, painter Frank McCulloch said, “The important thing is to show up and see if something happens.” Frank has been showing up to see if something happens for more than 50 years. And what tends to happen … in the intersection between the tip of his paint brush and his imagination … is magic.

Much of the credit for Frank’s prolific painting career goes to his wife, Patsy. She fixes him breakfast every morning and sends him off to his studio with a gentle warning: “See you at 5.”

Frank’s paintings are warm and atmospheric. They often capture that breezy, charged moment just before or after a storm. Somehow, he captures the emotion of the New Mexico landscape. You can find one of those moments on this year’s Homecoming poster.

But Frank’s contributions to New Mexico are greater than his art. He plays an important role in New Mexico folk music with his band, Frank y Sus Amigos.

He taught at Highland High School for years and counts 9,000 students who went through his art class. It’s no exaggeration to say he can remember all 9,000.

Roy Johnson, co-owner of the Sumner and Dene Gallery that represents Frank, calls his friend brilliant, a renaissance man. And he’s not alone. Frank has collected friends for decades. He’s a wonderful listener. Present in every moment.

Frank, the UNM Alumni Association is pleased to count you as our friend and to give you the Zia Award.

Frank McCulloch, Class of 1953: • Governor’s Award in the Arts honoree • Albuquerque Arts Alliance Bravos Award recipient • Albuquerque Local Treasure • 2015 UNM Homecoming poster artist • Frank McCulloch y Sus Amigos guitarist

A

2015 Zia Award Coleman Travelstead

fter he graduated from UNM in 1969, Coleman Travelstead’s work in banking and publishing took him across the country and around world—San Francisco, Osaka, Kobe, Tokyo, Taipei, New York and Miami.

While he was gone, he never forgot UNM. Coleman has been active in the Alumni Assoc. for more than 35 years and he helped launch the New York and Miami chapters. He’s been on our board off and on for more than 15 years and he served as president in 2004 and 2005.

After that high-flying career, he came home in 2000 to accept a position as director of project management at Technology Ventures Corporation, the venture capital firm that connects technology entrepreneurs with funders. He launched the firm’s Innovation Magazine, which was the first national trade magazine to focus on intellectual property at the national labs.

Sherman McCorkle, who hired him, said he was drawn to Coleman’s eclectic intellect and way with words.

Coleman has since retired, which gives him more time to continue his quest for finding the best highly-ranked wines for $20 a bottle or less. And it has been a boon for the philanthropic world.

Coleman serves on numerous boards. And in every organization, he doesn’t just “sit” on the board, he works, he leads, he gets things done. Coleman makes a difference.

He and his wife, Brooks McIntyre, are a dynamic duo of volunteering. They are true examples of living as citizens of the community and their hard work is evident at the symphony, the Hispanic Cultural Center, the Museum of Natural History and many more institutions.

We’re glad Coleman returned to New Mexico and proud to say he’s one of ours.

Coleman Travelstead, Class of 1969: • General Manager, Associate Publisher, Vista Magazine • Past President, UNM Alumni Association • Chaired Hodgin Hall Restoration Committee • KUNM Radio Board • President, New Mexico Entrepreneurs Association • New Mexico Museum of Natural History Board • Board Chair, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra

2016 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Celia Foy Castillo Kenneth Gonzales Gary Gordon James Miller Carol Pierce Randy Royster Robert Solenberger

C

2016 Zia Award Celia Foy Castillo

ontinuing a legacy of dedication to improving the lives of New Mexico’s citizens, it is said that everything Zia Award recipient Celia Foy Castillo touches becomes better.

Celia graduation from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1981 when she started practicing law in Silver City. She was elected to the New Mexico Court of Appeals in 2000 and served until her retirement in 2013, which included two years as chief judge.

“Celia has spent her life helping others and helping improve the lives of many New Mexicans,” Barbara Vigil said. “Her commitment to the law and its evolution made her an outstanding court of appeals judge.”

Her deep roots in New Mexico and her love for the state has engrained an incredible sense of responsibility for the well-being of this state and the people who live in it. Throughout her career and in her personal life, Ruth Kovnat said Celia’s commitment to the law and betterment of her community has reinforced that belief.

Currently, Celia serves as president of the International Women’s Forum – New Mexico, an organization that’s vision is to provide opportunities for women leaders in a variety of professions throughout the state to network with their peers and counterparts, and to meet and collaborate with other active female professionals on business, social, cultural and personal issues.

