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.

Marcia Barton

Member at Large
Santa Fe

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

Holly “Noelle” Chavez

Board Member
Belen

Holly Noelle Chavez was born in El Paso, Texas. She graduated from Osan American High School in South Korea and moved on to New Mexico State University where she earned her BAS in Criminal Justice and later her MS in Psychology from the University of Phoenix.

She co-owns and manages H2 Academic Solutions, which offers intervention and acceleration tutoring, alternative to detention, diversion, mentoring, and restorative programs in Valencia County. She is a board member of La Vida Felicidad and H2 Academic Solutions Scholarship Fund.

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 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.