facebookpixel
Select Page

Board of Directors

Kenneth ColeKen Cole

Chair, Class of 2023
2018–Present

Ken Cole is Senior Advisor, Pfizer Inc, and is based in Washington, DC. From 2010-2018, Ken was responsible for the company’s government relations activities, including its public affairs; grassroots/political action committee programs; alliance development and think tank outreach. Prior to joining Pfizer, he served as Vice President of Global Public Policy and Government Relations at General Motors for a decade. Previously, he was Corporate Vice President, Government Relations, for AlliedSignal from 1983 and later Honeywell. He joined Allied Corporation in 1981 in its Union Texas Petroleum subsidiary in Houston as Vice President, Public Affairs. Prior to that, he had an eight-year career with Standard Oil of Indiana, as Regional Vice President, Public and Government Affairs in Denver and Houston.  Ken has chaired several national coalitions promoting international trade, a balanced federal budget, campaign finance reform, and funding for research in electric vehicles.  He is a past President of NABPAC and the Business-Government Relations Council. He has chaired the board of directors of a number of industry trade associations and charitable organizations during his thirty-five year career in Washington, D.C. He is an attorney and a graduate of the University of the Texas at Austin.


Elizabeth Glassman

Vice Chair, Class of 2023
2020-Present

Elizabeth Glassman is president emerita of the Terra Foundation for American Art and was previously the foundation’s president and CEO. From 2001 to 2020, she led the foundation and oversaw its collection of American art. During her tenure at the foundation she also spearheaded the development and launch of an expanded grant program, which distributed $110 million in more than 1,200 grants reaching 31 counties. With an expertise in prints, drawings, and photographs, Elizabeth has worked with numerous museums and collections, and she established the Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation. She was awarded the distinction of Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2012 and has served on the board of directors of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Elizabeth holds master’s degrees in both business administration and art history from University of St. Thomas, Houston, and the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, respectively. 


John Arroyo

Secretary, Class of 2024
2021–Present

John C. Arroyo, PhD is an Assistant Professor in Urban Studies and Planning and Chicanx and Latinx Studies at the University of California San Diego. Previously, he was an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Latino Studies at the School for Advanced Research as well as the Founding Director of the Pacific Northwest Just Futures Institute for Racial and Climate Justice at the University of Oregon. Arroyo’s research focuses on the political and cultural dimensions of Latino/a/x immigrant-centered built environments in emerging gateways, specifically housing, transportation, and ethnic retail corridors. This work has been supported by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Research Council/Ford Foundation, National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Whiting Foundation. A certified planner (AICP), he has over 25 years of experience working with various arts, cultural heritage, and urbanism-related nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies in research, grantmaking, and technical assistance capacities across the US, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. He received a doctorate in Urban Planning, Policy, and Design as well as a Master’s in City Planning and a Certificate in Urban Design from MIT. He currently serves on the Steering Committee for the Public Humanities Network of the Consortium for Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI).


Joe BracewellJoseph S. Bracewell

Treasurer, Class of 2025
2022–Present

Joseph “Joe” Bracewell joined the SAR Board in February of 2022 and currently serves as Chair of the Finance Committee. A native of Houston, Joe attended Harvard College, Stanford Business School, and Washington College of Law. In 1980, Joe was appointed by President Carter to become president of the newly created Solar Energy and Energy Conservation Bank, a short-lived assignment that brought Joe and his family to Washington, where they have lived ever since. Joe is currently the Chairman of Trustar Bank, a community bank headquartered in Northern Virginia. He also serves on the Cathedral Chapter of the Washington National Cathedral and is active in masters rowing on the Potomac River. Joe and his wife Peggy have three children and seven grandchildren. They have owned a home in Santa Fe since 2019.

 

Dennis Ahlburg

Member, Class of 2027
2024–Present

Dennis Ahlburg, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor of Economics at Trinity University, San Antonio, and its former president.  The author of more than 100 academic articles and books, he has consulted extensively with a variety of prominent organizations, including the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and the governments of Great Britain and Australia.  He received his doctorate in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, his M.A. from Australian National University, and his B.A. in Economics from the University of Sydney.  Before coming to Trinity University, he served on the faculties of the University of Colorado-Boulder and the University of Minnesota.

