Our Team

Board of Directors

Our volunteer board sets the course for EENM and connects us with our community. As advocates for environmental education, they do strategic planning, goal-setting and fundraising. Board members serve for two-year terms. If you are interested in learning more about the board, please contact us.

Shantini Ramakrishnan

Co-President
Las Vegas

Shantini builds capacity of New Mexican youth to lead the conservation of local landscapes through the Conservation Science Center @ Highlands University, based at the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute. She develops place-based outdoor learning programs to build pathways in STEM disciplines, which combined with mentorship, leadership development and resilience strategies, encourages persistence among students of color in STEM. She has been working in northern New Mexico since 2012, and has experience in protected land management, habitat restoration, disease ecology, and community engagement. She holds an MS in Life Sciences with a concentration in Biology from New Mexico Highlands University, a BS in Zoology from Southern Illinois University, and a BA in Mass Media from Mount Union College. She serves as a board member with the High Plains Grasslands Alliance and Hermit’s Peak Watershed Alliance, an outreach committee member with Albuquerque Wildlife Federation, and served in the inaugural cohort of Fellows with Environmental Education New Mexico.

Steve Glass

Co-President
Albuquerque

Steve Glass earned an MS in Biology from NM State University in 1976. After graduation, Steve held environmental virology research positions for ten years in Los Angeles, CA, Chapel Hill, NC and Las Cruces, NM. Between 1989 and 2009, Steve worked with the City of Albuquerque, then with the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, managing programs in regulatory compliance, environmental laboratory, biosolids composting, and constructed wetlands research. In 2009, Steve joined Bernalillo County as Water Resources Planner managing the NPDES Phase II stormwater quality permit compliance program. For ten years, beginning in 2003, Steve represented local governments on the NM Water Quality Control Commission by gubernatorial appointment. Steve retired from local government in December 2011 and now teaches classes in biology and environmental science at the Central New Mexico Community College. In addition to his continuing representation of Bernalillo County on the interagency Water Protection Advisory Board, Steve has been a member of the Bernalillo County Open Space Master Naturalists Program Advisory Committee since its inception.

Steve has also served four years as President of the Open Space Alliance, a non-profit friends group supporting the Albuquerque Open Space Division and has been Chair of the Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) Board for fifteen years, and represents seven SWCDs on the NM Soil and Water Conservation Commission by gubernatorial appointment. In 2016, Steve was named as a Dr. Richard W. Becker Excellence in Environmental Education Awardee!

LuAnn Kilday

Treasurer
Las Cruces

LuAnn Kilday grew up on a farm in Nebraska and came to New Mexico after college where she has been an educator with the state of New Mexico for over 24 years.  She started her state career as a park ranger, then served as a game and fish officer, and currently works as an education coordinator at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  

Throughout her career she has shared her knowledge about the Rio Grande Bosque, New Mexico’s wildlife, and the history of agriculture with adults and children of all ages.  LuAnn’s current passion is fiber art and loves to demonstrate wool processing and its role in sustainable agriculture.  When LuAnn isn’t spinning wool or weaving, she enjoys hiking, camping, gardening, bird watching, hunting, and spending time with her other half, Victor, and their pack of dogs. 

Shelby Bazan

Secretary

Albuquerque

Shelby Bazan (she/her) was born and raised in Albuquerque and has a great passion for the city, land, and culture. She is currently an environmental educator with the Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program (BEMP) and a volunteer outings leader with Latino Outdoors NM. In her free time, you can find Shelby crafting, concert going, bird watching, and spending time with her cat, Lilith. She’s excited to join the EENM Board of Directors and learn from this experience. Shelby was part of the 2021 EENM Fellow Cohort.

