Mr. John D. Benavidez is owner of ABQ Direct and is a lecturer in marketing at the UNM’s Anderson School of Management. He serves on the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Chapter of the American Marketing Association and the Active 20-30 Club of Albuquerque. He earned his MBA from the University of New Mexico. He began his career as a leadership consultant and was a marketing analyst with Bueno Foods.
Mr. Frank Duran is a Principal and Vice President/Director of Account Services at Kilmer & Kilmer, Inc., a branding consultancy in Albuquerque. He earned his MBA from the University of Arizona and has 12 years of experience in advertising and branding strategy for national and local clients such as the New Mexico Lottery, Lovelace Health Systems, Avonite, PNM, Presbyterian Healthcare Services, Matrix Fitness Systems, Norwest Bank, New Mexico Sports and Wellness and Dion's.
Mr. David Euler, President and CEO of Southwest Funding Group, Inc., a real estate investment company. He analyzes investment properties, projects cash flows and negotiates transactions on behalf of the corporation. He began his career as an engineer and project manager, with a total of 18 years in the aerospace industry.
Dr. Linda Ferrell, Associate Professor of Marketing and Creative Enterprise Scholar, Anderson School of Management, University of New Mexico
Ms. Nancy Greiff, Ph.D., owns Positive Resolutions, an Albuquerque-based training and consulting business specializing in people skills for the workplace. Formerly a professor at Cornell University, Dr. Greiff now leads events and training programs nationwide. Participants in Dr. Greiff's training programs have come from over 100 of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as from small and mid-sized businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. She enjoys helping client organizations with win-win communication and conflict resolution, as well as customer service, teamwork, negotiation, mediation, time management, and supervisory skills.
Dr. David Harris David Harris is a full-time Lecturer in Management Information Systems at Anderson. He has a diverse background. He earned his Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry from the University of Lancaster, UK. Later, Dr. Harris switched to computer science and the management of large scale computing services. This led to managing a number of major technology projects and to a long-time personal interest in techniques and skill sets involved in managing projects successfully.
Dr. Harris worked as an IT executive and more recently as a project management consultant. He has taught project management courses at the graduate level since the mid-1990s.
Mr. John E. Kelly MS, SPHR, has had increasingly responsible business experience across all of the human resource functional areas in a wide range of industries. Roles have included internal engagements at all stages; proposal, delivery and implementation. He has provided human resource services and expertise to senior leadership in the areas of workforce planning, organization design, productivity improvement, organizational change management, employee and labor relations.
Previously he served as Vice President of Human Resources, Director of Human Resources for Hospital Operations, and Senior Manager of Human Resources and Labor Relations.
He is past President of the Healthcare Human Resources Association of the National Capital Area, past Vice President- Programs, Montgomery County Society for Human Resources Management, past member Board of Advisors on Healthcare Careers-Maryland Hospital Association, founding member of the Potomac Employers Roundtable, and current member, National Chapter Society for Human Resources Management. He has facilitated the SHRM Learning System since 1995 for the Management Development Center at the Anderson School of Management.
John received his Master's degree in Personnel and Human Resources Management from The American University and Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, specializing in Personnel Administration from Roosevelt University.
Ms. Anne Lightsey, owner of Perfect Timing, has almost 20 years experience as a trainer and facilitator. Anne specializes in supervisory skills, time management, goal setting, conflict resolution and mediation, and team building. In addition to owning her own business, Anne has been a Training Manager for Spring PCS and the Executive Director of the West Side Family YMCA.
Ms. Sophie Martin, MBA, is the president of the New Mexico Advertising Federation and Albuquerque Managing Director of the National Dance Institute of New Mexico. Sophie has placed media for the Georgia O'Keefe Museum, UNM Anderson School of Management, Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Art Institute, Popejoy Hall, and The College of Santa Fe. She has been named twice to the New Mexico Business Weekly's "40 Under Forty" list is a founding blogger of DukeCityFix.com, named a Top 10 community blog in the U.S. by PlaceBlogger.com.
Mr. Justin Najaka MBA, SPHR, CCP is the State Compensation Manager for the State of New Mexico. He has over 16 years experience in designing compensation and total reward systems for both the Judicial and Executive Branches of New Mexico State Government. He works with executive agency management and senior human resource directors in 75 state agencies on compensation and general human resource related issues. He also works closely with the Governor's Office, Legislative Finance Committee and the Department of Finance and Administration to analyze and review human resources legislation.
Justin has earned undergraduate degrees in Finance and Economics and a MBA with an emphasis in Human Resource Management. He serves as an adjunct professor at Northern New Mexico Community College and Santa Fe Community College and New Mexico Highlands University, instructing Human Resource Management, Economics and general business courses. He received the "Faculty Excellence Award" from Santa Fe Community College in 2002. He has facilitated the SHRM Learning System since 2002 for the Management Development Center at the Anderson School of Management.