 



Jan Avent

Member, Class of 2026
2023–Present

Jan is a professor emerita in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at California State University, East Bay in Hayward, California. She joined the faculty in 1989 and is the founder of the Aphasia Treatment Program, a unique intensive approach to speech and language rehabilitation following stroke and brain injury. Through her research, she authored the “Manual of Cooperative Group Treatment for Aphasia” and a chapter in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and other professional articles. Jan earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas Tech University in 1977. She holds a Master of Arts degree from University of Kansas and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of California, Santa Barbara and San Francisco. She currently serves on the board of the Yosemite Conservancy and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with her husband Dave Rossetti and greyhound Zoe.


Alex Barker

Member, Class of 2025
2022–Present

Alex Barker is an archaeologist and museum anthropologist; he served in leadership positions in freestanding and university museums for more than a quarter century before becoming Director of the Arkansas Archeological Survey in 2022. A graduate of the Getty Museum Leadership Institute, he is past president of the American Anthropological Association and the Council for Museum Anthropology, and is an academic trustee of the Archaeological Institute of America. He’s received awards for his research from the Society for American Archaeology and for professional service from both SAA and the American Alliance of Museums. He currently serves on the State Department’s Cultural Property Advisory Committee, and previously served on the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Review Committee.


Nancy F. Bern

Nancy F. Bern

Member, Class of 2026
2022–Present

Nancy F. Bern has over 40 years of domestic and international executive experience in the financial services, insurance, and technology industries. As Global Client Executive at IBM, she was responsible for sales and account management for IBM’s largest international clients. She was Chairman and CEO of John Hancock Health Plan Management Services, a consulting firm that provided advice and counsel to Fortune 100 companies in choosing and managing health benefit plans for their employees. As Senior Vice President for John Hancock Financial Services, she headed Hancock’s Group Insurance Division world-wide, managing research, product design, pricing, marketing, sales, financials, legal and compliance, technology systems, and customer service for business done with Hancock’s Fortune 100 customers. Nancy received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Vanderbilt University, a Master of Business Administration degree from Boston University School of Management, and a Juris Doctorate from Suffolk University Law School.

 


Dorothy Bracey

Member, Class of 2025
2012–Present

Dorothy H. Bracey has a PhD in social and cultural anthropology from Harvard University and a MSL from Yale Law School.  She taught Anthropology of Law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice City University of New York where she is Professor Emeritus. In addition to other visiting professorships, she held the George Beto Chair at Sam Houston State University. She was President of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, which has recently established an award in her name.  She has been Vice-Chair of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and Treasurer of the Institute of American Indian Arts Foundation.  Ms. Bracey recently received a New Mexico Historic Preservation Award for her leadership of the Palace of the Governors Windows on History project.

 


Peggy Burns

Member, Class of 2027
2024–Present

Peggy Burns is an experienced development and marketing professional who has served on the staffs of Harvard University, the Henry Ford Health System, and the University of Michigan.  At U-M, she delivered some of the largest gifts in the university’s history, including $56M for the Helen Zell Writers’ Program and $25M for the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies.  She is a graduate of the University of Colorado-Boulder.

 


Donald Brenneis

Member, Class of 2024
2014–Present

Donald Brenneis is a linguistic and social anthropologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard. His work has focused on the social life of communicative practices – linguistic, musical, performative, and textual. In the earlier part of his career he worked in diasporic south Asian communities in Fiji, focusing on the complexities of language, conflict, and social life – and on practices ranging from religious rhetoric to gossip. More recently he has been doing ethnographic work in research funding and higher educational policy-making institutions, both as participant and as observer. Don taught at Pitzer College from 1973-1996 and has been at UCSC since 1996. He edited American Ethnologist from 1990-94, served as President-Elect and President of the American Anthropological Association (1999-2003), was on the editorial board of the University of California Press, and has participated extensively on funding panels and on various assessment committees. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and a Fellow of the Lichtenberg Kolleg, University of Goettingen.