Olivia Marin

Board Member 
Albuquerque

Olivia grew up between Denver and the southern coast of Spain. She was always encouraged to go outside and spent her childhood playing in the foothills of the Rockies and in the cork forests and beaches of Andalucía. A lover of all animals, Olivia has continued to enjoy exploring the outdoors through backpacking, climbing, cycling, scuba, and swimming in any body of (clean) water she can find! After graduating from the University of New Mexico with a degree in Environmental Planning and Design, Olivia accepted an apprenticeship with Yjastros, the American Flamenco Repertory Company. She worked with several farms during this time, developing a love for local food systems. She became a corps member of the company in 2018, performing throughout New Mexico, and the same year, joined the collective Spanish Broom Flamenco- an independent artistic collaborative focused on Flamenco performance. Her love for the outdoors motivated her to continue searching for a way to bring working with the environment into her daily life. In 2020, she was accepted as a 2020 EENM Fellow. She joined Cottonwood Gulch in September of 2020, where she is the Program Manager for the Students in Wilderness Initiative- working with 8th graders in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Gallup. She is excited to serve on the board of EENM and continue to support outdoor experiences for New Mexican youth.

Marcella Talamante

Board Member 

Dulce

Marcella Talamante

Marcella is a Native New Mexican. Many of her core memories were made spending time with family and friends while enjoying and appreciating nature. She has high regard for sustainable practices which support the wise of use natural resources, while preserving culture, history, and language of our communities. Marcella strives to promote and provide an inclusive, learning environment where youth and adults gain confidence to take positive risks, and dedicates her efforts in providing educational opportunities to assist in improving communities. She is an experienced educator, knowledgeable in non-formal, hands-on, experiential educational experiences, and has a deep-rooted passion for education and providing opportunities for others to gain knowledge and skills to help improve their lives and quality of living.

Marcella served as an Extension 4-H Youth Development agent and Associate Professor at New Mexico State University for thirteen years, before joining the Dulce School District in August 2022, as the Community Education Liaison. She strives to be a highly productive, strategic planner, and organized project leader; creative and resourceful problem solver with the ability to adapt to changing demands. Marcella embraces diversity and draw upon personal lived experiences to support the successes of other.

Amanda Keith

Board Member 

Albuquerque
Amanda Keith serves as Executive Director for the Public Lands Interpretive Association, a nonprofit based in Los Ranchos that partners with the Bureau of Land Management and the USDA Forest Service in the Southwest. In this role, she oversees the organization’s efforts to educate public lands visitors through operating educational bookstores, managing campgrounds, and through education programs. Prior to this position, Amanda worked for the Public Lands Alliance as a Marketing and Communications Manager in Washington D.C. where she connected public lands nonprofits across the country and hosted Capitol Hill days to advocate for public lands partnerships. 
She grew up in Ohio and started her career in grassroots advocacy, education, and local watershed management efforts. She graduated from The College of Wooster with a degree in English and Environmental Studies and focused her undergraduate research on Louisiana’s coastal and barrier island communities affected by hurricanes, coastal erosion, and oil and gas development. She also worked with the USDA Forest Service as a naturalist and gave weekly educational programs to families in the Chippewa National Forest.
She is gardener, a traveler, a writer, and has fallen completely enchanted by New Mexico and its diverse landscapes and cultures. Based in Albuquerque, she and her husband raise chickens, ducks, a cat and a 90-lb (and growing) Great Pyrenees puppy – and a daughter!

Susan Schipull

Board Member

Albuquerque

Susan Schipull is the Garden Resource Teacher for Albuquerque Public Schools. She is the former garden elective teacher for Wildcat Blooms Garden at Wilson Middle School. Susan is currently part of the APS Outdoor Learning Team who works with teachers in all grade levels and capacities to create spaces and places for students and teachers to learn outdoors. In 2022, the Outdoor Learning Team secured funding for transportation to get every APS third grader out to the Los Padillas Wildlife Sanctuary located at Los Padillas Elementary School. Susan was part of the 2021 EENM Fellow Cohort.

Susan grew up on a farm in Iowa and always enjoyed helping on the farm and taking care of animals as a kid. She now experiences nature by biking, hiking, running, and fishing. Susan began teaching 30+ years ago in southern Arizona as a high school biology/chemistry teacher. She has also been at At-Risk Coordinator and an administrator during her career. Teaching and gardening has brought Susan back full circle to her agricultural roots. She believes that children should put down their devices, get outside and explore the natural world every day. She has witnessed how a garden can provide opportunities for students to learn, make discoveries, self-regulate, and find their strengths.