My Qualifications and Relevant Experience/Skills

My personal and professional histories – and my extensive track record as an effective, strong, collaborative, strategic leader and problem-solver – have prepared me well to be DPNM Treasurer. 

Here in New Mexico, I have done grassroots work for multiple campaigns, including as Volunteer Coordinator for the 2024 HD31 state House race. Currently, I serve on the DPBC Advisory Board, DPBC Resolutions Committee, DPBC County Central Committee, DPNM State Central Committee, and the DPNM Budget & Finance Committee. In addition, I am Chair of Ward 31B. I was a 2024 Presidential Elector for New Mexico, and I am a recurring major donor to both. 

I have fairly extensive financial/budget management experience, including several years of service on Boards of Directors and Audit and Finance Committees for both volunteer organizations and for-profit entities. I’ve established and managed multiple large and small budgets during my career. 

On a personal level, I’ve been a solid Democrat my entire life, growing up in Omaha (in Nebraska’s “Blue Dot”). As a second-generation American, I was fortunate to be able to attend college. My undergraduate degree is from Tulane University in New Orleans. I have a master’s degree in American government from the University of Virginia, where my thesis focused on federal Native American policy and the fundamental importance of tribal self-determination. 

After school, I worked for more than 20 years in Washington, DC, doing public policy research, media relations, and other types of advocacy communications. I worked on a wide variety of policy issues including motor vehicle and transportation safety; environmental programs; workplace safety; natural disasters; securing the US economy against terrorist attacks; legal reform; and financial literacy. In 2007, I left the national Democratic consulting firm at which I was a senior manager and moved to Tampa to become CEO of a building science organization supported by the property insurance industry. That organization – the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) – identifies and promotes effective ways to significantly reduce or prevent damage to homes, businesses and communities from natural hazards.

Preventing harm has been the theme of my career. At IBHS, I led a group of exceptional researchers, engineers, meteorologists, and technical staff (e.g., electricians and carpenters) working to improve the way single- and multi-family homes and commercial structures are designed, built, maintained, repaired, and replaced. I raised $40 million to create a unique laboratory to rigorously test full-scale structures and building systems against realistic wind, water, fire, hail, and aging. Our goals were to fill knowledge gaps and share new information to help make people and communities safer and more resilient. 

Through a lot of hard work, I raised the money and oversaw the on-time, on-budget design and construction of the IBHS Research Center. I also worked closely with local economic development agencies and vocational schools to create dozens of good-paying, secure jobs in a very rural area that had been devastated by years of textile mill closures. I secured IBHS seats at critical decision-making tables (often working with surprising allies and long-time adversaries, much as we must do in the political world). I was able to solidify IBHS credibility as a scientific organization and see our beneficial impact in the real world take hold before retiring after 11 years as CEO.