Michael F. Brown

Member, Ex Officio
2014–Present

Michael F. Brown is the President of SAR. He received his A.B. degree from Princeton and a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Michigan. He served on the faculty of Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, for 34 years, during which time he was awarded research fellowships by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Institute for Advanced Study. At SAR, he was a resident scholar and a participant in two advanced seminars. Brown is the author of six books.

 


Brenda J. Child

Member, Class of 2024
2021–Present

Brenda Child is Northrop Professor and former Chair of the Departments of American Studies and American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of several books in American Indian history including Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 (1998), which won the North American Indian Prose Award; Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community (2012); Her 2014 book My Grandfather’s Knocking Sticks: Ojibwe Family Life and Labor on the Reservation won the American Indian Book Award. She is the author of a best-selling bi-lingual book for children, Bowwow Powwow (2018). She was a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Museum of the American Indian-Smithsonian (2013-18) and was President of the Native American & Indigenous Studies Association (2017-18). She was consultant to a major exhibit, Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories at the Heard Museum. Child was born on the Red Lake Ojibwe Reservation in northern Minnesota where she is part of a committee developing a new constitution for the 15,000 member nation.



Larry Colton

Member, Class of 2026
2023–Present

Larry Colton is a fourth generation San Franciscan who spent the majority of his life in the Bay Area. His business life centered around meeting the Risk Management and Insurance needs of non-profits and high-net-worth individuals throughout the country. His Board involvement has primarily focused on the education, social services, environmental, social impact and healthcare sectors. He currently serves on the Eisenhower Medical Center Board of Directors, the Eisenhower Foundation, and the Caravanserai Project. He has a BA in Communications from University of California, Berkeley. He and his husband, John, split their time between Santa Fe, Rancho Mirage, and Laguna Beach.


Joe Colvin

Member, Class of 2026
2023–Present

Joe Colvin graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1969 with a BS degree in electrical engineering and a MS degree in nuclear engineering. He later attended the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program. Joe retired in 2005 having served as the President and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, Inc. in Washington, D.C. for 22 years. He also served as president and CEO of two other utility companies with a strong focus on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy to generate emission-free electricity. Joe had a distinguished career as a Naval nuclear submarine officer, serving on seven submarines during his 22-year service to our country. Joe is very involved in the Santa Fe community, having served as president of the Club at Las Campanas for three years and on the board of the Cancer Foundation for New Mexico.


Thomas R. Conner

Member, Class of 2025
2019–Present

Tom Conner is a retired attorney from Houston.  As a trial attorney, he was involved in civil, commercial, probate litigation and medical malpractice defense, but his specialty was Family Law.  Early in his career, he represented Priscilla Davis in her divorce against Cullen Davis, the richest man ever tried for murder.  This sensational case resulted in two books and a made for television movie and propelled him into a career as a Family Law Specialist, receiving national and international recognition.  Taking off his lawyer hat, Tom was instrumental in forming TIRR Foundation/Mission Connect, which focuses on improving the lives and finding a cure for persons suffering from paralysis and traumatic brain injury.  The foundation currently has 20 institutions (including Texas A & M, Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Medical School) and 150 scientists working to fulfill its mission.  Tom is also a Lifetime Director of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the largest event of its kind in the world.  The show enjoys annual attendance in excess of 1.5M people and awards college scholarships in excess of $14M each year to deserving Texas students. He has also served on numerous professional, church and homeowner association boards.  He is a graduate of the University of Texas and the University of Houston School of Law.


Susan Foote

 

Susan Foote

Member, Class of 2023
2018–Present

Susan Foote is an historian with deep interest in 17th- and 18th-century Britain.

