The SAB plays a crucial role within the Community Engagement Core (CEC). Our primary objective is to facilitate connections between researchers and the community, and the SAB serves as a key mechanism for achieving this goal. The SAB represents local communities voices and environmental health concerns. SAB members include individuals from diverse backgrounds, including members of environmental organizations, healthcare providers, public health practitioners, and educators.
Through their insights and perspectives, the SAB helps ensure that our efforts are responsive to the needs and interests of the communities we serve. Working together, we can address environmental health issues and ensure that everyone's voice is heard.
Since 2003, Allyson has served as the executive director of the Gila Resources Information Project. She is also the director of the Gila Conservation Coalition that works to protect the free flow of the Gila River. Allyson graduated with a BA in biology from Colby College and a Master of Environmental Management in Resource Economics and Policy from Duke University School of the Environment. She has nearly 30 years of experience in environmental protection, conservation, and advocacy, including 12 years with the US Environmental Protection Agency in North Carolina and El Paso, TX. She has worked extensively with local communities in the borderlands to resolve environmental problems, including binational air quality management, mining environmental impacts, water quality and water supply concerns, and community-wide initiatives on climate change and sustainability. She has served on several local, state and federal boards including, the Good Neighbor Environmental Board that advises the President and Congress on U.S.-Mexico Border environmental and infrastructure issues.
Learn More: https://gilaresources.info/wp/
Dr. Shefner-Rogers is a New Mexico-based Independent Social and Behavior Change Consultant with more than 25 years of experience in advising leading multilateral organizations, governments, non-governmental organizations, universities, and non-profit organizations on how to strategically develop, implement, and assess their public health programs, both in the U.S. and internationally. Between 1996 and 2004, she was also an adjunct professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism and the Public Health Program at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Shefner-Rogers holds a Ph.D. in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, an MA in Communications Management from the Annenberg School for Communication/University of Southern California, and a BA in Anthropology from McGill University.
Elena is a champion for upholding leadership values in STEM, Environmental Stewardship, Academia, and National Laboratory Suitability. She has contracted as an Environmental Consultant for the Lower Rio Grande Hydrographic Survey on behalf of the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer, and as a Research and Development Specialist for the Army Research Laboratory/New Mexico State University (NMSU)/Yale University Atmospheric Aerosols experimental group. Elena serves on the NMSU Engineering Physics Program External Advisory Board (ex-officio), and the Northern New Mexico Citizens’ Advisory Board (DOE-EM-SSAB) for Department of Energy legacy waste cleanup sites in New Mexico. She is also a charter member of the Norwich University Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK), the National Leadership Honor Society. Her work with Amigos Bravos reaches across the state to the New Mexico Dairy Coalition, the Miranda Canyon Commission for illegal dumping mitigation, and toxic pollutants in New Mexico’s waters.
Learn More: https://www.amigosbravos.org/our-mission/
Feleecia Guillen, 21, is a senior at the University of New Mexico, majoring in Business and Spanish with minors in Sustainability Studies and Psychology. Raised in rural NM, where water accessibility issues profoundly shaped her perspective, she developed a deep connection to both her environment and community. As a proud Chicana and Nuevomexicana, her Indigenous roots deeply connect her to Mother Nature, grounding and guiding her work.
Passionate about climate justice, Feleecia is actively involved in various organizing efforts across New Mexico, tackling environmental injustices from uranium mining to the Strategic Water Supply. As the Director of Outreach & Communication for UNM Leaders for Environmental Action and Foresight (UNM LEAF), the Director of Environmental Affairs for Associated Students at the University of New Mexico (ASUNM), and a steering committee member for Youth United for Climate Crisis Action (YUCCA), Feleeciais a driving force behind advocating for real and just climate solutions. She also collaborates with organizations like Food & Water Watch and No False Solutions, working to amplify the voices of marginalized communities and push for environmental justice and collective liberation.
Learn More about YUCCA: https://www.yuccanm.org
Learn More about UNM LEAF: https://www.unmleaf.org
Romilly Ortiz grew up in Albuquerque, NM and has worked as a Physician Assistant in NM for the past 6 years. Until recently she worked at the Canoncito Band of Navajos Health Center in To’Hajiilee, NM providing full spectrum primary care. She now works at the School Based Health Center- Middle Schools through UNM Medical Group. She enjoys spending time with her husband, 2 toddlers and dachshund. She can be found enjoying the bosque, reading and occasionally figure skating in her free time.
I have been teaching Science and Social Studies in New Mexico Public Schools for over 21 years. I am currently teaching Chemistry at Highland High School. I enjoy sharing my passion for the outdoors with students as well as helping students better understand the world in which we live.
Shelley has focused her public health career working collaboratively to tackle urgent, preventable public health threats: tobacco, alcohol and opioid misuse; violence, and now climate change. As co-founder and Executive Director of Healthy Climate New Mexico, Shelley is mobilizing healthcare and public health professionals to advocate for equitable and just climate solutions. For two decades, Shelley served as the Prevention Coordinator of the Santa Fe Public Schools and Director of the Santa Fe Prevention Alliance. She has served on the Board of La Familia Medical Center and as President of New Mexico Public Health Association. She has an undergraduate degree in Social Ecology and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of California. Since its launch in 2023, Healthy Climate NM has already contributed to advancing climate policies to protect health and promote equity of all New Mexicans, especially those hurt “first and worst” by extreme weather and climate disasters.
Learn More: https://www.healthyclimatenm.org
Susan Gordon has more than three decades of grassroots organizing experience with impacted community groups around the nuclear weapons complex. She joined the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment in 2014, providing communications and coordination for five groups impacted by the legacy of uranium mining in New Mexico. These front line communities continue to live in contaminated environments while fighting for environmental justice, cleanup of their land, air and water, and compensation for generations of health impacts. They advocate for renewable energy and oppose nuclear power plants that would require future uranium mining.
Susan was previously the director of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability for 17 years where she led a network of 36 individual organizations that developed national strategies on nuclear weapons policy and environmental cleanup issues. She played a key role in establishing the Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund that distributed over $4 million to community organizations conducting science research at the Department of Energy’s environmental cleanup sites. She also helped create the Citizens’ Involvement Fund located in the New Mexico Community Foundation that supported grassroots groups participation in federal decision-making. In addition, she has raised over $12 million dollars to directly support grassroots and community based organizations during her career.
Learn More: https://swuraniumimpacts.org
Dr. Virginia Necochea is a long-time educator, researcher, writer, and community advocate. She is the former executive director and a founding board member of the Center for Social Sustainable Systems (CESOSS), a community-led nonprofit focused on protecting and preserving land and water resources in the Valle de Atrisco (South Valley, NM) and larger Middle Rio Grande region.
Dr. Necochea’s connection and commitment to land and water emanates from her abuelitos - individuals who were deeply connected to Mother Earth and the importance of remaining connected to the land. The foundation and drive for Dr. Necochea’s work is rooted in ceremony, her Mexican Indigenous roots, and motherhood. She strives to engage in work that places community and environmental justice at the forefront.
Learn More: https://nmelc.org/staff_board/