FACES & PLACES
The Santa Fe Community Foundation has announced its 2019 Piñon Awards, recognizing the work of nonprofit organizations and philanthropists.
Courageous Innovation Award: Tewa Women United
Tried & True Award: Presbyterian Medical Services
Visionary Award: Reunity Resources Policy Champion Award: New Mexico Voices for Children
Philanthropic Leadership Award: Stephen Gaber
The award recipients will be honored during a celebration from 5 to 8 p.m. Oct. 7 at La Fonda on the Plaza. Tickets are $50.
A U.S. Army veteran from Los Alamos was appointed national historian of the American Legion. James Mariner served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from June 1974 to June 1977. After basic training and two advanced individual trainings, he was assigned to Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis, Wash. Mariner worked at the Denver Veterans Administration Medical Center to continue helping veterans while he remained in the inactive reserve.
He has been an American Legion member at Frank G. Frainier Post 90 in Los Alamos since 1985. Mariner is one of 12 national officers in The American Legion.
Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Fe/Del Norte received a $5,000 grant from the Taco Bell Foundation to support more than 100 youth ages 13-18. The funding will go toward the Diplomas to Degrees program, which includes career and college prep sessions and mentoring.
New Mexico Human Services Cabinet Secretary David R. Scrase recently rewarded Jee W. Hwang, an economist supervisor for the Income Support Division, for discovering a discrepancy, researching and identifying errors in the March, April and May monthly statistical reports and correcting the data for the June report before it was published. Hwang is recognized for identifying a problem, fixing it and bringing it to his supervisors. Scrase gave Hwang his reserved parking space for 30 days.
Enterprise Bank recently announced several grant awards to seven New Mexico nonprofit organizations. In Santa Fe, Enterprise is partnering with the following five organizations, each via a threeyear
matching campaign: Kids Kitchen — a joint venture between United Way of Santa Fe and The Food Depot (providing up to $60,000), Assistance Dogs of the West (providing up to $60,000), Santa Fe Children’s Museum (providing up to $30,000), Esperanza Shelter (providing up to $30,000) and Communities In Schools (providing up to $60,000).
In Albuquerque, Enterprise is providing $75,000 over the next three years to the Ronald McDonald House. In Los Alamos, through a three-year matching campaign, Enterprise has pledged up to $150,000 to the Los Alamos Community Foundation.
RENESAN Institute for Lifelong Learning has announced the arrival of its new executive director, Kristin D. Pulatie, who moved to Santa Fe from Durango, Colo., where she oversaw the development of a community health assessment program and created a strategic plan for a two-county health department. She has experience in law, emergency management, and health and human services, and she holds a psychology degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder, a Juris Doctorate from DePaul University College of Law and a Master of Public Health from the University of Illinois — Chicago.
The Santa Fe Independent Film Festival has announced that Alexandria Bombach and David Sontag will be the festival advisory board’s newest members.
Having worked in cinema for just over a decade, Bombach has earned acclaim for her filmmaking skills. Her first featurelength film, Frame by Frame (2015) premiered at SXSW and went on to win over 25 awards. Her most recent documentary feature, On Her Shoulders (2018), won Best Directing in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival, where it premiered. The film centers on Nadia Murad, an Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist who earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018. On Her Shoulders also screened at the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival in 2018.
Sontag, throughout his more than 50 years of experience as a leader in the entertainment industry, has written for Columbia Pictures, Universal, MGM and Hollywood Pictures, as well as CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox. Known for his work as a writer and producer, Sontag also held creative and executive positions at 20th Century Fox, NBC, CBS Films and ABC.
The Reading Group and Opportunity Santa Fe have been selected to receive an award of $15,000 from the nonprofit First Book for new books to expand their missions of improving reading proficiency and creating a strong community for children. The pair is one of only two awardees in New Mexico.