True to her word, and her roots, Celia approaches every task she undertakes with confidence and cheerfulness; a positive and wonderful attitude; and she makes it happen, which is what her husband Al believes makes her a fantastic wife, mother, sister, lawyer and judge.

“She was on the New Mexico Court of Appeals for almost 14 years and always worked to get things done diligently and get her cases out. She took it all in stride and understood when other people had other opinions,” Al said of Celia. “In my view she is the Woman of the Century.”

Easy going, fun and thoughtful, Celia represents the best of UNM and New Mexico – in her work as a lawyer and as a judge.

J

2016 Zia Award Kenneth Gonzales

ustice Kenneth Gonzales is a federal courts judge in southern New Mexico, a part of the state in which its courtrooms and dockets are filled with cases that touch on some of our nation’s most hotly debated current event topics. And, while people can debate and contest the solutions, this Zia Award recipient uses the education he received at the University of New Mexico to fairly and impartially do what is right for the betterment of the state, the community and its citizens.

Kenneth received his bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico in 1988 and graduated from the School of Law in 1994.

During his time at UNM, he worked for Justice Joseph Baca, who now pridefully says of Justice Gonzales: “He listens fairly and impartially. He does what is right for the betterment of our state and our community. He is very bright, very thoughtful. New Mexico should be very proud of him.”

From a small town in rural New Mexico, Kenneth came to UNM as an undergraduate and worked in the financial aide office as a peer mentor and, eventually, a financial aide advisor.

Dr. Eugene Padilla worked with Kenneth when he was a student and UNM and says: “Kenneth always worked hard and did his best to serve the students and remove barriers to getting students to go to school. He’s been serving the UNM community as a student and now he is serving his community as a judge. He is always encouraging and promoting education, always working to eliminate barriers in a very big way, he is always there ready to help.”

Understanding that access to education is the key to successful individuals and communities, Kenneth believes in supporting and promoting academic achievement.

Born and raised in New Mexico and now dedicated to improving the lives of its citizens, Dr. Padilla credits Kenneth’s dedication to a kind spirit and living heart for the people of New Mexico. “He really believes in our people,” Dr. Padilla said.

U

2016 Zia Award Gary Gordon

nrelentingly dedication in his service to the University of New Mexico and his community, Gary Gordon gives something invaluably precious: his time and his passion.

Incredibly conscientious of the needs of our community, Gary is involved in a plethora of civic and philanthropic organizations that reach across diverse interests and focuses. Gary received his bachelor’s in business administration in 1983 and graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1986. He is currently the Chief Financial Officer for the Albuquerque Academy, his alma mater, and served as a trustee of the Academy for 15 years, including three as board chair. Gary also served as a trustee of the UNM Foundation for 12 years.

It was through Gary’s dedication and commitment to the betterment of the University as a trustee of the UNM Foundation that the organization was able to thoughtfully and strategically restructure the endowments for greater financial returns to better support the University’s ever-growing educational and community goals.

Gary has filled many leadership positions, many of which have extended into the next role.

Doug Brown said at the Albuquerque Academy, Gary learned the skills needed to enrich and better serve UNM, giving him the ability to seamlessly step into his role as trustee at the UNM Foundation.

Doug added: “Gary is quiet and thoughtful. That’s part of being a very good leader, which he very much is, he is a very good listener. Sometimes that quality is overlooked, but it shouldn’t be. His thoughtful and thorough leadership always brings the group to the appropriate solutions.”

While the magnitude of the impact of Gary’s professional and philanthropic successes can be seen in positive advancements throughout of community, it is hard to talk about Gary without also talking about his wife, Terri.

“They compliment each other and work together to better this community,” Henry Nemcik said. “You really cannot talk about one of their successes without mentioning the other.”

“You get a two-fer with Gary and Terri,” Doug said. “Time and time again, they step up and do the job. Always there to pick up the ball in the most thoughtful and consciences ways. They are devoted to the betterment of the community.”

T

2016 Zia Award James Miller

o list all the tangible successes of Jim Miller’s perseverance and commitment to the betterment of his community, and state, would be long enough to publish a book; but, it is this quote from Brenda Vigil that shows the true impact of Jim’s decades of service: “He motivates people to be better than they already are, to be the best version of themselves. That is one of his strongest traits. He pulls leadership out of people, he finds the good in people and he develops it. He’s a master at that.”

Passionate about education, the environment, economic development and opportunity, Jim has worked to improve communities across New Mexico and the lives of countless New Mexicans.

