News

Dr. Gabe Sanchez on building a reputation in policy: be transparent, non-partisan, and professional

Posted: Jun 25, 2024 - 12:00am

Dr. Gabe Sanchez is one of the leading national experts on Latino politics and health policy. He has years of policy reports and evaluations under his belt. He is a Professor of Political Science and the Director of the UNM Center for Social Policy....read more

Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury on her career and connecting with communities

Posted: May 14, 2024 - 12:00am

On April 3rd, Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury joined the Policy Seminar as a guest speaker, and the excitement in the building was palpable. Congresswoman Stansbury is a proud lifelong resident of New Mexico, and her career goals are grounded in ans...read more

Regis Pecos on Cochiti Pueblo's battle against the US Corp of Engineers

Posted: Apr 09, 2024 - 12:00am

Regis Pecos has had an extensive career in policy and government. Born and raised in Cochiti Pueblo, he served multiple terms as Lt. Governor and Governor and served on the traditional Tribal Council for 35 years. He was the longest-serving Chief Ex...read more

Aaron Sussman on Transportation Policy and Decreasing New Mexico’s Traffic Fatality Rate

Posted: Mar 29, 2024 - 12:00am

On February 14 the Policy Seminar hosted Aaron Sussman as a guest speaker. Mr. Sussman works in transportation planning and policy. He is the New Mexico lead and principal planner for Toole Design Group. Mr. Sussman is a dynamic planner and project ...read more

Jane Wishner and a brief overview of SB 15: Health Care Consolidation Oversight Act

Posted: Feb 19, 2024 - 12:00am

Jane Wishner has had a diverse career. She has been a litigator, the founder and Executive Director of the Southwest Women’s Law Center, and a health policy expert - even serving as Governor Lujan Grisham’s Executive Policy Advisor for H...read more

New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District: The challenge of getting rural communities what they need

Posted: Oct 18, 2023 - 12:00am

Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernandez serves New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District in the US House of Representatives. The Congresswoman has a unique challenge working for this district because it is largely rural and encompasses a variety of...read more

Meet the MPP’s new director!

Posted: Sep 13, 2023 - 12:00am

Mike Rocca has been a Political Science professor at UNM since 2005. Originally from Castro Valley, California, he attended California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo where he majored in Political Science and then went on to receive ...read more

The MPP welcomes a new director as Dr. Binder sets off a new adventure

Posted: Aug 09, 2023 - 12:00am

On August 8, 2023 the MPP community gathered to thank former MPP Director, Melissa Binder for all she has done for the program, and to welcome Mike Rocca to his new role as MPP Director. Dr. Binder has been the director of the MPP since its inceptio...read more

2023 MPP Commencement Address by Amy Whitfield

Posted: May 22, 2023 - 12:00am

On May 11, 2023 the MPP celebrated for our seven MPP graduates. Policy Advisor for the Governor and MPP Community Advisory Board member, Amy Whitfield was the commencement speaker. Below is her speech and advice for the new graduates. "Congratula...read more

UNM MPP celebrates scholarship recipients

Posted: May 08, 2023 - 12:00am

The New Mexico Higher Education Graduate Scholarship is a scholarship aimed at increasing enrollment of underrepresented groups to graduate programs. The MPP currently has two students that have received this scholarship and we are very proud to hav...read more

Maggie Hart Stebbins on County-Level Service: Small Places Where You Can Make a Big Difference

Posted: Apr 05, 2023 - 12:00am

Maggie Hart Stebbins was a guest speaker in the Policy Seminar last month. She was appointed as New Mexico’s Natural Resources Trustee in 2019. Before that she worked as a Bernalillo County Commissioner, and emphasized to the students how impa...read more

Advising elected officials: Be humble. Be informed. Be thick-skinned. Be concise. Be helpful.

Posted: Mar 20, 2023 - 12:00am

Senior Policy Advisor for the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, Scott Darnell, shared his experience serving in the administration of New Mexico Governor, Susana Martinez. Mr. Darnell was an advisor to the former governor and he shared what h...read more

A taste of the Session: MPP Students' Annual Roundhouse Visit

Posted: Feb 08, 2023 - 12:00am

During a trip to the New Mexico Legislature, MPP students met with policy analysts from the Finance and Education Committees, sat in on a hearing of a bill that would ban spring-time prescribed burns, and visited analysts in the Governor's office. &...read more

Enrique Cardiel on public health and healthy communities

Posted: Sep 19, 2022 - 12:00am

Enrique Cardiel has been in public health since 2001, and worked in public service before that. He is now the Executive Director of the Health Equity Council (HEC), formerly the Bernalillo County Community Health Council. In 1992 the state supported...read more

Michelle Melendez on civic service and social equity work: We all do better when we all do better.

