Sandra Jean Simons-Ailes

September 4, 1950 – August 4, 2019

It’s been a year and we all still miss you, leaving us, too suddenly, but predictably on a Pueblo Feast Day, Kewa, August 4th, 2019. Born in Washington, D.C., to

David and Penny (Lauterbach) Simons, Sandra graduated from Oberlin College (B.A.) and the University of New Mexico, (Ph.D.) Education. She cofounded Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC/1971) in her bedroom with Katherine and Peter Montague, now the longest surviving 1970s New Mexico environmental group. Sandra went on later to become the first Director and a teacher of the Pueblo of Acoma’s Head Start program. Seven years later, after moving to Albuquerque and marrying Richard Ailes, she taught for more than 40 years at various Albuquerque elementary schools, most memorably Monte Vista Elementary. After acquiring her Ph.D. she taught, in her spare time, at Santa Fe College. This was again true when Sandra, who had also earned a contractor’s license, founded Network New Mexico, a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring internet access for public, private, and charter schools all over the State. To that end, she led crews of community volunteers on Net Days, installing vital infrastructure in some of the most underserved communities in New Mexico. In these ways, she is to be remembered and respected for her deep, profound commitment to community, children, youth and adults, to literacy, sustainability and environmental equity. With a more than full plate, Sandra raised two daughters, Heather and Elena, created a solarized homestead/ farm in Placitas, NM, replete with two weaving looms, fishpond, large gardens, many fruit trees and a memorable cold storage unit. Remembered, loved, respected and profoundly missed by her family and friends, especially at the great Placitas Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas celebrations that featured, among other dishes, her "baqlawa" sweets and other delicacies learned from Mary "Sittee" Simons, her grandmother, and her melted almond brie accompanying the red chile posole, that she, Dana Roth and others conjured up each year for decades. Remembered too, by Don Hancock, the staff and Board of SRIC and all those who supported her fierce dedication and decades long fundraising to ensure effective tribal environmental resource monitoring, remediation and preservation. Loved by her family, her daughters and their families, Heather Ailes and Phil Leckman, grandchildren, Rose and Avery and Elena Ailes and Calvin Small; her sisters, Linda Embrey, and Patricia Pruss, brother, David Simons, a far flung Syrian extended family including nieces Kristen and Adriana; in-laws Lane Leckman and Deb Hall; and a large circle of close friends and their children, Peter and Elizabeth Chestnut (godparents of Heather and Elena), Caitilin Chestnut and Ken, Reed, and Hazel Frink, Dana, John, Kyndra and Micah Roth, Katherine Morgan, and many others; her Acoma family, the late Joe and Rose Ray, Petuuche Gilbert, Rebecca Lucario and many others; Monte Vista teacher colleagues, including Jeff Tuttle and Julie Crocker, and many here unnoted. We never ceased to be uplifted by her aweinspiring energy, great love, and dedication to making the lives of others not only better, but more deeply complete.