 


 

Donald S. Lamm

Member, Class of 2025
2005–Present

Don Lamm joined W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. as an editor in 1956, and retired in 2000 as chairman and president. From 1984 to 2000 he was chairman of Yale University Press. He has stewarded hundreds of books as a publisher and an agent. Mr. Lamm was first affiliated with Carlisle & Co. literary agents from 2000–2003, and he is currently with the NYC agency of Fletcher & Parry LLC. In 1998 he spent a year as a fellow at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

 


June Lorenzo laguna pueblo SAR board member
June Lorenzo

Member, Class of 2023
2020–Present

June Lorenzo, Laguna Pueblo / Navajo (Diné), JD and PhD, lives and works in her home community of Laguna Pueblo. She works with community organizations and Indigenous NGOs to address uranium mining legacy issues and resistance to new mining, sacred landscape protection, and, recently, issues of repatriation of cultural patrimony. She advocates in tribal and domestic courts, as well as before legislative and international human rights bodies. She also participated in negotiations for both the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the American DRIP. She holds a PhD in justice studies from Arizona State University and a JD from Cornell University.

 


Ann Alexander Morton
Ann Alexander Morton

Member, Class of 2024
2018–Present

Ann Alexander Morton, is a native Oklahoman. She received a BA in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma, and an M.A. in Media Studies from The New School University, New York City. She has a minor in French and has pursued language studies in France and Mexico. Her professional background is in public relations, communications, marketing, writing and design, most recently six years with 12 Productions, a film development and production company formed for the feature length film Twelve Mighty Orphans, soon to be released starring Luke Wilson, Michael Sheen and Robert Duvall. She has been an active volunteer in Houston, Atlanta, Santa Fe, New York City and Fort Worth, including 36 years with the Junior League. She was the Founder and First President of the National Charity League Buckhead Chapter in Atlanta following chapter leadership positions in Houston. She has previously been active as a docent at Santa Fe’s Museum of International Folk Art and with the Governor’s Circle of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and served on the board of the School for Advanced Research and was active in SAR’s President’s Council prior to board service. She is currently active in Leadership Fort Worth and is a docent and patron at three art museums in Fort Worth: the Amon Carter Museum of American Art; the Kimbell Museum; and the Modern Art Museum. Other activities include art, cultural and anthropology programs, leadership with several capital development projects for private educational institutions. She has wide interests and enjoys reading, art, photography, hiking and travel. Ann and her husband, R. Russell Morton, have three children and two grandchildren. Ann and her husband currently reside in Fort Worth and Santa Fe.



Christopher G. Oechsli

Member, Class of 2026
2023–Present

Chris is President and CEO of The Atlantic Philanthropies, a limited life international foundation that in 2020 completed its grantmaking and operations over five continents. He continues to provide support for Atlantic’s active, culminating grants to establish seven international Atlantic Fellows Programs and the Atlantic Institute. He chairs the Atlantic Institute Governing Board and is a trustee of The Rhodes Trust.

Mr. Oechsli has over 40 years of experience in international business, law, philanthropy and policy development in the United States, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. He previously served as Counsel to U.S. Senator Russ Feingold and as a director, counsel, or chief executive of operating companies within the General Atlantic Group, an international investment subsidiary of the Atlantic Foundation. Earlier in his career, Mr. Oechsli worked with private law firms in Seattle, Shanghai, San Francisco, and Taipei. Oechsli is a graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles. Following studies in Chinese language at Georgetown University and graduate studies at Columbia University, he received an M.A. in Foreign Affairs and a J.D. from the University of Virginia.



Estevan Rael-Gálvez

Member, Class of 2024
2021–Present

Anthropologist, historian, and cultural consultant, Dr. Estevan Rael-Gálvez has served as the former Senior Vice President of Historic Sites at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, executive director of the National Hispanic Cultural Center and as the state historian of New Mexico. A native son of New Mexico, Estevan was raised on a farm and ranch stewarded by his family for multiple generations. He received his BA in English Literature and Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and his MA and Ph.D. in American Cultures from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dr. Rael-Gálvez is currently the CEO of Creative Strategies 360°, a consulting firm that supports transformative work within communities, governments, universities, and cultural-based organizations. Additionally, Dr. Rael-Gálvez is leading several research and writing initiatives, including the Manitos Community Memory Project, funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation. He serves on the Board of the Santa Fe Opera; previously on the Board of the Santa Fe Art Institute; chaired the New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee; and served ex-officio member of boards of National Trust for Historic Preservation Sites, including President Lincoln’s Cottage, the Glass House and the National Center for White House History at Decatur House. A resident scholar at SAR in 1999-2000, Dr. Rael-Galvez also served on the SAR’s board of directors from 2005-2011.


