Meet the Board

Board Officers
Jo Fairbanks, President
Don Parker, Vice President
Yolanda Garcia, Secretary
Yolanda Homann, Treasurer
 

Jo Fairbanks
President
 

Jo is currently faculty in the UNM Masters in Public Health degree program and Director of the Public Health Outreach Education Program. A New Mexico resident since 1965, she has intensive experience in academia and as a public health practitioner throughout the state. She has co-authored two public health textbooks and conducted research in health disparities. She has previous board and supervisory experience and has been a Nature Center enthusiast and volunteer for many years.
 

An industrial toxicologist at Sandia National Laboratories for 28 years, Senior Engineer Don Parker headed up the lab's Industrial Hygiene Division for 13 of those years, evaluating hazards associated with construction of the underground nuclear repository at the WIPP site.  Since retirement in l993, Don has metamorphosed into an amateur entomologist, cataloging the insect and spider collection of some 7,600 specimens at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.  At the Nature Center, Don has served as president of the Friends and head of its research committee; he continues as a valued interpreter, entomology lecturer, and resource person.
 

I started visiting the RGNC when I moved here from California in late 2001, after retiring from a defense contracting company in data management.  I immediately knew I wanted to volunteer here and I attended the volunteer training class in 2002.  Upon completion I started working in the Garden, but when summer arrived, I decided I would move indoors and have been working at the front desk ever since.
 

A computer operator employed at GTECH, Yolanda has been with the Friends of the Rio Grande Nature Center since its inception is 1984. She volunteers selflessly “behind the scenes.” Yolanda is a self-proclaimed neighborhood activist who provides balance to the Board by voicing neighborhood concerns.

Lynn Adkins

Lynn Adkins has undergraduate degrees in anthropology & art history from the University of Texas at Austin.  Her master’s degree from the University of New Mexico is in art history, with a specialization in the history of photography.  Lynn worked for museums and other related types of non-profit organizations for 20 years, specializing in collections management.  To mention a few, she served as Head Registrar for the Museum of New Mexico in the mid-1980s, and later as Chief Registrar for the State Department’s Art in Embassies Program in Washington, D.C., and as the Curator of Collections for Lakewood, Colorado’s city museum.  After returning to New Mexico in 1999, she held the position of Registrar/Collections Manager for the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos for two years.  She was a contributing author to The New Museum Registration Methods handbook, published by the American Association of Museums.  In 2003 – 2004 she served as the Administrator/Volunteers Coordinator for the Friends of the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park.  She is also an historian who writes articles and book reviews on New Mexico subjects for La Crónica de Nuevo México, the quarterly publication of the Historical Society of New Mexico.
 

Michael Hilchey
 

J. David Hutton
 

A physicist with extensive experience in nuclear physics and high speed electronics development, Dave Hutton has managed the science and engineering departments of several companies in support of various R&D programs.   He is currently a manager at Honeywell in Albuquerque.  A birder, a supporter of KNME, and commodore/board member of the New Mexico Sailing Club, Dave is a regular bird walk leader and member of the Research Committee committed to "assessment, monitor preservation and development."
 

Marianne Lucia
 

Marianne Lucia and her husband, Bob, relocated to Albuquerque from Wilmington, Delaware in 2003 after retiring from careers with the State of Delaware.  While employed, Marianne worked as a teacher, counselor, planner, and manager in the fields of employment and aging.  She has been a volunteer at the Nature Center for six years, working in the Nature Shop and at the reception desk.

Raymond VanBuskirk
 

Twenty years old, Raymond VanBuskirk is a sophomore at UNM, pursuing a double major in biology and Spanish.  In 2004, he co-founded the Rosy-Finch Banding Research Project at Sandia Crest, and continues monitoring the migrating birds.  Raymond has also worked on grey vireo assays and in UNM’s Museum of Southwestern Biology, mounting bird and other specimens

Sondra Williamson

Sondra marks her 17th year with the Rio Grande Nature Center in 2007, an association that has included five years as volunteer coordinator and every year as expert birder and guide, botanist and garden developer, interpreter and volunteer training teacher.  Sondra's career as a nature enthusiast began in the l970s while she held down the six to midnight shift as a telephone operator for A T & T in Houston.  After discovering the city's Armand Bayou Nature Center nearby, she soon was there every daylight minute, serving as a volunteer teacher in bird and plant classes, a digger in the garden, and a paid employee in the nursery and gift shop.  On weekends, Sondra hired on as a pontoon boat guide on Clear Lake near Galveston Bay, pointing out wildlife to visitors.  In Albuquerque and at the Rio Grande Nature Center since l990, Sondra served as a board member and volunteer for Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.