Peter G. Simonson, Executive Director

Since 2000, Peter Simonson has served as Executive Director for ACLU-NM.  As primary spokesperson for the organization, Peter develops policy positions and addresses such diverse topics as national security, “zero tolerance” in public schools, racial profiling, immigrants rights, separation of church and state, and the protection of free speech rights. Under Peter’s leadership ACLU-NM has grown from 2,500 to over 6,000 members.  Our legal docket has grown from a dozen civil liberties cases a year to well over 30.

Prior to joining the ACLU, Peter directed a project to improve immigrants’ access to health care in Albuquerque.  For five years he worked in sustainable development and ethnographic research in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.  Peter earned his Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1994.  He is a native of Albuquerque.  (Media Contact: 505-266-5915 ext. 1002)

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Kathryn Turnipseed, Associate Director

Kathryn Turnipseed serves as the Associate Director of ACLU-NM.  Prior to joining the staff in May of 2008, Kathryn created Siladana LLC, a small private company specializing in advocacy, program development and strategic planning services for the non-profit sector.  In New Mexico, she worked as the Executive Director for the Metropolitan Homelessness Project; Program Manager for the St. Martins Hospitality Center; and Project Assistant for the Phoenix Rising HIV/AIDS Re-entry Project.  Kathryn is an active member and organizer in her community, and presently serves as the Board President for the Albuquerque Vipassana Sangha.  She received her BA in Psychology from University of Evansville and her MBA from Rutgers University.

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Erin Pearson, Office Administrator

Erin Pearson joined the staff as Administrative Secretary in 2007. Outside of ACLU-NM, she is a working artist, a metal smith, and  a Mom to her teenage daughter. Prior to the ACLU, Erin worked in the technical support department for BlackBerry.  She attended the University of New Mexico and studied metal smithing in Tucson, Arizona.

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Kathleen MacRae, Development Director

Kathleen MacRae became Development Director for the ACLU-NM in April 2008. She had worked closely with the ACLU for years in her former position as Director of the NM Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty. Kathleen moved to New Mexico ten years ago after living in Guatemala and Canada where she owned businesses that manufactured and distributed Guatemalan clothing and handicrafts. She received her MSW from Rhode Island College with concentrations in community organizing & development, public policy analysis, and non-profit administration. In addition to her work to repeal the death penalty, Kathleen has been active in the Santa Fe Living Wage Network, the Santa Fe Community Action Network and peace-oriented organizing.

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Valerie Torrez, Development Assistant

Valerie Torrez joined the staff of the ACLU of New Mexico in April 2010 as the Development Assistant.  Prior to joining the ACLU-NM staff, she worked in Washington, DC for CTIA, a member association and lobbying firm, followed by two years of service with AmeriCorps in Connecticut and New York City, respectively. Valerie also worked for Teach For America in New York City, administered an Emergency Food Program in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and taught English as a Second Language in Milan, Italy.  Most recently, she was the New York-based Program and Admin Officer for Mercy Corps, managing all federal, state and local grant compliance as well as coordinating fundraising events for the Action Center to End World Hunger. Valerie is originally from Albuquerque, attended the Albuquerque Academy, and earned a BBA, cum laude, from the University of Portland with specialties in Global Business, Marketing and Management.

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Micah McCoy, Communications Specialist

Micah McCoy serves as the Communications Specialist, managing ACLU-NM media and press relations. Before joining the ACLU in July, 2009, Micah worked as a freelance writer in Austin, TX.  After graduating from Austin College in 2007 with degrees in Sociology and Spanish, Micah spent a year in Kenya working as the Communications Coordinator for the East Africa regional office of Church World Service, a relief, development and advocacy organization. Micah has also served as a volunteer coordinator for No More Deaths, an immigrants’ rights and border advocacy organization based out of Tucson, AZ.

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Laura Schauer Ives, Managing Staff Attorney

Laura Schauer Ives joined the staff of the ACLU of New Mexico in January, 2009, as its managing staff attorney.  After attending the University of New Mexico for her undergraduate studies in English and Political Science, Laura went on to earn her Juris Doctor at the University of New Mexico School of Law.  While in law school, she worked to pass palliative care legislation in an effort to ensure people receive adequate pain treatment at the end of life. Since graduation, Laura worked at a small plaintiffs’ firm in Santa Fe, where she represented employees in discrimination cases including Dukes v. Wal-Mart, the largest civil rights class action ever filed.  She has also served as an Assistant Public Defender.  In the six years prior to joining the ACLU, Laura was a sole practitioner, representing plaintiffs in employment discrimination claims involving age, gender, ethnicity and First Amendment retaliation.  Laura has two children, two dogs, and one husband.

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Leon F. Howard III, Staff Attorney

Leon joined the staff of the ACLU of New Mexico in May, 2010, as a staff attorney.

Leon is a proud New Mexican and is a product of the University of New Mexico School of Law.  In law school, Leon served as a research assistant for the University of New Mexico School of Law Innocence and Justice Project, law student advocate for New Mexico’s adjudicated youth, Black Law Student Association President and Student Bar Association President.  Before Joining the ACLU, Leon worked as an Assistant District Attorney in the First Judicial District of New Mexico primarily prosecuting Domestic Violence and DWI cases.  Leon is the self-proclaimed best basketball player at the ACLU of New Mexico and loves his nephews Amani and Kweli dearly.

