Staff

Mark has over twenty-five years of professional experience working with social-profit nongovernmental organizations in leadership positions, including over twenty years as executive director. Before joining New Mexico Wild, Mark’s activities focused on anti-poverty and social justice work, with an emphasis on developing permanent affordable housing for persons experiencing homelessness. Mark’s projects earned national recognition for modeling award winning sustainable “green” design. Mark subsequently led a national project team providing technical assistance and training to communities on community development. He has served on numerous national, regional, and local boards of directors.

Mark has demonstrated success in strategic planning, organizational development, management, and fundraising and is adept at partnerships and coalition building. Since coming to New Mexico Wild in 2013, Mark has been proud to lead a team that has helped secure numerous new protections for New Mexico’s land, waters, and wildlife. Mark earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from Illinois State University. Mark fell in love with New Mexico in 1977 and moved here permanently in 1993. He resides in Albuquerque with his wife, Jenny Metzler, and his two sons, Levin and Jack. He believes passionately that we have a responsibility to permanently protect and preserve land, not only for us and our children to experience and enjoy, but for its own sake.
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Tisha has worked for New Mexico Wilderness Alliance since 1999. She has served as Interim Executive Director, Development Director and Membership Coordinator in her 18 years with New Mexico Wild. Tisha was a member of the Wilderness50 Executive Committee in 2014, when the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act was celebrated in Albuquerque. With a degree in environmental science and a background in environmental consulting, Tisha manages fundraising, communications and membership for the New Mexico Wild. Tisha also works to build community partnerships and lead youth outreach and volunteer service projects.
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Sarai was born and raised in Quito, Ecuador. She was introduced to the Land of Enchantment for the first time 11 years ago as a foreign exchange student. In 2016, she came back to New Mexico after obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design & Visual Communications at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador.

With over 6 years of experience, she has worked for several magazines and newspaper publications like The Albuquerque Journal and Brewers Crew Magazine creating promotional and advertising content for numerous clients. Her work is guided by a strong belief in design as a problem-solving tool and as a way of forming relationships between ideas and reality.