Jerry A. Sabloff

Member, Class of  2023
2017–Present

Jerry Sabloff received his Ph.D. In anthropology from Harvard University and his B.A. in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania and an External Faculty Fellow and Past President of the Santa Fe Institute. He is an archaeologist with particular interest in the ancient Maya and has written or edited more than 20 books and monographs (including 5 SAR volumes).

 


Don Siegel

Member, Class of 2024
2021–Present

Don Siegel, is a graduate of the University of the Pacific with a BS in Marketing and Economics.  Don and his wife Liza both grew up in Colorado and at early ages had an interest in the historical Art of the Southwest.  As a young boy, Don traveled to New Mexico with his parents and visited the Pueblos of Northern New Mexico where he began his love and admiration for the culture and rich traditions of the Indigenous Peoples of the Western United States.  His professional career in the Energy Distribution business and his role as a CEO allowed him to combine is passion for business with his passion of history and cultural diversity.  Don is active within a number of philanthropic organizations including the Santa Fe Community Foundation and the Pretty Shield Foundation serving the Crow Community of Montana.  He is actively involved in various Museum projects and is a contributor to the traveling Museum Exhibition “Apsaalooke Women and Warriors” visiting a number of cities throughout the United States.  Don and his wife Liza have been full time New Mexicans since 2017.


Greg Smith

Gregory Smith

Member, Class of 2023
2017–Present

Gregory A. Smith is a partner with Hobbs Straus. He received his J.D. from Cornell Law School and a B.A. from Yale University. Greg has represented Indian tribes and tribal organizations as an attorney and as a government affairs specialist for nearly twenty years. He has also represented his clients on a wide range of matters before virtually every major Federal agency. Greg has advised tribes on the drafting of constitutions, civil and criminal codes, as well as gaming-related contracts and related ordinances and regulations. He has also assisted a number of tribes on economic development and cultural protection matters.

 


Diane Vennema
Diane Stanley Vennema

Member, Class of 2024
2018–Present

Diane Stanley Vennema is the author and/or illustrator of more than fifty books for children and young adults under her maiden name, Diane Stanley.  She is a graduate of Trinity University and received her MA from the Johns Hopkins University College of Medicine. She worked as a medical illustrator, a graphic designer for Dell Publishing, and art director at G. P. Putnam’s Sons before turning to children’s books. She is noted especially for her series of thirteen picture book biographies. Shaka, King of the Zulus was chosen as a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and Leonardo da Vinci received the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction from the National Council for Teachers of English.  Twelve of her books have been honored as Notable Books by the American Library Association and she has twice received both the Boston Globe/Hornbook Award and the Society of Children’s Book Writers’ Golden Kite Award. She was the recipient of the Washington Post/Children’s Book Guild Award for Nonfiction for the body of her work. Her artwork has been displayed at the National Museum for Women in the Arts and is part of an exhibit on Africa in the Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.


Alaka Wali

Member, Class of 2026
2023–Present

Alaka Wali’s career has been focused on the anthropological approach that engaged rather than studied Indigenous communities. Using this approach, Alaka became one of the first to advocate for collaboration in the museum field.  She was hired in 1995 as the founding director of the Center for Cultural Understanding and Change at the Field Museum in Chicago. In 2012, she was named curator of North American Anthropology. It was largely under Alaka’s leadership that Native communities were brought into the development of the Field Museum’s renovation of the Native North American Hall, which opened in 2022.

Alaka received her doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University and her bachelor’s degree from Harvard.


