Matt Calavan is the General Manager and Partner of one of the largest automotive dealerships in New Mexico – Beaver Toyota of Santa Fe. In1992 he joined the family business in a Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Cadillac operation in Lufkin, Texas. Over the next eight years he served as Fleet Sales Manager, Service and Parts Manager, Used Car Sales Manager and General Sales Manager positions respectfully. The family’s Texas automotive operations were sold in 2000 and Matt joined the Germain Automotive Group in Naples, Florida where he managed the Lexus operations. In 2002 he and his family purchased the Toyota store in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a journalism/marketing graduate of Oklahoma State University and is involved with many community, school, church and non-profit boards in Santa Fe. He learned early in life that leaders are only as good as their team. He has spent his life building great teams to accomplish great things. His greatest accomplishment is his wonderful wife, Katie, and three children, Caroline, Grace and Spencer.
John D’Antonio, Former New Mexico State Engineer, and Secretary, Interstate Stream Commission on Water. A registered professional engineer in New Mexico and Colorado, State Engineer John D’Antonio has experience in hydraulic design, acequia rehabilitation, water resource management, and water policy development. Before he was appointed by Governor Bill Richardson to the state’s chief water post, D’Antonio was Cabinet Secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department in 2002. He served as the Director of the Water Resource Allocation Program for the Office of the State Engineer from 2001 to 2002 and served as the District I Supervisor in Albuquerque from 1998 to 2001. D’Antonio worked 15 years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a hydraulic design engineer, as the Chief of the Hydrology, Hydraulics, Sedimentation, and Floodplain Management Program, and was the project manager for the Acequia Rehabilitation Program. A native New Mexican, D’Antonio received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of New Mexico in 1979. He has been a member of the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on Water Issues from 1998 to the present. In his post as State Engineer, D’Antonio is the Secretary of the Interstate Stream Commission, Chairman of the Water Trust Board, Governor’s Water Infrastructure Investment Team, and the Governor’s Drought Task Force. He is also the New Mexico Commissioner to the Rio Grande, Costilla, and Upper Colorado river compacts.
ounty Commissioner Kathy Holian was elected as Santa Fe County Commissioner for District 4 in November. A County resident for the past 25 years, she was a Computational Physicist at Los Alamos Lab until last January. Today she continues to serve there as a retired Guest Scientist. Commissioner Paul Campos appointed her to the County Development Review Committee in 2001 where she has been making land use recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners. She has long been a proponent of the New Urbanist model of clustered development and infill. Mrs. Holian and her husband Brad reside in Sunlit Hills near Seton Village with their two horses and four dogs.
Ellen Marshall is the Owner and Founder of Marshall Rose and Associates. She is a Certified Financial Planner and specializes in working with Business Owners and Women on their personal and business needs. She has been honored as a member of MDRT, an organization that is comprised of the top 6% of financial service professionals worldwide, for the last nine years. Ellen enjoys developing a relationship with each of her clients to find unique solutions to help make smart decisions about their finances. Ellen achieved her MBA from the University of New Mexico and was recently honored as the 2010 Santa Fe Business Woman of the Year. She has been active in the Chamber of Commerce since 1999, Santa Fe Search and Rescue until very recently, and enjoys riding her Harley in her spare time.
Dr. Beverlee McClure is President & CEO of ACI (Association of Commerce & Industry.) Beverlee is responsible for board and member development, government and public relations and legislative issues. ACI provides opportunities for businesses to access and become involved with the political process. ACI members are eligible and encouraged to participate in ACI’s committees and issues roundtables to help develop ACI’s annual legislative priorities. ACI supports the New Mexico Prosperity Project which is a non-partisan, joint effort between New Mexico’s employers and state and local non-profit business organizations to encourage more active and informed participation in the government process.
