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Council Members
Home > About Us > Council Members Christina Stick, October 2008 Mary Molina Mescall, August 2006 Charlotte Atso, August 2006 Marisol Atkins, October 2008 Ellen Biderman, August 2006 Michelle Peixinho, August 2006 Dr. Elba Saavedra, August 2006 Justina Trott, M.D., FACP, August 2006 Gary Williams, August 2006 RubyAnn Esquibel, October 2008 Marni Nixon, October 2008 Jahaan Martin, October 2008 |
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Following her retirement from the City of Albuquerque, Mary was appointed by Governor Bill Richardson to serve as Executive Director of the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women. The position offers the opportunity to empower women and girls in New Mexico to lead productive and fulfilling lives. Increasing awareness of the rights, responsibilities, and interests of women and girls in New Mexico has and continues to be her lifetime goal.
Originally from Long Beach, CA, Charlotte enlisted in the US Army and served during Desert Storm before she was injured and medically discharged. Because of her discharge, she was intrigued to help others with federal benefits. Now a Veteran Service Officer, Charlotte has worked for the New Mexico Dept of Veterans? Services? in Farmington for the past four years, making sure veterans and dependents apply for the State and Federal benefits they are entitled to. Ms. Atso is also District #1 Commander for Disabled American Veterans, Veteran Service Officer for the VFW District #1, a member of DAV Chapter 9, VFW Post 614, United Veterans of NW NM, and American Legion Post 93. She also currently serves as one of the National Association of Women Veterans State Coordinators as well as a member of Business and Professional Women/Women Joining Forces of New Mexico, and is excited to be a member of the Women?s Health Advisory Council. When she is not traveling, Charlotte volunteers for her church as Treasurer/Secretary and helps the local Boyscout troop. Ms. Atso lost her husband in 2002 and is a single mother of three children. She enjoys gardening, sports, swimming, and shooting, and currently attends San Juan College to further her education and language skills.
Ellen Biderman co-founded and served as Co-Director of the Santa Fe Children?s Museum for 18 years. In 2003, she joined the staff of the Family Development Program at the University of New Mexico. Ellen has 25 years teaching experience with young children and also has been an instructor at the college level. She has always worked to assure that all children have equal access to quality education and programs. From 2003 to 2005 she served as board president for Santa Fe Women?s Health Services. She is passionate about women?s health and how a new model of health care delivery can only serve to also improve the lives of young children. Ellen has a Masters degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of New Mexico, and has contributed articles and training materials to various publications.
A Filipina-American from Manila and Honolulu, Michelle is of Tagalog, Hawaiian and Portuguese ancestry. She earned a BA in Speech and Communication from Marquette University in 1990. In 1992 she completed the nine-month Walk Across America for Mother Earth where she was introduced to the environmental and indigenous sovereignty movements. Since then she has worked with several Indigenous elders and community leaders nationally, specifically around the issues of environmental health and justice. In that time she had the opportunity to participate in a four month occupation of a sacred indigenous site in California called Ward Valley and a three month project to perform a street theater circus in 18 autonomous villages and refuges in the war-torn state of Chiapas, Mexico. She worked as a youth program coordinator for four years with a native environmental non-profit organization called Shundahai Network and helped to establish an indigenous healing center called Poo-Ha-Bah located in Death Valley where she worked as the development director for three years. She has been living in New Mexico since 2000 and currently works for Tewa Women United as the coordinator of their Indigenous Women?s Health and Reproductive Rights Program. Michelle is participating in the first statewide Infant Mental Health Institute to graduate as an Infant Mental Health Specialist in May of 2008. She is a homebirth midwife, a certified doula, massage therapist and childbirth educator. She is the mother of three beautiful children all born at home.
Director of Comadre A Comadre Project, Elba earned her doctorate in Community Health, through the UNM College of Education Health Education Program. Her doctoral dissertation entitled "Refusals and Delays in the Treatment of Breast Cancer among New Mexico Women" examined barriers to treatment completion in underserved women in the state. Ms Saavedra has 10 years of extensive experience in research and community based efforts focusing on barriers in breast cancer care among New Mexico?s ethnically diverse and under-served women. She has written several New Mexico Department of Health reports examining barriers to care in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer among these populations. In 2002, Dr. Saavedra, along with several community breast cancer survivor advocates, co-founded the Comadre A Comadre Project which is committed to empowering the lives of Hispanic/Latina women and their loved ones through advocacy, education, information, resources, and support about breast health and breast cancer. Dr. Saavedra is currently on faculty as an Assistant Professor for Research at the PPD-Health Education Program, College of Education at the University of New Mexico.
Dr. Trott is Director of Santa Fe Women's Health Services, a Department of Health and Human Services sponsored National Community Center of Excellence in Women's Health. She is the board president of the American College of Women's Health Physicians (ACWHP) and member of ACWHP's Curriculum Development Committee, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (ACP), Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine department of internal medicine, and a core faculty member of the Northern New Mexico Family Practice Residency Program. She has an interest in complexity science and women's health. She is co-author of Concept mapping: A tool to bridge the disciplinary divide (Hoffman, E.,Trott, J., Patterson-Neely, K. . Am J Obstet Gynecol 2002; 187:S41-3). Dr. Trott received her BA in chemistry from New York University, her MD from the Medical College of Pennsylvania, and completed her residency in internal medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has had a practice in internal medicine and women's health in Santa Fe, NM for the past 25 years.
Mr. Williams is the Deputy Director at the New Mexico Office of African American Affairs (OAAA), where he advocates for the state?s African Americans and other minorities on matters related to health care, education, employment, fair housing, criminal justice, and various other issues. Mr. Williams also conducts diversity and cultural sensitivity training programs. Prior to joining the staff at OAAA, Mr. Williams was the Investigations Officer for the City of Albuquerque?s Human Rights Office. There he investigated discrimination complaints regarding employment, housing, and public accommodations. Including eight years in the medical field of the U.S. Air Force, Mr. Williams worked more than twenty years in the regulatory health care industry. He was a Quality Assurance Analyst at St. Vincent Hospital, in Santa Fe, NM, and a Health Facilities Surveyor for the NM Health & Environment Department/Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). In this capacity Mr. Williams was responsible for regulating the delivery of services in all health care facilities in New Mexico. He was also the Director of the Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation Unit. He left the healthcare field to become Corporate Director of Diversity Programs for Sun Healthcare Corporation, where he was responsible for compliance relating to affirmative action, EEO, and diversity. He currently serves on the Governor?s Women Health Advisory Council, the Human Services Department?s Blue Ribbon Panel on Disproportionate Minority Contact, APS School Health Advisory Council, Sub-committee Co-chair - Intel 2007 Int?l Science & Engineering Fair Host Committee, and the Race Matters Working Group.