Justin has served as VP of Finance/Treasurer of the Northern New Mexico Human Resource Association, on the Scholarship and Publication/Article Review committees for the International Personnel Management Association for Human Resources, and is past president of the Central States Compensation Association. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Retiree Health Care Authority.
Ms. Nancy Newell, SPHR. During her 10 years of practical experience in Human Resources Management, she has focused on strategic compensation and benefits planning, recruitment and training, employee relations and effective organizational design and communications. She completed her graduate studies at the University of Minnesota, and serves on the board of directors for the Human Resources Management Association of New Mexico.
Dr. Leslie Oakes, is an Associate Professor of Accounting at the Anderson School of Management. She is doing research on the social role of accounting, accounting for nonprofit organizations and the history of accounting. She has consulted and taught courses on performance evaluation, cost-benefit analysis, and economic measurement issues and is on the editorial review boards of two journals, Critical Perspectives on Accounting and The Accounting Forum.
Ms. Karen Paone President, Paone & Associates, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in strategic planning, leadership development, change management, presentation training and business coaching. Prior to starting her own company, she was Vice President of Planning & Administration with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico. She has more than 20 years of public speaking, training, meeting facilitation and management experience.
Ms. Kerry Perry is the District Director for Pitney Bowes Inc., a Fortune 200 corporation. Her responsibilities have included researching and developing all district marketing and sales activities, hiring, training a MBA degree with an emphasis in Marketing and has taught marketing and sales at the Anderson School of Management.
Ms. Karen Ross, SPHR, who received her MBA from UNM, is a Human Resource Specialist in the area of safety and OSHA compliance, training, and human resource management. She is a trained mediator and volunteers for the NMCDR doing community, workplace and juvenile mediations.
Mr. Stacy Sacco is VP Marketing at Kirtland Federal Credit Union and teaches sales and marketing at the UNM Anderson School of Management. He has over 20 years experience in marketing management with Hyundai, Transamerica and Avco Financial Services. He has served as the President of both the New Mexico and Orange County Chapters of the American Marketing Association, regularly writes articles for both the Albuquerque Tribune and New Mexico Business Journal, and publishes several lists including the New Mexico Directory of Professional Associations. He earned his MBA from Pepperdine University.
Dr. Scott Sanders, Professor, UNM English Department. He also serves as a consultant in technical writing, editing and training for such organizations such as Sandia National Laboratories, City of Albuquerque, Gulton Data Systems, and TRW. He is the recipient of the IEEE award for outstanding contributions to engineering communication and the Distinguished Educator Award from PNM.
Ms. Wendy Shannon, SPHR, has over 20 years of experience in the management and human resources fields and is the owner of Human Resources Works, LLC, a consulting company that specializes in all areas of human resources and management training. She has extensive experience dealing with hospitals, banks, call centers and high-tech companies. She has facilitated the SHRM Learning System for five years and has served as a consultant to more than 25 clients specializing in compensation, training, and performance management.
Mr. Don Shoemaker, SPHR, is a graduate of UNM and has over 20 years of generalist HR experience in retail, government and manufacturing. He currently is a People Systems Program Manager for Intel Corporation and has worked internationally for Intel. He has served local and national SHRM organizations in a variety of officer positions.
Ms. Katie Snapp is a professional facilitator, trainer, and leadership coach for companies nationwide, and owner of Kessinger Consulting, LLC. Since 1988, she has been working primarily in the government, defense, and technical sector delivering training and coaching. Her initial career as an electrical engineer has prepared Katie to understand the working environment as a place for challenge, personal growth, and organizational excellence. Through a highly interactive delivery style, Katie takes theoretical concepts and translates them into actionable, measurable progress, with a little fun where appropriate. Katie has been a Certified Senior Examiner in Malcolm-Baldrige, New Mexico Quality Award, is a six Sigma Green Belt, and is an ICF-certified Executive and Team Coach. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her husband, daughters, step-family, psychic cat, and immature large black retriever.
Ms. Whitney Warner, SPHR, is an employment and labor law attorney with Moody and Warner. She is the Director of Legislative Activities on the NM State Council of SHRM and serves on the Board of the Human Resource Management Association and the NM State Bar Association. She worked as a human resources generalist prior to earning a law degree from the University of New Mexico. Her legal practice is devoted to employment and labor law and focuses on employer advice and litigation in the areas of discrimination, harassment, EEOC/HRD charges, unfair labor practice proceedings, wage and hour, and OFCCP enforcement.