Kate Noble is the Special Projects Administrator for the city of Santa Fe’s Economic development Division. Along with trying to figure out what the job title means, she focuses on workforce development and works on projects to help diversify Santa Fe’s economy. Having grown up in Santa Fe, Kate left after graduating from Santa Fe High and went to Columbia College in New York City. She lived in New York for ten years after college and worked as a television producer and reporter for the BBC covering business and economic news for BBC World.
Sarah Noss is a native of Santa Fe. After graduating from Stanford University, she returned to Santa Fe, where she worked for many years in advertising as vice president of Creative Images. After a brief stint in Paris, she ended up in Chicago for almost a decade where she worked in advertising and promotions in the publishing industry. She returned to Santa Fe in the early 90s and started working for a variety of nonprofits as a writer, consultant, fundraiser and grant writer. Formerly, she was the interim director and grant writer at the St. Vincent Hospital Foundation and was responsible for raising the money for the Healing Garden at the Cancer Treatment Center and for creating and funding the Doula Program of childbirth assistants. She helped to fund the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner unit at the hospital and worked on the capital campaign for the renovation of the OB/GYN unit. After the hospital, Sarah was the development director at Cornerstones Community Partnerships, an historic preservation nonprofit that worked in small villages and pueblos throughout New Mexico, and since July 2005 has been the executive director of the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute.
Tommy Rodriguez is Chief Juvenile Probation Officer for District 1 which includes Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, and Los Alamos Counties. He has worked for Juvenile Probation for 16 years. Graduate of New Mexico State University and life-long resident of Santa Fe.
Melynn Schuyler, Executive Director M.A., LPC, is a NM Licensed Professional Counselor. She received her Master of Arts in Marriage, Family, and Child Therapy from the California Family Study Center in 1993, after earning a BA from Boston University in 1988. In 2001, she developed and founded ¡YouthWorks! to serve youth and families in the areas of emotional support, Life Skills, violence prevention, substance abuse prevention, and youth job skill training and employment. She furthermore, developed the Santa Fe Youth Corps within ¡YouthWorks! to address the critical need among high-risk youth to transition into productive and sustainable roles in adulthood. She provides supervised and paid employment and hands on training particularly in the areas of river restoration, city park maintenance, and community housing maintenance. Ms. Schuyler developed and oversees the on-site facility for daily GED training for high-risk youth. She is responsible for fiscal development, budget management, program development, contract negotiation and management, staffing coordination, and fundraising.
Kim Shanahan, has been the Executive Officer of the Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association since November 2008. Prior to that he was a home builder in Santa Fe for 23 years, primarily focused on affordable housing subdivisions and green building. He helped develop Santa Fe’s first Green Building Guidelines published in 2002, and later worked with the City of Santa Fe to develop the Santa Fe Residential Green Building Codes, which went into effect in July 2009. Kim is a member of the City’s Sustainable Santa Fe Commission, the Capital Improvements Advisory Committee, and the Long Range Planning Committee of the Planning Commission. He served on the City’s Planning Commission from 2003-2006. Kim also serves on the Board of Directors of Santa Fe Habitat for Humanity, Santa Fe YouthWorks, and the New Mexico Green Chamber of Commerce. He is an ex-officio member of the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce. He also hosts a weekly radio program on KTRC 1260 AM on Saturdays from 1:00 – 2:00 called “Green Building and Sustainable Development”.
Terry Sullivan, State Director, The Nature Conservancy in New Mexico. Born and raised in Colorado, Terry attended the University of Colorado where he received dual degrees in geology and environmental conservation. He graduated from Pace University School of Law in 1987, and received a certificate in Environmental Law. He served as Assistant Regional Counsel for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (Region 2 in New York City) from 1987 to 1992 overseeing enforcement actions for violations of hazardous waste and Superfund laws. He began working for The New Mexico Chapter of the Nature Conservancy in 1992, and served from 1992 to 1996 as Director of Land Protection, from 1996 to 2000 as Director of Conservation Programs, and from 2000 to 2005 as Assistant State Director. He was promoted to State Director in 2006.