2011 Program Members

My story began in Albuquerque’s South Valley.  I am the youngest of four children, born into a tight-knit Latino family.  I attended public school in Albuquerque, eventually graduating from West Mesa High School.

Anna Nelson, LISW, is the Executive Director of the New Mexico Forum for Youth in Community, a statewide network intermediary that promotes equal access and meaningful engagement for all youth to thrive through positive youth development, civic participation, community capacity and network building, mobilization, and policy transformation.  

Cynthia Chavers is a Licensed Master of Social Work.  She has worked for the State of New Mexico for 13 years, and has been a supervisor for ten of those years.

Ganesha began her collegiate journey with an exciting and challenging student exchange program in Fukuoka, Japan with the Seinan Gakuin University, where she studied the Japanese language, literature, history, art and business.  Following her year of studying abroad, she continued furthering her education at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Katy Duhigg, a native New Mexican, is an attorney whose work focuses on consumer protection.  Katy is the State Vice-Chair of Common Cause New Mexico, a Precinct Chair in Bernalillo County, and a member of the Nob Hill Business Improvement District Steering Committee.

I am a Democrat!  I strongly believe in the democratic values that have always supported the common person.  I have worked tirelessly for those values.  I am a member of the board of the Democratic Women of Sandoval County  and member of Organizing for America.    

I live on Isleta Pueblo with my husband of 17 years.  I am a wife, mother, grandmother, daughter and neighbor.  I grew up in Los Angeles, California, and spent every summer visiting my family in the Barelas neighborhood of Albuquerque, moving to New Mexico permanently in 1976.