She volunteers at Wildlife Rescue, loves to hike and spend time in Nature. Sarai is excited to contribute with her grain of sand towards protecting New Mexico’s lands, waters and wildlife. She believes that we were born to take care of the wildlife, not to destroy it. “Nacimos para cuidar la vida silvestre, no para destruirla.”
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Brittany Fallon, Ph.D., leads the organization’s state policy and legislative efforts;
wildlife issues; policy research and analysis; and community organizing. Brittany previously worked at the Sierra Club, where she helped negotiate and pass state legislation on clean energy, lands, water, wildlife, and the regulation of oil and gas. Dr. Fallon was a research professor at The University of New Mexico funded by the American Association of University Women. Brittany has extensive experience in conservation as the former Assistant Director of the Budongo Conservation Field Station, a research station in Uganda's largest forest and home to an estimated 600 wild chimpanzees.
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Logan has called New Mexico home since 2015, when he moved to Albuquerque to pursue his law degree at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Entering law school with a background in grassroots organizing, Logan set his academic and professional sights on environmental law and policy, securing a position on the editorial board of the Natural Resources Journal and internships with the New Mexico Environment Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, and several environmental and conservation organizations. Logan completed his law degree in May 2018 and spent a year clerking at the New Mexico Court of Appeals. Logan is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and will always have a soft spot in his heart for a good cheese curd.
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Julian was born and raised in Santa Fe. He is married to Peggy and has three children. He is an avid hunter, angler, and all-around sportsman who enjoys recreating on public lands. He served 27 years in the military and is a decorated combat veteran, serving as 1SG in the New Mexico Army National Guard. He has shifted his energy and is now a passionate advocate for wildlife and public lands. If you get him talking, he may tell you a story or two from catching a hybrid bass in a pond at Saddam Hussein's palace to catching wild, attacking javelina bare-handed. He carries a remarkable wealth of knowledge on mountain and Spanish traditions. Passing this knowledge is one of Julian's passions. He is a firearms expert, bowhunter education instructor, HE instructor, NM land navigation instructor, survival instructor, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish northeast chair for the habitat stamp program and livestock rancher.
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As a lifelong New Mexican who grew up camping and hiking all across the state, Joey views protecting our public lands as a necessity. Most recently, Joey was the Communications Director at the New Mexico Secretary of State's Office, and has served in communications roles for various private companies, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Joey is responsible for helping to advance the mission and goals of New Mexico Wild through effective communication to the public and media.
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Keegan King is from the Pueblo of Acoma and has over 15 years of experience in political and public policy work. He has managed dozens of candidate and issue campaigns beginning with his time at the Albuquerque based Soltari Inc. Keegan continued as the Executive Director of the League of Young Voters New Mexico and New Mexico Youth Organized. In 2009, Keegan founded Atsaya Consulting a Native-owned political consulting company. Since then he has worked as Political Director of the NM Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, national Field Director to the Pushback Network and Data Director for United We Dream. He has been instrumental in protection campaigns such as Chaco, particularly in his work with the All Pueblo Council of Governors and the National Congress of American Indians. Keegan was most recently the Policy, Legislative Affairs, and Communications Bureau Chief for the NM Department of Indian Affairs.
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Living more than 30 years in New Mexico has given Lois Manno a great depth of appreciation for this state and its wild country. She is pleased to help promote wildlands protection. Lois has a background in nonprofit administration, with experience coordinating programs and membership for groups including the Forest Stewards Guild, 1000 Friends of New Mexico, and the National Parks Conservation Association. She is a cave enthusiast and has volunteered as a project caver for Carlsbad Caverns National Park and other land management agencies for over 20 years.
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Captain Muenzberg ( y Tinajero de Barreras y Lucero Godoy ) is a long time New Mexican, like numerous generations of American Miners, Muleteers, Merchants, Machinists, and Mariners before him. Darrin is proud of his Hispano, Chicano, and Coyote heritage in the region. While “following the work” as his forebears have for centuries, he has remained anchored in his ancestral village of La Bajada, where he lives with wife Eva, and son Baern Candelario.

The traditional lifeways of the Caja del Rio , La Majada, El Camino Real, and Santa Fe River acequia culture, have sustained the families of La Bajada since the 17th century. Stewardship, and respect for the revelation of nature, lie at the heart of those community beliefs. Darrin’s worldview was formed by his Great-Grandmother, and influenced by his interactions and relationships with people while trading in the ports of the Eastern Mediterranean, Arabian Peninsula, Persian Gulf, Balochistan, South Asia, East Asia, Central America, and South America.

Darrin seeks to apply the lessons he has been taught in his travels, to his work toward sustaining traditional New Mexican culture as a model for survival through a challenging environmental future. He has served as Chairman of the La Bajada Traditional Village Committee since 2006. He was a founding member of the Santa Fe River Traditional Communities Collaborative in 2011, and was elected as a Commissioner of the La Bajada Community Ditch & Mutual Domestic Water Association in 2013. "La Lucha Sigue!"

