Scott Cameron is a public interest attorney, the founder of Families4peace, a husband, a father and a member of this community. It is these last two roles, and the great responsibility he feels as a result, that led him to start Families4peace in 2013, in the aftermath of the SandyHook Elementary school shootings. The great sadness, frustration, and anger from that day made him realize that he had to take action, that he needed to fully embrace his responsibilities as someone raising the next generation and as a community member, and F4P and the Mind Your Matter program were born.

Fang is a full-time instructor at Central New Mexico Community College (CNM). This year, she was selected to receive a presidential fellowship to research and lead competency-based education initiatives for CNM. During the fellowship, she has had the opportunity to learn about competency-based education in depth. Her talk is based on what she has learned about competency-based education and what she thinks about competency-based education.

Santos has been taking things apart and putting them back together in new ways since he was in kindergarten. For many years, he has been using the word “art” to describe his passion for making, including the period of time he completed his undergraduate degree in fine arts. As a college student, Santos showed his art work throughout New Mexico, including the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. His need for working with others led him to a master in Art Education. He considers his role as an art teacher to be the most important ongoing art process he has undertaken.

Travis Davis is a 26 year old graduate student at the University of New Mexico, pursuing a Master’s degree in Physical Education. In addition, Travis is part of two organizations, the Carrie Tingley Hospital Foundation and YMCA. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy, Travis feels strongly about social inclusion.

Ron Eppes is the Intel NM Community Engagement Manager. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics and a Master’s Degree in Information Systems. He has been married to his wife Peggy for 26 wonderful years (she would probably only agree to 23 wonderful years and 3, well just years); they have 3 children, a daughter and son in college and a grumpy teenage boy at Rio Rancho High School. Ron has many weird ideas especially about mathematics…

Paola is the daughter of Mexican immigrants who came to the U.S. in 1974. After five years of international pediatric HIV prevention and treatment work, Paola returned home to the United States for the unique opportunity to join the Harvard University Graduate School of Education’s Doctor of Education Leadership Program, where she earned her doctorate degree in 2014. She moved to Albuquerque in 2013 to join the New Mexico Center for School Leadership’s work of designing and connecting innovative high schools. Most recently, Paola joined AchieveMission, where she will foster the human capital development of leading nonprofit organizations.

Krystal Irby is a teacher. She works to develop lessons that get kids engaged and thinking, and helps them learn the skills to be independent learners. She is constantly reflecting on her own practice to be a better educator. She pursues opportunities to learn, collaborate, and lead. She has taught science at McKinley Middle School for six years, and has been involved with several technology initiatives in their district.

Coming soon.

Erin Mayer is an educator working in Albuquerque Public Schools with students who have unlimited potential. She has worked with the following group of students for several years and has seen them grow to be strong academic students as well as students who can advocate for their own education. These students have participated in speaking to educators about what is important about their learning and how teaching needs to shift to empower them in the classroom and in their lives. They have shared information through writing, modeling lessons for teachers and shared in speaking as a keynote to 135 educators.

Coming soon.

Van Overton is a husband and father of two. He has been a community organizer and child advocate for several years. He is currently a co-founder of Duke City Dream Lab, which works to make the arts accessible to all children, and sits on the Board of Directors for the New Mexico Parent Teacher association.

Dominic Pettine is a 2015 New Mexico Golden Apple Teacher of Distinction, an Apple Foundations Trainer, videographer and a leader in educational technology. Dominic works with educators and administrators across Albuquerque Public Schools and the State of New Mexico speaking and providing training on how to empower students through the creative use of technology. Dominic founded and leads the award winning videography program at Washington Middle School in downtown Albuquerque whose films are used across New Mexico to promote social justice and community health. Dominic is part of a vanguard of talented and passionate educators redefining education for New Mexico.

A Principal Member of the Technical Staff in Cognitive Science & Systems at Sandia National Laboratories. She is an ERCIM (European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics) Fellow and has worked in research laboratories in Germany, England, and France. Elaine’s greatest passion involves designing experiences that present opportunities to hone intercultural communication competence, self-awareness, and adaptability. She is on assignment to Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Readiness), where she leads research exploring transmedia storytelling systems to support informal learning, and next generation learners’ interactions with future learning technology.

Stan Rounds is Superintendent of Las Cruces Public Schools. Superintendent Rounds is a native New Mexican and has been an educator in the state of New Mexico for 43 years. He started his career as a teacher and coach with the Albuquerque Public Schools and has been a superintendent for over 19 years spending 3 years in Des Moines, 4 years in Alamogordo, and 10 years in Hobbs before coming to Las Cruces in February 2007. In addition to his tenure as a teacher, coach, and superintendent, Superintendent Rounds was the New Mexico Legislative Education Study’s Financial Analyst from 1982 to 1983.

Kayla Scheer has wanted to be an educator since fourth grade. Being a Millennial, she’s on the technology fad, thus it has made its mark on her teaching. As an educator, she’s not sure why we are teaching “21st century skills” when students have been natives for the past fifteen years. Tinkering with Technology is her concept of learning. Students need to be taught with inquiry to fuel a meaningful learning experience. It is time for students to take control and facilitate how they learn – this indeed has an impact on all our futures.

John is an educator serving learners and their families at Harrison Middle School in Albuquerque’s South Valley. Through critical pedagogy and indigenous epistemology, he and his students work to build life rafts for their community. The rising waters of his learners’ lives flood the classroom and become centerpieces of the curriculum. Using “Social Holography,” his students analyze the dynamic intersection of human values, language, history, epistemology, power, society and culture and how these change between place and space. Each student thus creates her or his own water wheel to power themselves to become the change they want to see.

Max is one of our founders and truly is the heart and soul of Galloping Grace. After earning his degree in surveying engineering from New Mexico State University, he became vice president of Artistic Homes and then the owner/president of Comfort Air and Plumbing. Tired of the rat race, he longed for a more meaningful purpose and for a way to serve others, particularly children. It is Max’s life’s passion to develop Galloping Grace Youth Ranch into the nation’s leading youth development nonprofit organization in the field of agriculture. We couldn’t ask for a more visionary and enthusiastic leader!