Who We Are
Staff
Leadership Team
James C. Jimenez, MPA
Executive Director
James joined NM Voices in 2013 as the Director of Research and Policy, becoming Executive Director in 2016. He also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico’s School of Public Administration. In both positions he draws from his considerable experience in using the budget as a strategic tool while working in state and city government. James served as the Chief of Staff under Governor Bill Richardson from 2006 to 2008, and as Cabinet Secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration from 2003 to 2006. He was also City Manager for the city of Rio Rancho and serves on the boards of directors for several nonprofit organizations.
Amber Wallin, MPA
Deputy Director
Policy Team
Bill Jordan, MA
Government Relations Officer
Jacob Vigil, MSW
Research & Policy Analyst
Paige Knight, MPP
Research & Policy Analyst
Paige joined NM Voices in 2018 and focuses on tax and fiscal policy issues. She received her BA in Economics from Luther College in Iowa and is a recent graduate of UNM’s Master in Public Policy program. Originally from Minnesota, Paige moved to Albuquerque in early 2017. Prior to moving to the Southwest, she worked at a variety of nonprofits in Iowa City and Chicago, including a year as an AmeriCorps volunteer. In New Mexico, she worked with Accion and interned with the Legislative Finance Committee. Her experience with nonprofit and governmental organizations further developed her interest in public policy issues, particularly those surrounding sustainable economic development.
Cirila Estela Vasquez Guzman, Ph.D.
Research & Policy Analyst/SPP Fellow
Derek Lin, MPH
Research & Policy Analyst
Emily Wildau
Research & Policy Analyst/KIDS COUNT Coordinator
Emily joined NM Voices in 2020. She helps coordinate the KIDS COUNT program and focuses on issues related to early childhood, education, and family economic security. She was born in Roswell and completed her BA in English Rhetoric at NMSU. During her time there, Emily discovered her passion for social justice in a volunteer role advocating and fundraising for programs to support an end to child soldiering in Central and East Africa. Since relocating to Albuquerque in 2015, Emily has been able to contribute to her community by working as a grant writer at Roadrunner Food Bank and Central New Mexico Community College. She is currently completing a Master in Public Policy at UNM.
Javier Rojo, MPA
Research & Policy Analyst
Stephanie Brinker, Ph.D.
Volunteer
Communications Team
Sharon Kayne
Communications Director
Marie-Pier Frigon
Communications Associate
Marie-Pier has been with New Mexico Voices for children for a little over a year. With a background in art and design, she helps shepherd policy change through storytelling. She manages social media, design, and other multi-media visual communications for the organization, while also taking on a role advocating for LGBTQ+ equity. Her ability to process complex information and convert it into simple messages, usually visually, helps make the work of NMVC accessible for our public audience. She has a BFA from the Academy of Art University.
Development and Operations Team
Farah Council, MA
Development Director
Brian Urban
Operations Manager
Barbara Mike
Operations Support Clerk
Board of Directors
Leadership Team
Kenneth J. Martinez, Psy.D.
Chair
Charlotte Little
Vice Chair
Board Members
Debra L. Baca, MA
Board Member
Antonio Granillo
Board Member
Fred Harris, JD
Board Member
Ruth Hoffman
Board Member
Ruth worked as an advocate in New Mexico for over thirty years. She began her work with Common Cause-NM working for ethics and government reform. In the mid-1990s, she worked for the New Mexico state Legislature as an analyst and staff member to the state Constitutional Revision Commission. Ruth was then program director at the NM Center on Law and Poverty for three years. From 1999 until her retirement at the end of 2019, she was the director of Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-NM, a faith-based advocacy office focusing its advocacy agenda on issues related to people living in poverty and experiencing hunger.
Yvette Kaufman-Bell
Board Member
Danielle R. Lansing, Ed.D.
Board Member
Newton Robinson
Board Member
Newton, who retired from Intel’s Human Resources Department in 2013, still serves as the program manager and president of its Community Mentor Network (CMN). A program Newton founded in 2009, CMN mentors students at Cibola High School and UNM. Prior to his 18-year career at Intel, Newton worked for 18 years at IBM. He earned a BA in Psychology from the State University of New York at New Paltz, completed the Human Resource Management Certificate Program from the Anderson School of Management at UNM, and is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Newton currently serves on the Deacon Board at Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, and is part of the International Mission Team that traveled to Santa Dominica, Hong Kong, Belize, Guyana, Kenya, and Jamaica.
Olivia D. Underwood, Ph.D.
Board Member
A native of Brent, Alabama, Olivia is an R&D S&E Systems Engineer at Sandia National Laboratories, where she is also a Principal Member of Technical Staff. In 2015, she became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from the Materials Science program at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. As an advocate for children, education, STEM, and inclusion, she established the Dr. Olivia D. Underwood Scholarship in 2018 to help women of color be successful in STEM fields. During the summer, she serves as a volunteer instructor for the “Hands-On, Minds-On Technology” summer program for middle- and high school students. Olivia is also a published author and co-authored a paper titled “Mitigating Implicit Bias for Leaders” in 2019. Olivia belongs to several professional societies and has received numerous awards.