August 7, 2023
By Elizabeth Tucker, Albuquerque Journal/Yahoo Finance
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ETC.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation with the Center for Creative Leadership has announced the fellows for its 18-month fellowship, which brings together 80 leaders from the foundation’s priority places in the U.S.: Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans.
The New Mexico participants are:
Lori Martinez — social worker, education advocate and nonprofit leader who partners with the community to restructure unjust and inequitable systems in Las Cruces.
Mari Kempton — consumer protection lawyer and anti-poverty advocate working in Albuquerque.
Warlance Chee — advocate for language and cultural sustainability and revitalization for the urban Diné population in Albuquerque.
Shay Everitt — director of strategy, systems integration and alignment for New Mexico’s Early Childhood Education and Care Department in Santa Fe.
Blanca Adriana Ontiveros — works with school districts, educators and community members to amplify the voices of immigrant and refugee communities across the country through advocacy in Las Cruces.
Jaqi Baldwin — a Chicana leader and social entrepreneur, Baldwin committed to school design that is centered around the needs of young people, while honoring their communities in Albuquerque.
Dr. Karissa Culbreath — develops systems that enable every individual, family and community to access equitable opportunities to achieve optimal physical, spiritual, emotional and financial health in Rio Rancho.
Huong Nguyen — aims to mobilize and build power with immigrant and refugee women, youth and families to remove systemic barriers and improve overall conditions for her community in Albuquerque.
Daphne Littlebear — works in Indigenous education with Tribal education departments, school districts, state governments and nonprofit organizations in Bernalillo.
Sonya Lara — a leader committed to advancing strategies that decrease economic disparity and increase honor and dignity among communities that have been marginalized in Albuquerque.
Josue Olivares — works to co-create a food system that fosters social justice and equitable access to resources with individuals and families for whom society has underinvested in Albuquerque.
Darlene Gomez — activist for primary and secondary victims of the Murdered, Missing Indigenous, Woman and Relatives crisis since 2001 in Lumberton.
Rachel LaZar — over the past several decades, LaZar, alongside Latino immigrant leaders, co-founded multiple immigrant-based organizations from Albuquerque.
Dillon Shije — councilman and Tribal leader from the Pueblo of Zia, working in Indigenous advocacy, environmental justice and Native health outcomes at Zia Pueblo.
Kim Lanoy-Sandoval — aims to create educational landscapes that value and connect students, families, educators and communities in Albuquerque.
Jazmín Irazoqui-Ruiz — movement lawyer and community organizer dedicated to dismantling systems of oppression by working with Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities to demand and achieve a life of dignity in Albuquerque.
Corrine Sanchez — works to achieve family and community healing, youth development, and ending violence against Native women, girls and our Earth Mother in San Ildefonso Pueblo.
Neema Kamaria Hanifa Pickett — founder of Kamaria Creations Wellness Retreat a space for Black people to feel supported through internal and external healing modalities in Albuquerque.
Virginia Necochea — the first woman of color to serve as the executive director of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, a public interest nonprofit that works alongside frontline communities in upholding environmental justice in Albuquerque.
Natane Ollin Tochtli Lim — worked in early childhood education for more than 20 years in various teaching roles and classroom settings within the Chicagoland area and Albuquerque.
Victoria Domiguez — empowering students and families of color, especially those who are living in extreme poverty, and exploring opportunities that will support them in their day-to-day living in Cuba, New Mexico.
Charlene Bencomo — currently serves as the executive director of Bold Futures, a state-based reproductive justice organization led by and for women and people of color in Las Cruces.
Read more.