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Nathan is a fifth generation New Mexican with over a decade of experience working on wilderness campaigns in the state of New Mexico. He has previously been a grassroots organizer, media director, and associate director at New Mexico Wild, having first joined the organization in 2002. After spending a year conducting wilderness inventories in the Cibola National Forest, he is now back as the organization’s Grassroots Organizer for the Gila.
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As a resident since 1979, Kerry has developed a love for the mountains and deserts of New Mexico. She has been to every corner of the state, and particularly likes to visit the Gila Wilderness, Ojito Wilderness and the Jemez area. As a former public school teacher, she brings her organizational skills to the task of protecting and enhancing New Mexico’s wilderness areas.
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Will’s passion for the outdoors began as a young kid playing by the river in his hometown of Corrales. His passion for conservation grew at Bosque School through programs like BEMP (Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program) and he went forward to pursue a degree in Environmental Studies at Eckerd College on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Upon graduation he returned home to Albuquerque to continue his passion for conservation work and environmental stewardship. He worked for Rocky Mountain Youth Corps for 5 seasons doing a variety of conservation projects such as conservation outreach, backcountry trail maintenance, volunteer coordination, invasive species removal and more. He loves hiking mountains and experiencing New Mexico’s beautiful wilderness areas.
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Terry is the former Chief Marketing, Membership and Philanthropy Officer for The Nature Conservancy is Washington, D.C. When he retired, he moved back to New Mexico and has been supporting New Mexico Wild for the past six years. Terry is the author of “The Marketer’s Visual Tool Kit” published by the American Management Association. He describes himself as an enthusiastic hiker and a very mediocre fly-fisherman.
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After two years away, Nathan Small is returning to work with New Mexico Wild. Nathan’s first stint with the organization began in 2004, when he came back to New Mexico after graduating with dual degrees in Philosophy and English from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. Nathan is a third generation New Mexican who comes from a family of ranchers and educators. Nathan was a key team member working to secure and then safeguard National Monument protection for the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks. Now there are 10 new wilderness areas in the OMDP, and Nathan’s focus on community conservation partnerships will be a key part of recovering and rebuilding from the twin challenges of Covid-19 and the climate crisis. You’re as likely to see him riding horseback out in the OMDP wilderness areas as you are to see him walking on Las Cruces’ Main Street.
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Simon Sotelo III comes from a multi-generational family from Mimbres, New Mexico. Simon is a working artist in Silver City. From Ceramics to oil, and acrylic on canvas to traditional beadwork he has also worked in the field of food sustainability NPO's. Along with advocating in various ways for the long term sustainability of his community, from running the local mission and food pantry to volunteering on projects like the Wilderness designations, Simon is now a Grassroots Community Organizer with New Mexico Wild for the Gila Wild & Scenic Campaign in Southwestern New Mexico.
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Suzanne was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM. Her love of the outdoors began at a young age and has carried through to adulthood. She loves spending her free time connecting with family and friends, and loves living in the southwest. During the summer months, she will find any excuse to get to one of NM’s many lakes and rivers. Suzanne attended UNM’s Anderson School of Management and brings NM Wild a diverse skill set in nonprofit administration and management.
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Garrett was a candidate for the New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands in 2018 and then worked as a political advocacy strategist for Conservation Voters of New Mexico leading up to and during the New Mexico Legislative session. Before running for office, Garrett was Executive Director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation. He was also the Southwest Director of Trout Unlimited’s Sportsmen’s Project (NM. AZ and CO) as well as Trout Unlimited’s New Mexico Public Lands Coordinator and also founded the New Mexico Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. Garrett has been a tireless champion for the conservation and protection of public lands and native wildlife, fighting for everything from federal and state funding for native wildlife, stricter regulation of off highway vehicles on public lands, higher state water quality standards, stricter regulation on mineral development, to enhanced conservation and protection of threatened and endangered species.
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Ralph is a twelfth-generation Nuevo Mexicano from Pecos whose passion lies in his work protecting the precious resources that have sustained New Mexico's traditional acequia communities for hundreds of years. He is the Chairman of the New Mexico Acequia Commission where he has fought tirelessly to protect acequias and the watersheds that feed them for 16 years. Ralph is also the owner of Molino de la Isla Organics, a small organic farm that grows healthy, acequia grown food for his community and helps educate the public about acequia culture and its contribution to the environment that sustains them. Ralph was instrumental in the founding of the Stop the Tererro Mine Coalition. bringing stakeholders from the environmental, traditional, and pueblo communities together to protect the Pecos River and its tributaries. It is Ralph's goal to ensure that New Mexico's natural resources and traditional communities are cared for, respected, and protected for future generations.
