Leadership Santa Fe

Joe Sehee
Chairperson

Executive Director, Green Burial Council
Joe Sehee is the founder/executive director of the Green Burial Council and a principal of Conservation Burial Partners, LLC. One of the nation’s leading authorities on the use of burial as a conservation strategy, he is also the architect of a new burial program in the Galisteo Basin designed to permanently protect 1,000 acres of wilderness. Joe is a former Jesuit lay minister and a Peabody-award winning journalist. He is also a senior fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program and an “environpreneur” fellow with the Property Environment Research Center.

Cynthia Williams
Vice-Chairperson

Office Manager & Assistant to CEO, Santa Fe Association of Realtors
More commonly referred to as Cindy, is currently employed as the Office Manager, Assistant to the CEO and Professional Standards Administrator of the Santa Fe Association of REALTORS®. Cindy has lived, loved and worked in Santa Fe for over 31 years. Along with her family, she has owned three small businesses – Williams Precision Sheet Metal, Party Fun and Balloon World. As a student of the 2007 Leadership Santa Fe class, Cindy’s leadership skills were awakened by introducing her to the vast opportunities and needs of Santa Fe. She now serves as the Secretary for the Leadership Santa Fe Board of Directors, is a member of the LSF Program Committee and is a volunteer at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market. Cindy has been married to her wonderful Dave for over 30 years, has three terrific children and three beautiful granddaughters. Her hobbies include watching old movies, reading, writing and sewing.

Peter Pacheco
Secretary-Treasurer

Vice Presicdent & Commercial Loan Officer, Century Bank
Peter Pacheco is a Vice President / Commercial Loan Officer at Century Bank in Santa Fe and has been a board member of Leadership Santa Fe since 2006. He is a native Santa Fean who graduated from St. Michael's High School and then received a bachelors degree in Economics from New Mexico State University in 1993. Peter also received an MBA from the University of New Mexico in 2003. He likes to spend his free time working out, golfing, and with his family and friends. Peter also serves as a board member for the Santa Fe 400th Commemoration and is a Art Commissioner for the City of Santa Fe.

F. Gregg Bemis
Funding Committee Chair

President, CFC International
Gregg Bemis has over 50 years experience in economic development and has started over 40 companies. Besides serving as Chair of 3-4 current companies, he also has served on the Boards or as Chair of various local community activities such as St. Vincent Hospital, Santa Fe Prep, TRADE, The Trinity Forum and the Santa Fe Adult Soccer Club. His current greatest interest is the investigation of the sinking of the Estonia in 1994 and the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania, which he owns.

J.D. Bullington
Board Member

Senior Policy Advisor and Director, New Mexico Government Relations
Mr. Bullington is the Senior Policy Advisor and Director of New Mexico Government Relations for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s Albuquerque and Santa Fe offices. He is responsible for developing and implementing government relations strategies and lobbying efforts for clients of the firm at the state, regional and local levels throughout New Mexico. He has statewide experience in several major policy areas, including education, taxation, health care, environment, telecommunications and economic development. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Bullington was the vice president of government affairs and chief lobbyist for the Association of Commerce and Industry for nine years.

Thyra Busch
Board Member

Director, Oracle Education Foundation
Thyra has a BA from University of Virginia and is a graduate of the Oracle Corporation Leadership Program and Northern Arizona University. Currently she is the Americas Director for Oracle Education Foundation. Recent accomplishments include launching a partnership in Peru between the Ministry of Education Peru, Businessmen for Education association, and Oracle Education Foundation to deliver OEF programs alongside APEC educational summit which involved 21 ministers of education, and collaborating as a team member to launch an international collaborative project with the goal of bringing students together as cyberjournalists to research the NASA and international space station while developing 21st century skills in alignment with STEM standards.

Craig DeForest
Board Member

Business & Organization Consultant, The Podolny Group
Craig has helped leaders of businesses and other organizations for the past two decades learn to incorporate advanced approaches to development of their businesses, their operations, and their people. He has worked with small and large organizations to further develop their strategic, leadership, and operational capabilities in systemic and integrated ways. Craig has lived in Santa Fe since 1993.

Keadron Finn
Board Member

Owner, The Inspired Space
Keadron Finn, M.A., LMHC Keadron enthusiastically joined Leadership Santa Fe as a 2007 class participant and joined the board in January 2008. She holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts from University of New Mexico and a Masters of Art Therapy & Counseling from Southwestern College in Santa Fe. She has an extensive background as a business owner and entrepreneur, and brings her creative problem solving skills and flexibility into every area of her life. Keadron is a full time counselor and art therapist with Christian Counseling Centers of New Mexico. She also owns a professional organizing company, The Inspired Space, whose mission statement is “order inspires harmony’. Keadron is an active member of Christ Church Santa Fe PCA and is passionate about short-term mission work, which has taken her to Peru 12 times and Mexico 3 times. Keadron lives outside of Santa Fe with her Akita, Xuts. "I am passionate about the mission of Leadership Santa Fe and feel that the program helped me understand my community in a much deeper way - and my place in it. I has made me more sensitive to our needs and appreciative of those who invest themselves to improve the quality of life for all of those in our community

David Markwardt
Board Member

Teamwork in Action Director, Santa Fe Community College
David Markwardt is a published poet and proven leadership development professional with extensive domestic and international project leadership experience. He conceived and designed Teamwork in Action, an external consulting business in Santa Fe Community College's Continuing Education and Customized Training Division. Teamwork in Action delivers experiential learning, leadership training, and organization development programs. Mr. Markwardt designed and implemented a high potential leadership program for Blue Cross and Blue Shield resulting in improved employee performance and defined career paths. Supported by the New Mexico Department of Health, he also developed a nine-month leadership training program, the Community and Coalition Leadership Institute, for high potential behavioral health professionals. Mr. Markwardt has two master's degrees. He received a Master of Science in Organization Development degree from Pepperdine University in 2007 and a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry degree from Vermont College in 1998. He received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College in 1984. Mr. Markwardt is a qualified facilitator of the Myers-Briggs inventory and of the DiSC assessment instrument. He is an experienced facilitator of the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument and the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation/Behavior Assessment. He is a member of the American Society for Training and Development, the Association of Experiential Education, the Experiential Training and Development Alliance, and the Organization Development Network. He lives in El Dorado with his wife, Tracey, and his two sons, August, age 8, and Elliot, age two.

Carl Moore
Board Member

Owner, The Community Store
Carl is professor emeritus at Kent State University. He also has taught at the National University of Singapore and in a variety of other settings for the Harvard Institute on International Development. He has worked as a consultant, trainer and facilitator with community leadership programs in 35 states and is author/editor of A COLORFUL QUILT: THE COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP STORY.

Carolyn Morrow
Board Member

Owner, 2Morroworld Serv. LLC

James H. Duncan
Advisory Board Member

Radio analyst, Author and Historian,
Mr. Duncan is on the Board of Directors of the Santa Fe Community Foundation, the Board of Trustees of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and VP of the Casas de San Juan Association. He is currently writing a three volume history of the commercial radio industry covering the years 1970 through 2005; Volume One is completed. In the past he was associated with the Indianapolis Symphony, Western Michigan University Foundation, Broadcast Pioneers Library, and served on the Board of Directors of public companies such as Emmis Communications, Stoner Broadcasting Systems, American Radio Systems, American Tower Corp. and Price Communications. In the last decade or so he has received the following: Lifetime Achievement Award from National Association of Media Brokers, Radio Leadership Award from a group of Bankers and Investment Bankers and was named one of the 50 "most influential" people in the history of radio by "Radio Magazine".