Kathleen Wall

Kathleen Wall

Member, Class of 2025
2022–Present

Kathleen Wall joined the SAR Board in August of 2022. She was 2016 Eric and Barbara Dobkin Native artist fellow and learned traditional Pueblo pottery from Fannie Loretto (mother), Dorothy Trujillo, Mary Toya, Edna Coriz and Alma Concha (aunts). She has participated in many and won many awards over the years. In 2021, she received the NM Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and was named the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture Native Treasures Living Treasure. In 2006, she received a commission from the Smithsonian Institute to create a storyteller for First Lady Laura Bush to be presented at the Congressional Club ‘First Lady’s Luncheon”. Kathleen has received solo exhibitions at the Pablita Museum of Indian Women in the Arts in Santa Fe and the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque.  In 2018, she won Best of Show at the Bernalillo Indian Arts Festival.


Scott Waugh

Member, Class of 2023
2020–Present

Scott Waugh recently retired from UCLA, where he began teaching in 1975.  He received his BA in history from UCLA in 1970 and his PhD in English history from the University of London in 1975. The author and editor of several books on the history of England in the Middle Ages and European medieval history, he has received numerous awards for his teaching in a wide range of historical topics. He served as dean of the social sciences at UCLA for fourteen years before becoming executive vice chancellor and provost in 2008. During his time at UCLA, he acted in various capacities, overseeing programs across the University of California system as a whole. He has sat on several academic boards and was chair of the board for the Center for Research Libraries.  


Lynne Withey

Member, Class of 2025
2019–Present

Lynne Withey received her PhD in history at the University of California, Berkeley and her AB in American Studies from Smith College. She is the retired director of the University of California Press, publisher of scholarly books and journals affiliated with the University of California system.

 


 

David Young

Member, Class of 2024
2021–Present

David A. Young received his BA and MA in biology from California State University, Fullerton and his Ph.D. in Botany from Claremont Graduate University.  He retired from Arizona State University in 2017 after a professional career of over 40 years in higher education having served as a faculty member and administrator at several universities.  David has been a board member of several non-profit organizations including the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.  He currently serves on the board of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and the Santa Fe Botanical Garden.

Mission of SAR’s Advisory Board

SAR’s Advisory Board was constituted for three primary purposes:

  • To provide a role for non-board members who wish to support SAR as committed ambassadors for our mission and programs.
  • To offer specialized expertise and knowledge that may not be available within the Board of Directors.
  • To serve board members who have rotated off the Board of Directors after six years of service, as normally required by SAR’s bylaws, but wish to stay involved with SAR.

Terms of Service.  Advisory Board members are elected by the Board of Directors for three-year, renewable terms.  They are welcome to attend the August and February annual meetings of the Board of Directors as non-voting participants.  (Advance notice should be given to the board’s Chair and the Executive Administrator/Board Liaison.  Copies of the board’s agenda and information packet will be sent in advance of the meetings upon request.)


C. Wesley Cowan

Advisory Board Member
2017–Present

Although popularly known as a mainstay of the PBS programs Antiques Roadshow and History Detectives, Wes Cowan is first and foremost an American. After receiving a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, he taught in the Anthropology Department of Ohio State University. In 1984, he moved to Cincinnati to become curator of archaeology at the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History & Science. Cowan has published widely in the fields of American archaeology and paleoethnobotany. In 1995, he left academia and the museum world to follow his childhood love of antiques, opening Cowan’s Auctions, Inc., in Cincinnati, OH.

 


Anne Hillerman

Advisory Board Member
2023–Present 

Anne Hillerman is the author of a detective series set on the Navajo Nation using characters her father, Tony Hillerman, made popular. Her debut novel, Spider Woman’s Daughter, received the Western Writers Spur Award as best first novel. That book and the six that followed were all New York Times bestsellers. She is the recipient of the New Mexico/Arizona book award for best book, the Frank Waters award for contributions to the literature of the Southwest, and the Rounders Award for helping keep the spirit of the American West alive. Anne is also an executive producer of the television series, Dark Winds, based on characters she and Tony created. Her newest mystery, The Way of the Bear, was released in April, 2023.