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Laura returns for her second consecutive season as a Gila Wilderness Ranger. As a native Alaskan, Laura spent her formative years subsistence living, kayaking, and backpacking. After traveling and living abroad pursuing Community Development and Documentary Filmmaking, Laura landed in Silver City, New Mexico. The nearby wilderness areas are what initially captivated her and continue to keep her here. Laura is deeply committed to the protection, enrichment, and enjoyment of these spaces and all whom inhabit it.
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Brennan is a lifelong outdoor enthusiast and a proud New Mexican. The harsh beauty of the Chihuahuan Desert, broken up by rugged peaks and sky islands, was awe inspiring to him from an early age. Immersion in New Mexico's raw, natural beauty instilled in Brennan a strong conservation ethic that guides him to this day. He has had the privilege of working as an environmental steward across the state; from remote caves, to secluded Wilderness areas, Brennan has contributed to the protection of New Mexico's precious land, water, and wildlife. It is his goal to continue advancing the preservation of wild places as New Mexico continues to grow and evolve. He is delighted to continue working with NM Wild as both a steward and advocate of Wilderness.
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Walker's adoration of the Southwest is tied directly to the land and all of the astonishing places to explore. At an early age, Walker was able to explore the San Juan mountains, the vast Ponderosa-Piñon forests and stunning canyons that make the Southwest landscapes so special. Being an avid hiker, runner, and rafter fostered his enthusiasm for conservation and stewardship. Walker studied film and music in college and still finds the best creative inspirations come from the being out in the Wild. Walker is excited to work with Wilderness in a professional capacity as an advocate and ranger with New Mexico Wild.
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A gamut of conservation experience cultivated Liam’s keen enthusiasm for the outdoors. Before joining New Mexico Wild, he served as an assistant supervisor and crewmember with Rocky Mountain Youth Corps. Here, he collaborated with young adults in central New Mexico to maintain trails in the Apache Kid and Manzano Mountain Wilderness areas, and gather tree data in Albuquerque city parks. Liam believes the combo of positive youth development and wilderness therapy is a powerful agent of healthy change. A recent University of New Mexico graduate, he is thrilled to continue his role as an environmental steward, while building his conservation skill set.
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Zack’s love for nature and the outdoors began on family camping trips as a young child and grew through monthly outings with the Boy Scouts. This culminated with attending Appalachian State University in the mountains of western North Carolina, graduating with a degree in Geography. After years in the GIS department of local government, Zack began volunteering with wilderness stewardship groups in North Carolina, building upon his knowledge and skills; something he has continued to do since moving to New Mexico. As a Wilderness Ranger for New Mexico Wild, Zack is now using these skills to help protect Wilderness and public lands here in the Land of Enchantment. In 2018, Zack received the US Forest Service’s Wilderness Partnership Champion Award for his work on the Santa Fe National Forest.
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Jesse is a lifelong lover of wilderness and the outdoors. As a community-minded Northern New Mexican, he has an interest in protecting and stewarding wild landscapes because of the unrivaled value they hold for wildlife, vegetation, soils, watershed health, and human enjoyment. Jesse is an artist and avid wilderness enthusiast who is excited to continue using his skills as a New Mexico Wild ranger to maintain and advocate for wilderness character through education and trails projects.
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Isa Nellos grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Panama City, Panama. Since childhood, she has been exposed to jungles, rivers, oceans, mountains, and deserts amongst more, and finds much freedom and comfort in nature. She is a senior at the University of New Mexico, pursuing a degree in International Studies and a minor in management. She runs cross country and track for UNM, and loves to mountain bike, snowboard, and explore. Isa did the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps during the summer of 2017 and the Northwest Youth Corps summer of 2018. She interned with US Fish & Wildlife and NM Wild her senior year of high school. In addition, she worked as an artist at Kelly Jo Designs and as a barista at Flying Star Café. This summer of 2021, she has had the honor to do the Nancy Morton Pecos Internship, where she will be working closely with the NM Wild Rangers out in the Santa Fe- Pecos wilderness.
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Emma recently moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico through Young Adult Volunteers, a yearlong service program focused on addressing systemic oppression and engagement with local community. Born and raised in Ohio, Emma graduated from Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia with degrees in History and Sociology. During her year in Albuquerque, Emma looks forward to utilizing her past experiences in environmental groups to aid the restoration and protection efforts currently underway at New Mexico Wild and exploring the rich cultures and vast wilderness New Mexico has to offer.
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