Since his graduation with a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico in 1971 and after receiving his PhD in 1979, Jim worked to establish the Eastern New Mexico University branch campus in Lincoln County. During this process, he was able to have a building donated and remodel to house the university’s new students and teachers who were inspired, and often personally encouraged, by Jim to attend and instruct there. That building still houses its students today!

Jim’s most recent accomplishments – including founding Leadership Lincoln and leading a USDA SET Economic Development Project – have a greater reach then just Ruidoso, encompassing cities and villages across Lincoln County. His pursuits often require hours of driving rural New Mexico to include as many community members as possible in educational, environmental, leadership and economic development opportunities. It was said, “Anything that’s going on that’s good in Lincoln County, if you dig, you will find Jim Miller.”

One to inspire others into action, Jim is humble in his undertakings and even more so in his successes. Naomi Sainz, one of the first students to graduate from Eastern New Mexico University at the guidance of Jim, described him as “Quiet dinomite.”

From grant writing to ground breaking, Jim is constantly striving to bring resources into the communities he cherishes with perseverance – a word we hear is Jim’s motto. A credit to his true character, Brenda said, “He does not give up until he gets something accomplish and that’s what effective leadership is.”

W

2016 Zia Award Carol Pierce

ith more than three decades of dedicating herself to better health outcomes for New Mexicans across out state, Carol Pierce, a former public health director for the New Mexico Department of Health, currently holds two positions ¬– program manager for the UNM School-Based Health Center Program and school nurse for PB&J Family Services’ Therapeutic Preschool.

Carol graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1986 with a master’s in public administration. A service-oriented person, in both her personal and professional lives, Carol is always focused on what is best – especially when it comes to health care and health care access for children. As the program manager for the UNM SchoolBased Health Center Program, Carol provides integrated medical, behavioral and dental services, health education and case management to six Albuquerque Public Schools.

Carol’s colleague Nance (pronounced NANCY) Rodriguez said Carol’s deep devotion to children’s healthcare helped grow the program, double its fundraising efforts and secured case management for school-aged kids in Albuquerque.

“Carol is an extremely humble person, she does it because it is the right thing to do,” Nance said. “She’s just a really great person. She’s got it in her soul, she walks her talk.”

In addition to the work she does in support of better health outcomes for students in Albuquerque, Carol works with PB&J Family Services to help at-risk children and families.

An incredibly empathetic person who believes in making families whole, Carol believes in providing for those families in need and sees the value in making the whole family successful.

“UNM should be very proud,” Nance said, “I think if people could be a little bit more like Carol this would be a better state to live in. It’s easy to feel hopeless, I think Carol is an example – she just does more to make it better. We have the human capital and resources in this state to make it better. Carol is one of those valuable resources.”

D

2016 Zia Award Randy Royster

edicated. Caring. Innovative. These are three words that repeatedly come up when talking about Zia Award recipient Randy Royster.

Randy’s deep commitment to enriching our community is evident by the far-reaching positive impacts his thoughtful and compassionate decisions as the president and CEO of the nonprofit organization, the Albuquerque Community Foundation, have on the lives of New Mexicans across our state.

Randy graduated with his degree from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1992. Described as an incredibly caring leader, Randy is able to help people focus on what they have in common, instead of the many things that could divide them.

Of Randy’s leadership, Diane Harrison Ogawa said, “Randy leads with caring: He cares about people. He cares about communities. He cares about UNM. He cares about our state. And, with that, he makes all of us better leaders because he cares about each of us as a person, an individual, and knowing that makes me a better leader.”

Brian Colon said of Randy: “Randy is a phenomenal representative of all that is good about UNM – integrity, community impact, service and making a difference. Randy leads with his heart and is incredibly effective because of his time at UNM, where he built life-long relationships and he has never stopped giving back to The University.” “He has proven that one can be compassionate yet incredible powerful and that translates to impact. When Randy speaks the community listens because he never fails to take a moment to be thoughtful about what he is going to say.”

A leader who strives to bring out the best in each individual, the University and the community around him, Randy’s deep rooted dedication to our institution is reflected in numerous volunteer roles he fills at UNM. The University is consistently the beneficiary of Randy’s good work, good will and impeccable reputation in our community.

We would like to thank Randy for his dedication and commitment by presenting him with a Zia Award today.

2017 ZIA AWARD RECIPIENTS Amy Boule Larry Larranaga L. Ray Nunley Roy Solomon Elisabeth Valenzuela Vickie Wilcox

A

2017 Zia Award Amy Boule

pioneering professional with a passion for cooking and the ability to play one rocking Bass solo in a local Scandinavian band, Amy Boule has approached her career, and her life, with an incomparable compassion and understand for people and her community.

