About the Santa Fe Alliance for Science
Acknowledgements
Biographies
Board of Directors
Local Schools
Local Science-based Businesses
As we locals like to say, Santa Fe is "A City Different."
Indeed, few other cities in America
can lay claim to such vibrant, outstanding communities in art, culture and science.
At the same time, we are painfully aware that New Mexico
ranks near the bottom of all states in terms of per-capita income
and in K-12 student performance in math and science (and other subjects as well).
These facts reverberate with highly negative consequences
throughout all aspects of life in New Mexico.
Fortunately, not all needed resources are in the form of money. In fact, because
of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a significant number of local
scientifically- and technically-oriented non-profit organizations,
businesses and educational establishments -- not to mention a well-educated retirement community -- the greater
Santa Fe area is extraordinarily rich in scientific, engineering and technical talent. Indeed, New Mexico ranks
third among all states in its per capita ratio of engineers, mathematicians and scientists.
Yet another way in which Santa Fe is "A City Different."
The idea for the Santa Fe Alliance for Science was born (in the heads of
Bob Eisenstein and
Susan McIntosh) in the Fall of 2004. Its first organizational meeting was held on May 18, 2005.
The basic idea of the Alliance is to try to "make a marriage" between
the students and teachers in our local schools (public and private), and our scientific, technical, engineering and mathematical community,
in order to improve science education in greater Santa Fe.
Today more than 85 STEM professionals have volunteered via SFAFS to help with K-12 math and science
education in greater Santa Fe. They form a rich resource that provides:
- Extensive tutoring and mentoring at the high school level
- Preparation and judging for science fairs in the greater Santa Fe area
- An evening series of "Science Cafés for Young Thinkers"
- Classroom presentations and demonstrations for all grade levels.
During the 2008-9 academic year Alliance volunteers contributed well over 1500 hours to these
activities and impacted about 1700 students.
We very much hope that you too will consider
joining the Alliance in some capacity! The need is
great and there are many ways for you to contribute.
The Alliance is registered as a non-profit organization in the State of New Mexico,
and has 501(c)(3) status with the US Internal Revenue Service. As such, donations to the SFAFS
are tax-deductable under IRS rules.
The people comprising its Board of Directors are listed below.
Acknowledgements
As the idea for the Alliance developed, we received much encouragement, wise advice
and constructive critcism from friends and colleagues here in Santa Fe and elsewhere.
People helping us included educators familiar with local Santa Fe scholastic issues, members of
the non-profit community wise in the ways of our regional non-profit world, and scientists, engineers
and business people thoroughly conversant with the importance to New Mexico of education
in general and science education in particular.
We particularly wish to thank Cathie Zacher
for her never-ending supply of good ideas and people to contact. Her steadfast support
of the SFAFS and its potential importance to the economic development of Santa Fe,
has been invaluable.
Through Cathie we met Mike Sutin, of the law firm of Sutin, Thayer and Browne,
who in turn provided important legal advice and help toward the
incorporation of the Alliance.
Laureen Pepersack of REV Productions has generously made video recordings
of our "Science Café for Young Thinkers" series. These are available
here as streaming videos.
Ann MacKinnon, of the accounting firm of MacKinnon, Thurman and Greico, has provided essential advice
on accounting and tax issues for non-profits, and on the complexities of dealing with the Internal Revenue Service.
We have also received generous financial support from the LANL Foundation, the Los Alamos National Bank,
the McCune Foundation, the National Science Foundation, Qforma, Inc., the Santa Fe Partners in Education, Strategic Analytics Inc.,
and from individuals who wish to remain anonymous. The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum has generously donated space in its
Education Annex to host almost all of the "Science Café for Young Thinkers" events.
From the Business Community:
Val Alonzo, Susan Burgess, Stephen Guerin, Harry Hummer, Larry Kilham, David Miller, Mike Sutin and Cathy Zacher.
From the Educational and Non-Profit Communities:
Tom Aageson, Katherine Bueler, Leslie Carpenter, Bill Carson, Diane Catron, Michael Chamberlain,
Nicolla Covey, Tony Gerlicz, Lorraine Goldman, Paquita Hernandez, Susan Herrera,
Smith Holt, Mary Howard, Denise Johnston, Norty Kalishman, Ellen Levy, Ellen Loehman, Owen Lopez, Greg Malone, Mary McLeod,
Sheila Ortego, Paige Prescott, Teri Randall, Rich Reif, Mimi Roberts, Cliff Ross,
Rick Sanders, Melissa Savage, Rick Scott, Jay Shelton, Katherine Sienicki, Dick Sisson, Kurt Steinhaus, Donna and
Ron Stowe, Judy Richardson, Kate Thomas, Anne Weaver and Gene Weisfeld.
From the Los Alamos National Laboratory:
Cathy Berryhill, Tom Bowles, Carol Brown, Carlos Chacon, Tom Cordova, Denny Erickson, Dave Foster, Hubert van Hecke, Terry Lowe,
Chuck Mansfield, Gordon McDonough, Lillian Montoya-Rael and Chuck Pacheco.
From the Scientific, Engineering and Technical Community:
Ken Apt, Jim Bradbury, Vic Cook, Gerry Garvey, George Gumerman, Len Kisslinger and Don Sandstrom.
Biographies
Bob Eisenstein is a retired physicist living in Santa Fe. He was born and raised in St. Louis,
Missouri, and was educated at Oberlin College, Yale University (PhD) and the Weizmann Institute (Rehovot, Israel).
He spent many years on the physics faculties of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Illinois,
where he often taught physics to freshmen and sophomore engineering students. He also spent more
than a decade at the National Science Foundation, and for a brief time was president of the Santa Fe
Institute. From Fall, 2007 until Fall, 2009 he chaired the
New Mexico Math and Science Advisory Council.
He and his wife Karolyn have two grown children.
Susan McIntosh was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in southern California. She was educated at
the University of Denver and received her Master's Degree from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena.
Her teaching career began in the Denver public
schools and continued in Landstuhl, Germany and in Los Angeles public and private schools before
coming to Santa Fe in 1980. She taught in the Santa Fe public schools from 1983 until her recent retirement in
Fall, 2009. She was a co-founder of the
Santa Fe Children's Museum
in 1985, and she founded the
Santa Fe Science Initiative
in 2001. In 2004 she was named a New Mexico Golden Apple Fellow. Susan holds a Level 3-A teaching license from the State of
New Mexico.
Board of Directors of the SFAFS
The Board of Directors is composed of the following individuals. Their affiliations are
listed for identification purposes only, and do not imply an endorsement of SFAFS by those
organizations.
- Phyllis Baca, Santa Fe Community College
- Katherine Bueler, de Vargas Middle School
- Robert Eisenstein, Santa Fe
- Gerald Garvey, Santa Fe
- Robert Heffner, Santa Fe
- Susan McIntosh, Gonzales School
- Don Sandstrom, Santa Fe
- Hubert van Hecke, Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Anne Weaver, Science writer and retired biological anthropologist
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