 


Carolyn Kastner

Advisory Board Member
2023–Present

Carolyn Kastner is curator emerita at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, where she organized exhibitions and edited catalogues such as The Black Place: Georgia O’Keeffe and Michael Namingha (2018), Georgia O’Keeffe’s Watercolors: 1916-1918 (2016), Miguel Covarrubias: Drawing a Cosmopolitan Line (2014), Georgia O’Keeffe in New Mexico: Architecture, Katsinam, and the Land (2012), and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: An American Modernist (2012). Since retirement in 2018, her research, publications and curatorial projects continue to focus on the diversity of American art. In 2020 she curated her first online exhibition, Bursts of Light: Contemporary Glass at the Indian Arts Research Center. Kastner moved to Santa Fe in 2007 to join the art history faculty at the College of Santa Fe as a professor of Native American Art. Prior to her move, Kastner lived in San Francisco, where she was an independent curator and taught art history at the California College of the Arts. She earned her Ph.D. in American Art History at Stanford University.


Louise Lamphere

Louise Lamphere

Advisory Board Member
2023–Present

Dr. Louise Lamphere is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Emerita at the University of New Mexico and Past President of the American Anthropological Association (1999-2001). Lamphere received her Ph.D. from Harvard in 1968. She was a faculty member at UNM from 1976-1979 and again from 1986-2009. She has published extensively, co-authored and co-edited books and articles on subjects as diverse as Navajo kinship and collaboration, women and work, urban anthropology, and immigration. Her most recent book is a biography of three Navajo women entitled: Weaving Women’s Lives: Three Generations in a Navajo Family, (2007). She has studied issues of women and work for 25 years, beginning with her study of women workers in Rhode Island industry in 1977. Lamphere was the co-editor, with Michele Zimbalist Rosaldo, of Woman, Culture, and Society, the first volume to address the anthropological study of gender and women’s status. Professor Lamphere conducted research on Medicaid Managed Care Reform (1998-2000) and Behavioral Health Reform (2005-2010) in New Mexico. She has edited a special issue of Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Providers and Patients Respond to Medicaid Managed Care: Ethnographic Insights from New Mexico, March 2005, as well as co-authored several articles. In 2013, she was awarded the Franz Boas Award for Exemplary Service to Anthropology from the American Anthropological Association and the Bronislaw Malinowski award by the Society for Applied Anthropology in 2017.



John Nieto-Phillips

Advisory Board Member
2023–Present

Dr. Nieto-Phillips, whose family has deep roots in New Mexico, is an associate professor of history and Latino studies, and vice provost for Diversity and Inclusion at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He received his BA, MA, and PhD from UCLA. His research has focused on the ways in which race, language, and education have shaped changing notions of Latino identity and US citizenship. In New Mexico, he is best known for his book The Language of Blood: The Making of Spanish-American Identity in New Mexico, 1880s-1930s (UNM Press, 2004). He co-edited, with Christopher Schmidt-Nowara, the book Interpreting Spanish Colonialism: Empires, Nations, and Legends (UNM Press, 2005). A former associate editor for the Journal of American History and a recent Fulbright fellow to Spain, Professor Nieto-Phillips is the founding editor of Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures, named “2018 Best New Journal” by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals.


Douglas J. Preston

Advisory Board Member
2019–Present 

Doug J. Preston is the author or co-author of more than forty books, among them the non-fiction works The Lost City of the Monkey God  and The Monster of Florence as well as the best-selling Pendergast novels (in collaboration with Lincoln Child). He has also contributed articles to the New Yorker, National Geographic, the Atlantic Monthly, and other national magazines. Preston serves on the Board of Governors of the Authors Guild and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He divides his time between New Mexico and Maine.