Posted: Aug 29, 2022 - 12:00am

Michelle Melendez, Director of the City of Albuquerque’s Office of Equity and Inclusion, has had a long career in civic service. As a guest speaker in the Policy Seminar last spring, the MPP students got to accompany her on a special journey t...read more

Amanda Aragon on making New Mexico schools excellent

Posted: Mar 29, 2022 - 12:00am

Amanda Aragon is the Executive Director of New Mexico Kids Can, a non-profit that aims to improve education for all kids in New Mexico by promoting options and accountability. Ms. Aragon has had a number of experiences that have led her to the work ...read more

Dr. Antonio Gonzales on New Mexico Public Education and finding answers in our communities

Posted: Mar 07, 2022 - 12:00am

Antonio Gonzales has worked in the Albuquerque Public School system for twenty years.  He has been a classroom teacher, an assistant principal, a principal, and for the last two years has served as the Associate Superintendent for APS. He stron...read more

Josue De Luna Navarro: Creating pathways to citizenship and to seats at the decision making table

Posted: Dec 13, 2021 - 12:00am

You know the saying, not being political is a privilege that many people do not have? Josue De Luna Navarro, is living proof of that. With a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering he never planned to work in policy, let alone receive the honor ...read more

2021-22 Evaluation Lab Students are ready to put their evaluation plans into action

Posted: Dec 07, 2021 - 12:00am

Our Evaluation Lab students provided project updates to partner organizations at a Zoom meeting earlier this month.  Here’s a recap at what is happening in the Lab this year. Saranam seeks to end homelessness through a “2gen,”...read more

Know your problem and don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good: Jon Courtney on the value of applied research

Posted: Dec 06, 2021 - 12:00am

MPP Community Advisory Board member and NM Legislative Finance Committee Deputy Director, Jon Courtney first became interested in human behavior and research during his childhood in Española, New Mexico. Española has a higher than average ...read more

Amy Whitfield: the power of language and history in policy making

Posted: Oct 28, 2021 - 12:00am

Amy Whitfield, the Executive Director of the NM Office of African-American Affairs, did not start her professional career with a clear idea of what she wanted to do. For a time, she thought she would be a professional cheerleader, and when that did ...read more

“There is a lot of work to do.” Ambassador Lewis shares a treasure trove of experience and advice with MPP Students

Posted: Oct 11, 2021 - 12:00am

From the time he graduated from a segregated high school in Kansas City, Kansas, Delano Lewis knew he wanted to be lawyer so he could use the law to make real change, particularly in civil rights. After earning his law degree in 1963, he moved to Wa...read more

2021 Evaluation Lab Expo a success

Posted: May 06, 2021 - 10:00am

The 2021 Evaluation Lab Expo was our second pandemic Expo. Our Evaluation Lab Fellows each presented their posters with poise and confidence in their findings. The students have spent the last two semesters interacting with their clients virtually, ...read more

Jazmín Irazoqui-Ruiz shares her passion for policy born from her lived experience

Posted: Apr 07, 2021 - 10:00am

It is easy to see why Jazmín Irazoqui-Ruiz is so passionate about policy. As a child, her family immigrated from Mexico to Phoenix, Arizona and when she was in high school, they decided to move to New Mexico where the immigration policies were ...read more

An Adventure in Digital Policy Making: MPP Students' Annual Trip to the Legislative Session

Posted: Mar 24, 2021 - 09:00am

This year’s annual trip to the New Mexico’s Legislative Session for first year MPP students looked very different than previous years, since it happened on a screen. But as in previous years, the students had the opportunity to talk with...read more

Getting Your Arms Around the Problem: James Lewis shares advice from his distinguished public service career

Posted: Mar 12, 2021 - 12:00am

James Lewis, a member of the MPP’s Community Advisory Board, is a treasure trove of policy career information. He has worked in government for four decades and was the first African American elected to a statewide office in New Mexico. Some of...read more

Be Humble. Be Informed. Be Concise. Be Helpful: Scott Darnell on Advising Elected Officials.

Posted: Feb 26, 2021 - 12:00am

Scott Darnell addressed the MPP Policy Seminar this week on the topic of advising elected officials.  Now a senior policy advisor for the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Darnell previously served in the administrations of New Mexic...read more

Money and Citizens: Dede Feldman on Ethics in the NM State Legislature 

Posted: Jan 20, 2021 - 12:00am

A candidate for the New Mexico senate in the 1980s spent an average of  $2,500.  In today’s dollars that candidate would have spent about $6,000.  Compare those figures with the $1 million pumped in...read more

Policymaking in a time of crisis: Richard Bowman on lessons from COVID-19

Posted: Dec 02, 2020 - 12:00am

Richard Bowman’s career trajectory has taken him on a varied path, from high school science teacher to earning his Ph.D. in Policy Analysis from Pardee RAND Graduate School, to the Chief Information and Strategy Officer for Albuquerque Public ...read more

MPP student working with schools all over New Mexico

Posted: Nov 24, 2020 - 12:00am

Marit is a part-time MPP student and a full time Comprehensive Literacy Development Manager for New Mexico’s Public Education Department. Marit manages a grant for 40 million dollars to be distributed over five years for eleven sub-grantees in...read more

