Constructing a leadership network
Leadership NM generates long-term interactions
T his year’s Leadership New Mexico marks an anniversary: 20 years of educating New Mexicans about the state’s differing realities across geography, cultures and economies.
“We live in such a large state, but I think Leadership New Mexico has made it shrink for people,” said Patty Komko, the program’s president. “It’s not so far to drive from Farmington to Carlsbad to do business. You break that mental barrier of distance. That is one of the things we have been able to do.”
The program’s more than 800 graduates from 54 communities have come from the private and public sectors. They have gone back to their hometowns with a fresh appreciation for New Mexico’s potential and they have gone on to do business with each other, and share leadership roles in boardrooms and government, Komko said.
“It doesn’t matter whether you are from Silver City or Carlsbad or Clovis or Cimarron,” she said. “We all want the same thing. We all want a good education system; we all want jobs; we want our children to stay in the communities they grew up in. If you can break down those false barriers and let people get to know each other as people, then you will really, truly have progress.”
This year’s core class takes 39 participants to six New Mexico communities, from Santa Fe and Los Alamos to Las Cruces, Hobbs, Farmington and Taos, to tackle themes including health care, economic development, education, environment, government, crime and justice.
Leadership New Mexico has become a cornerstone for leadership trainings in the public and private sectors. Companies and institutions such as U.S. Bank and University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque sponsor participants from their organizations nearly every year.
“It is a tremendous opportunity to share and network with movers and shakers from around the state,” said Paul DiPaola, president of U.S. Bank in Albuquerque and chairman of the Leadership New Mexico board. “It has created quite a connection and quite an alumni of people who, after having been through the class, encourage others to
participate.”
“Knowledge is power in a sense,” he said. “So it doesn’t matter if you are talking about economic development or water issues, if they have attended (the program), then they have been educated on some of the challenges and they are better prepared to play a role in the solutions. They can pitch in and move the state forward.”
At a recent two-day session in Las Cruces, Leadership New Mexico participants got a closer look at the U.S.-Mexico border to learn about international commerce and immigration issues. They visited the Santa Teresa port of entry and also got a rare tour of the sprawling new Union Pacific intermodal hub nearby.
After a detailed presentation on how Union Pacific moves its 4,0007,000-foot trains in and out of the facility for refueling, cargo changes and staff shifts, Jay Laughlin, chief nuclear officer at Eunice-based URENCO USA, said he was surprised by what he saw.
“There are a lot of things going on here,” he said. “There are pretty exciting opportunities tied to the border.”
“I had never been to the UP yard or that whole Santa Teresa area,” said Krishna Reddy, vice president of special projects at the Albuquerque office of Jaynes Corp., a construction firm. “I was just struck by the enormous potential in that little area for cross-border commerce and trade. And I was also struck by how much (more) is happening just east of us in Texas. What is it New Mexico can do?”
Reddy says he has high hopes that his Leadership New Mexico experience won’t be “a yearlong networking session before we go back to our daily lives.”
“There is a great bunch of people in my class — the 20th class — I hope we all stay in touch,” he said. “I hope we pick certain issues facing our state and in smaller groups, or as a group in general, we find ways to stay engaged with each other and come up with solutions to some of these issues.”