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Andrew Polnett, Legal Assistant

Andrew Polnett joined the staff part-time and serves as a Legal Assistant for the ACLU of New Mexico. Andrew is a recent graduate of Central New Mexico Community College paralegal studies program and is in the process of becoming a certified paralegal. He plans on returning to the University of New Mexico to study Criminology and Philosophy, and it is his hope to continue on to University of New Mexico School of Law.  Andrew is a native resident of Albuquerque and is passionate about a variety of issues facing our Nation and communities. He has a diverse background having worked in various fields prior to attending CNM. He is an avid reader and enjoys writing and painting.

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Rachel Clapp, Legal Clerk

Rachel joined the staff of the ACLU of New Mexico in May, 2010, as a summer legal clerk.

Rachel has just completed her first year at Yale Law School, where she serves indigent clients through an immigration clinic, works actively on LGBT issues, serves as a Student Representative liaison with the faculty, and plays for the Yale Women’s Rugby Team.

She is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, with honors, and summa cum laude from The Ohio State University in 2007. After graduation she spent two years working for a small subcontractor for the Department of Defense, developing software for use in national security intelligence projects.

Rachel is spending the summer in Albuquerque with her sister Elizabeth, her brother-in-law Adam, and her 2-year-old niece Sophia.

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NORTHERN REGIONAL OFFICE

Diane Wood, Policy Director

Diane Wood serves as Director of the ACLU of New Mexico’s Northern Regional Office and as the organization’s principal advocate at the state legislature.  Diane has lobbied in New Mexico since 1979. Prior to joining the ACLU of New Mexico, she ran a government relations firm that represented a number of public interest clients, including the ACLU of New Mexico. She has also served as the Executive Director of the New Mexico Women’s Foundation and the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women. Diane began her career in the retail industry, eventually working for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1564 as Organizer, Union Representative and then Political and Public Affairs Director.

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REGIONAL CENTER FOR BORDER RIGHTS

Vicki Gaubeca, Director

Vicki Gaubeca has more than 20 years of upwardly progressive and leadership experience in community organizing, public affairs, communications, and public health in a variety of settings, but immigrant rights—as well as any civil rights—is an issue close to her heart. Born and raised in Mexico City, Vicki Gaubeca joined ACLU-NM most recently from Tucson, Arizona, where she was a passionate advocate and supporter for both immigrant rights and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community (LGBT).  She has participated in numerous university and community LGBT groups and committees, including Wingspan, Equality Arizona and the University of Arizona OUTReach group, where she helped obtain domestic partner health benefits for state employees. In addition, she took leadership roles in campaigns that aimed to defeat anti-LGBT legislation in Arizona. She has a B.A. degree in English/Communications and a master’s degree in public health. Ms. Gaubeca, who speaks Spanish and English fluently, completed her public health internship in Guatemala, where she conducted an evaluation of a government health model in the country’s most rural state.

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Emily Carey, Program Coordinator

Emily Carey, Program Coordinator for the Southern Regional Office & Border Rights Project, joined the ACLU of New Mexico staff in 2008.  She has been walking with immigrant and border communities in the pursuit of human and civil rights for years. Emily volunteered with a migrant shelter for women in Ciudad Juarez and later served as coordinator for a similar migrant shelter in El Paso, TX. She then worked in Tijuana for a bi-national non-profit focused on sustainable development and social justice education. Following the attainment of her MSW from the University of Michigan where she was able to apply her concentration in Community Organizing/Community & Social Systems to community based policy advocacy with immigrant communities in Detroit as well with a human rights organization along the El Paso border, Emily worked with asylees and refugees, some in ICE detention in the Los Angeles area.  She is pleased to be back walking with border communities, and even more pleased to call the region home.

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Michael Kiehne, Project Coordinator

Michael, a native of Anthony, NM, received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from NMSU, with a Supplementary Major in Law and Society, and Minors in German and Philosophy.  Over the course of his four years at NMSU he attended multiple conferences in Las Cruces, NM, and Juarez, Chihuahua that deal with border issues, immigrants’ rights and justice for women in the Southwest. These conferences sparked his interest in international affairs. Upon his graduation in 2008 Michael was accepted into the inaugural class for the International Scholars Programs based out of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  While in this program he studied international business curriculum at local universities in Barcelona, Spain and Shanghai, China during the summer. Upon completing the program Michael received a graduate certificate in Global Enterprise Management and enrolled as a full time graduate student at RPI Hartford in the fall of 2008.  In the spring of 2009, he graduated with a Master of Science in Management degree with a concentration in Global Enterprise Management. He is planning to attend law school in the fall of 2010.

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Melissa Bertolo, Intern

Melissa Bertolo joined the Regional Center for Border Rights in August of 2009. She is currently a MSW, MPH candidate at New Mexico State University. Melissa has a strong passion for peace and justice and has volunteered with the Dayton International Peace Museum, No More Deaths, and completed a year of service with AmeriCorps. Melissa graduated from Warren Wilson College, where she was actively involved in campus organizing. Melissa received a B.A. in Environmental and Social Justice in 2006.