Policy Students in Action

Posted: Nov 11, 2020 - 12:00am

In our October lunch gathering over Zoom, policy analysts from New Mexico Voices for Children told the MPP students about their organization and their roles within it. Emily Wildau is a part-time MPP student and full time Research and Policy Analysi...read more

Viewing Policy Through Multiple Lenses

Posted: Oct 26, 2020 - 12:00am

Dr. Corrine Sanchez grew up in and around the non-profit, Tewa Women United (TWU). She watched its beginnings as her mother and other Tewa women formed a volunteer group, and as it became a non-profit in 2001, and now she is the Executive Director a...read more

Policy Making in the Time of COVID

Posted: Oct 09, 2020 - 12:00am

Jon Courtney is on the MPP’s Community Advisory Board and is Deputy Director of the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee (LFC). Dr. Courtney’s experience includes working as a data analyst for the United States Air Force Research Lab...read more

MPP Students Making a Difference

Posted: Sep 29, 2020 - 12:00am

In our first COVID lunch gathering, two second-year MPP students reported on their summer policy internships. Jessica Hitzman spent the summer of 2020 interning at the Legislative Finance Committee (and has been hired on as a regular employee for th...read more

Myra Segal and Albuquerque’s Corona Crushers work to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the city’s homeless population

Posted: Sep 08, 2020 - 12:00am

Myra Segal was the Policy Seminar’s first guest speaker of the academic year. Myra is the Senior Policy Advisor for the City of Albuquerque’s Family and Community Services. She holds an MPP from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. Myr...read more

Join us for the Eval Lab Expo Webinar!

Posted: Apr 24, 2020 - 12:00am

Every spring, the UNM Evaluation Lab hosts an event for the community to learn about our work to build evaluation capacity in local nonprofits. Due to COVID-19, this year's Evaluation Lab Expo will be a webinar! Join us online on Friday, May 8th fr...read more

Building Relationships and Standing for What you Believe In

Posted: Mar 04, 2020 - 11:00am

Ernie C’de Baca is the President and CEO of the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce(AHCC). He is also a member of the MPP’s Community Advisory Board and was recently a guest speaker in the MPP Policy Seminar!  Mr. C’de Bac...read more

Future Champions of Change visit the Roundhouse for a taste of the Legislative Season

Posted: Feb 17, 2020 - 12:00pm

First year MPP students took a trip to Santa Fe on Friday, February 7, to visit the New Mexico Capital and get a close look at the Roundhouse during the busy 30-day legislative session. Our very own MPPer and senior fiscal analyst for the Legislativ...read more

Lessons from 16 years in the New Mexico Senate

Posted: Feb 10, 2020 - 02:00pm

Dede Feldman was the Policy Seminar’s first guest speaker of 2020, and to start the semester off the MPP students read her book, Inside the New Mexico Senate: Boots, Suits and Citizens. Ms. Feldman is on the MPP Community Advisory Board and se...read more

Ready, set, evaluate!

Posted: Dec 11, 2019 - 10:00am

Evaluation Lab Fellows recently shared evaluation plans with the four participating community organizations in the 2019-2020 Evaluation Lab: Las Cumbres Community Services, Enlace Comunitario, PB&J Family Services, and Centro Sávila.  Each...read more

A Holistic Approach to Policy

Posted: Dec 03, 2019 - 09:00am

Corrine Sanchez, of San Ildefonso Pueblo, started out in Environmental Studies at Clark University, before earning a Master's in American Studies at UNM, and a PhD from the School of Social Transformation and Justice Studies at ASU. She is now the E...read more

Best Advice for Elected Decision Makers

Posted: Nov 10, 2019 - 12:00am

Scott Darnell has seen the Policy World from many vantage points. He has worked for the governor, the city, and he now oversees policy development and strategic planning for the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce. He knows how important effecti...read more

The Pitfalls of a Boom and Bust Economy, and the Difficulty of Changing the Status Quo

Posted: Sep 25, 2019 - 12:00am

Charles Sallee, the Deputy Director of the NM Legislative Finance Committee, encouraged students to take a long view of government. Reliance on oil and gas tax revenue subjects New Mexico to a boom and bust pattern, mirroring the nature of extractiv...read more

A Passion for Policy

Posted: Sep 04, 2019 - 12:00am

Ane Romero, a member of the MPP Community Advisory Board, shared her policy path with MPP students during the Policy Seminar on Wednesday. Ms. Romero thought she wanted to be a physical therapist when she started college at NM Highlands University, ...read more

Negotiation: The Key to a Successful Policy

Posted: May 09, 2019 - 12:00pm

The MPP students were happy to welcome guest speaker, Dr. Richard Bowman to the Policy Seminar on May 1. Bowman brings his perspective as a former high school teacher to his policy work as the Albuquerque Public Schools’ Chief Information and ...read more

Leslie Porter Gives Students a Glimpse into the Future

Posted: Apr 23, 2019 - 12:00am

Seeing community members being successful in your degree of choice is nothing short of inspiring for students. MPP students got exactly that inspiration this week with a visit from Leslie Porter, who holds an MPP from American University. Ms. Porter...read more

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