A double alumna of UNM, Amy graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1968 and a master’s in business administration in 1984. Amy worked as a hospital clinical chemist for 15 years before working at UNM Hospital, where she was acting as a hospital administrator for 24 years. Following retirement from UNMH, Amy worked as the director of operations at the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator until her final retirement at the end of 2014.

Amy served for six years on the UNM Alumni Association Board of Directors and chaired the Awards Committee for several years. She has served on the Lobo Living Room committee for the past several years and is currently co-chair of the committee, helping to bring inspiring and engaging lectures and presentations to our campus and community.

Throughout her career, Amy has been committed to community service, having served on and as chair of the board of Quality New Mexico, on the United Way Allocations Committee, the Senior Operations Officers Council of the University Health Systems Consortium, and on the boards of TriCore Reference Laboratories and Albuquerque Ambulance Company. Amy was recognized as a Woman on the Move by the YWCA in 1988 and was inducted into the Anderson School of Management’s Hall of Fame in 2009.

Amy’s astonishing accomplishments can be attributed to her commitment to never shy away from doing what was right for her community, her employees, or her organization. She asks: “What is the right thing to do?” and she isn’t afraid to fight for it. A lot of people lead with their brains, but Amy also leads with her heart, and that made her stand out in her leadership roles.

Compassion and heart is just as important to Amy as the facts and science.

T

2017 Zia Award Larry Larranaga

he epitome of a public servant and a gracious leader with a distinguished career as a civil engineer, Zia Award recipient Larry Larranaga’s impact to his community spans decades of service and commitment to the University, the city of Albuquerque and the state of New Mexico.

Larry received his bachelor’s of science in 1971 and master’s of science in civil engineering in 1980 from the University of New Mexico. He was a partner in the Bohannan Huston Consulting Engineering firm for 15 years and also served as Deputy Chief Administrative Officer and Public Works Director for the City of Albuquerque for three years and served as Cabinet Secretary of Highways for the State of New Mexico for five years after working for the New Mexico Highway Department for 15 years. Larry served in the Armed Services in Hawaii and Southeast Asia.

Larry’s political career has led him to serve on numerous boards and commissions appointed by presidents, governors, mayors, county commissioners and universities. He has served in the New Mexico House of Representatives since 1994.

A humble leader with roots in rural New Mexico, Larry has been outstandingly successful as a state legislator in the House, garnering the respect of both parties in order to achieve a number of impressive accomplishments for the state. It is said that Larry is the type of person that everyone should look to as to what public service is: He does the job to the best of his ability and he does it for the right reasons.

Besides all of Larry’s accomplishments – noteworthy and unique with immense positive impact – the way he treats people, giving them encouragement, help, and a positive outlook sets him apart as a well-rounded and well-respected leader.

In his spare time, Larry returns to his roots, owning and operating a ranching business in Central New Mexico.

A

2017 Zia Award L. Ray Nunley

mentor to his community and to the next generation of pharmacists, Zia Award Recipient L. Ray Nunley’s impact on his community and state can be measured by the lives he cared for and minds he nurtured.

Ray graduated from the UNM College of Pharmacy in 1962 and led a distinguished career as a pharmacist and as a public servant, including serving as Mayor of Ruidoso. Ray opened and operated Nunley Drug in Ruidoso from 1966 to 1982, and then spent the most of the rest of his career as a Walmart pharmacist. He was named Walmart’s Regional Pharmacist of the Year in 1994, 1998, and 2003. He retired from Walmart at the end of 2014. Ray was named the 2015 UNM College of Pharmacy Distinguished Alumnus, the highest honor the College of Pharmacy bestows.

His professional career was intertwined with public service. He served as the Lincoln County Commissioner for 10 years and the Lincoln County Commission Chairman from 1994 to1995. In 1990, he was appointed to serve as a public member on the Board of Nursing where he eventually became the vice chairman. Ray also served on the New Mexico State Agency on Aging and to the NM Aging and Long Term Care Department in 2002 and was re-appointed in 2004. In 2002, he was elected to the Ruidoso Village Council, and in 2006, he was elected Mayor of Ruidoso Village. In 2010, Governor Susanna Martinez, appointed him to serve as a professional member of the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy where he served until 2013.