 


Julie S. Rivers

Advisory Board Member
2022–Present

Julie S. Rivers is a resident of Santa Fe and an attorney associated with the Santa Fe firm of Cuddy & McCarthy, LLP. She is licensed by the New Mexico and Oklahoma bars. Her areas of expertise include estate planning, mediation, litigation and real property law. She earned a B.S. in English Education in 1984 from Oklahoma State University and a Juris Doctorate in 1992 from the University of Oklahoma Law School. She was an editor of the American Indian Law Review, a member of the Oklahoma Law Review and served as an adjunct professor in family at the University of Oklahoma Law School’s Legal Assistant Program. She serves on the MCLE Commission Board of the New Mexico Bar Association, on the board of the Santa Fe Estate Planning Council, and is a member of both the Rotary Club of Santa Fe and the Trusted Advisors Network. She is a 2015 graduate of Leadership Santa Fe. She is also a guest lecturer at Santa Fe Community College.


Elizabeth Roghair
Elizabeth Roghair

Advisory Board Member
2020–Present 

Elizabeth Roghair has been a member of the SAR board since 2013. Elizabeth is a retired CPA and serves as treasurer of the Eldorado Area Water and Sanitation District. Her early career was in corporate and public finance on the East coast; her second career was in charitable gift planning in educational, health care and museum settings in the Chicago area. She retired from Northwestern University and moved in 2010 with her husband James to Santa Fe, where she offers consultation and training to nonprofits on organization development and gift planning topics. She earned an MBA from New York University and a BA from the College of Wooster, Ohio.

 



Brian Vallo

Advisory Board Member
2023–Present

Brian Vallo is a member of the Pueblo of Acoma in New Mexico. He recently completed three terms as Governor of his tribe. Brian has dedicated over 30 years working in areas of sacred sites protection, repatriation of ancestors, historic preservation, museum development, language revitalization, cultural tourism, and the arts. He served as director of SAR’s Indian Arts Research Center for four years.  As an independent consultant, Brian works with museums and other institutions throughout the country and internationally to advance initiatives around collaboration with source communities and Native artists, responsible and culturally relevant stewardship of Native American collections, access, and issues surrounding equity and inclusion.

Eric S. Dobkin

Eric S. Dobkin

Honorary Director
2017–Present

Before his retirement in March 2016, Eric Dobkin was an advisory director at the Goldman Sachs Group, where he had also served a term as Managing Director. In reporting on his retirement, the New York Times referred to him as “the father of the modern I.P.O.” In addition to his distinguished service to SAR, Dobkin is a member of the board of governors of The Museum of Arts and Design in New York. He lives with his wife, Barbara, in Pound Ridge and Manhattan, New York. Since 2001, Eric and Barbara Dobkin have supported one of SAR’s Native artist positions, the Eric and Barbara Dobkin Native Artist Fellowship for Women.

In recognition of Eric S. Dobkin’s nearly two decades of service and extraordinary generosity to SAR, on August 15, 2015, the board of directors formally named the SAR boardroom the “Eric S. Dobkin Boardroom.”


David W. Matthews

Honorary Director
2003–Present

David W. Matthews is retired from Healy-Matthews Stationers, Inc., in Santa Fe, which he founded in 1956. The company was sold in 1997. He served as president of the National Office Products Association from 1977 to 1978.

For over 20 years, he served on the Board of Directors of Sunwest Bank of Santa Fe, the last five years as chairman. He served on the Board of Directors of Sunwest Financial Services, the holding company for the Sunwest Banks. He is a retired board member of Century Bank of Santa Fe, and has served on the Foundation Board of the Museum of International Folk Art.

David graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1954 with a B.A. in Languages. Upon graduation, he served two years active duty as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.


James E. Snead

Honorary Director
2005–Present

Jim Snead has two sons, James and Greg, and two daughters-in-law, Monica and Laura, and two granddaughters, Emily and Molly, and one grandson, Aidan.

He is Chairman of the Board and Senior Shareholder of The Jones Firm, a general practice law firm established in Santa Fe in 1948. He has handled everything from murder cases to nonprofit corporations, but his chief love professionally is representing individuals and small businesses in estate planning, real estate transactions, intellectual property, and other business matters.

Jim was born in Oklahoma, but his childhood was mainly spent in Hobbs, New Mexico. He earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Mexico, and then went to Washington, DC, where he worked for the Patent Office, the Navy, and NASA. He earned a Juris Doctorate (with honors) from George Washington University.