Councilors appoint director of council services
Albuquerque city councilors last week appointed Stephanie Yara as director of council services. Yara’s previous duties included stints in the Council Services Department as council finance officer and as policy analyst. She also served in the city’s Department of Finance and Administrative Services as assistant accounting officer.
Her new duties will include supervising the Office of Council Services’ three units of organization: Legislative/Council Support Services, Constituent Services and Community Relations, and Policy Evaluation and Development Services.
Yara holds a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from University of New Mexico and a master of business administration degree in accounting from UNM.
MORE CITY APPOINTMENTS: Mayor Tim Keller last week announced three new appointments for existing city positions.
Brian Osterloh will serve as director of technology and innovation, Shana Runck as manager of the Child and Family Development Division of Family and Community Services, and Olivia Padilla-Jackson as city budget officer.
Osterloh was appointed to serve as director after serving in an interim role during the search and as deputy director prior to that. The Department of Technology and Innovation encompasses Enterprise Resource Planning, Networking Systems and Applications, as well as the citizen contact center 311.
Since Osterloh first began work with the city in 2003, he has overseen the implementation of the city’s first customer relationship management application in support of 311, helped guide technological services to national and award-winning recognition, and led city initiatives in innovative resources and tools. These include Alexa service requests, Cognos transparency and open data reports, Where’s My Bus and Where2Vote, among others.
Padilla-Jackson will oversee the city’s budget, strategic planning and performance operations. She previously served as deputy director of finance, where she managed the city’s Financial and Administrative Services Department.
Padilla-Jackson’s previous experience includes work as a trader/analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and director of the New Mexico State Board of Finance. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of New Mexico and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan.
Runck will oversee the city’s Early Head Start, early pre-K, pre-K and preschool programs. She has community outreach experience in childhood development as a New Mexico pre-K program manager and as part of the leadership team of the Pueblo of Laguna Head Start program.
Most recently, she served as the assistant vice president of financial capability and community relations at the Nusenda Foundation. She has also served as an adjunct professor at Central New Mexico Community College.