An asset to Ruidoso, and the state of New Mexico, Ray’s willingness to help everybody – from an individual to the entire community – and his eagerness to take on any challenges that he comes across, approaching solutions with compassion and outstanding ethics, has inspired and mentored others to achieve their aspirations and becoming valuable assets to their communities as well.

A

2017 Zia Award Roy Solomon

n entrepreneurial spirit who always thinks outside of the box – unless it’s shipping containers, in which he re-envisions the box. Zia Award recipient Roy Solomon always bring something unique to the market and always takes a creative and unique approach to any endeavor he commits himself to.

Roy graduated from UNM in 1989. A lifelong athlete who has completed six full Ironman triathlons, has run in the Boston Marathon twice and completed the New York City Marathon, Roy is proud of his time as a member of the ski team at the University of New Mexico.

After launching into the restaurant and service industry as a business owner nearly three decades ago, Roy recently embarked on what has become a signature project as the founder and developer of Green Jeans Farmery in Albuquerque.

Inspired by a strong desire to be an advocate for small local business, Roy has turned repurposed shipping containers into a new type of cooperative development at Interstate 40 and Carlisle. This project took a number of small business people in Albuquerque and created a place that uniquely fit their style and personalities. But what might stand out most about this project is the time Roy has spent mentoring these small business owners and dedicating his time and expertise to their success; ultimately, believing that assisting and promoting them as individuals leads to the success of the family, and vice versa.

Does this sound familiar? … Each of us defines all of us!

Roy’s mentorship and hands-on approach to business ownership, creates a unique approach to each businesses success – and the owner’s success – in a way that is often not seen in business.

A true understanding of books and numbers, but an instinctual compassion and respect for the people.

Z

2017 Zia Award Elisabeth Valenzuela

ia Award recipient Elisabeth Valenzuela understands the importance of education through her personal experience as a triple alumna from the University of New Mexico but also as someone who is devoted to the educational access and excellence for all students in New Mexico.

Elisabeth received her bachelor’s degree from UNM in 1999, her master’s degree in 2001 and her PhD in 2009 – pathing the path for her four younger sisters who have all worked to follow in her footsteps of receiving their master’s and PhDs. Starting her teaching career as a bilingual teacher at La Mesa Elementary School, Elisabeth worked for Albuquerque Public Schools for 13 years. Since leaving APS, she was the first principal at the Dorn Charter Community School and worked as Education Administrator at the Public Education Department. During her time at the Public Education Department, she created the Spanish Language Development and Spanish Language Arts Taskforce, which researched, recommended and adopted standards that would strengthen bilingual programs across New Mexico.

Having also taught various education courses at UNM, New Mexico Highlands University, and Northern New Mexico College, Elisabeth is currently the principal at Bernalillo Elementary School. Where she is an inspiration to her staff as well as her students.

Elisabeth, with the highest integrity, is dedicated to the community and is devoted to the wellbeing of New Mexico’s students. Her outstanding leadership skills shine within the community and in her staff. She gives a lot for her students in order for them to respect and understand the importance of education and its potential for transformation in their lives. In every role she’s served, Elisabeth’s mission has been to collaborate with all stakeholders to positively impact public education across New Mexico.

A

2017 Zia Award Vickie Wilcox

perfect balance of business success and passion for philanthropic service, Zia Award recipient Vickie Wilcox is an outstanding ambassador for the University of New Mexico and her profession.

A 1988 Deming High School graduate, Vickie attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., before graduating from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1995. Her Master of Laws in Taxation is from New York University. She returned to New Mexico in 1996, and has since represented clients across New Mexico, with a primary focus on estate and business planning, and charitable giving. She received the Albuquerque Community Foundation’s Excellence in Charitable Gift Planning award. She has served on the Board of the Albuquerque Community Foundation and the Albuquerque Bar Association, and is the founder of the Independent Community Foundation, Inc. Vickie now serves on the board of the University of New Mexico Anderson School of Management Foundation and was a past adjunct professor at University of New Mexico School of Law. In addition to hosting an annual seminar attended by more than 150 top legal, accounting, and financial advisors on current legal topics, Vickie is often invited to speak locally and nationally. Past speaking engagements have included AICPA Practitioners Symposium and TECH+ Conference in Las Vegas, the Financial Service Professionals Arizona Institute, and the National College of Probate Judges Spring Conference. Vickie is an American College of Trust and Estate Counsel Fellow and is one of five New Mexico Board Certified Specialists in estate planning, trust, and probate law.

True to her small-town New Mexico roots, Vickie strives to help, support and give back to her community in ways that leaves a lasting impact on its future.