Current ACLU of New Mexico members who have paid their dues within the past 15 months are eligible to vote in the organization's at-large board of directors election. You will need your eight-digit membership number — located on the address label of the election notification postcard mailed to your address.

If you have questions about voting in the board election or do not know your membership number, please contact the ACLU of New Mexico at cvigil@aclu-nm.org or call 505-266-5915 ext. 1006.

You can vote at this link. Votes must be cast no later than 11:59 pm on March 31, 2020.

Board Statements


Alexandria Taylor

I was born and raised in New Mexico. I am the Director of Sexual Assault Services at the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, where I oversee and support the services provided by the thirteen rape crisis centers in New Mexico, as well as the sexual assault coordinators within community mental health agencies.  Prior to working at the Coalition, I was the Executive Director of Valencia Shelter Services, a rural domestic violence, sexual assault, and child advocacy center.

I have worked in the field of interpersonal violence, including domestic violence and sexual assault, for the past 15 years.  My commitment to the fight for liberation of all people is rooted in a social justice background working from margin to center. I am deeply committed to addressing issues from an intersectional lens.

All of my career has been rooted in social justice. While in graduate school at the University of Baltimore, I worked for a social justice law firm, The Public Justice Center.  At the PJC, I worked on the Prisoner’s Rights Project, the MedicaidMatters Coalition, and the Civil Right to Counsel Coalition.  The mission of the ACLU-NM and the work it focuses on are deeply connected to the issues I have spent my life working on, including racial justice, women’s right, and criminal justice reform.

With over 15 years of non-profit experience, which includes direct program delivery, fundraising and development, board development, policy, and management, I believe my experience will serve the Board of Directors of the ACLU-NM in diverse ways. I also bring a feminist and critical race theory lens to any work I engage in. Recognizing the importance of the ACLU-NM in our state during these times, I am deeply invested in being a steward of this organization to ensure continued service of the community.

 

Christine Sierra

My personal and professional backgrounds have informed and fueled my commitment to the ACLU and its significant work in New Mexico. As a native of El Paso, Texas, with family networks embedded in southern New Mexico, I have a deep and personal understanding of our border region and our state.  As a political scientist at the University of New Mexico (1986-2015), I have taught race, ethnicity, and gender in American politics, immigration politics and policy, and New Mexico government. Hence, I have a lifetime of knowledge, experience, and professional dedication that undergirds my contributions as a board member to the ACLU.

As a volunteer, I have long been involved in areas closely related to ACLU policy priorities; for example, voting rights, elections, and campaign finance (Common Cause) and immigrant rights and immigration policy (e.g. Albuquerque Interfaith).

I am the third Mexican American woman to receive a Ph.D. in political science in the nation.  I know how to provide leadership that advocates and promotes institutional change to advance the interests of underrepresented groups – especially women of color -- in a variety of professional and organizational arenas.  I have done that all my life.

I was first named to the Board of ACLU-NM in 2018.  I am delighted to be considered for a new term on the Board.  I want to continue our work in the defense of civil rights and civil liberties for New Mexicans as we pursue the goal of social justice for all.


Gary Mitchell

I am a New Mexican, born and raised here.  Even though I left the State for college and law school I knew I would come back and I did.  I am a lawyer and a rancher with my home and law office in Lincoln County, New Mexico.  I first became enthralled with the work of ACLU while in college, fighting for civil rights, equal rights and taking on the Nixon administration.  Law school gave me tools that have helped me help many others in the pursuit of equal rights, liberty and life.  In my legal career I fought in more than 100 cases the death penalty.   I fought police departments and sheriff departments who hurt my clients, local officials who thought their religion should prevail in governing those around them and commercial establishments who thought only young women who they found attractive should have a job.

I have had the pleasure of being on the Board of ACLU-New Mexico since 1994. My passion for ACLU and our work, especially in New Mexico has not lessened one bit and I would like to continue especially in these perilous times.  Not only must we confront and correct the horrors Trump has wrought but we cannot ignore the civil rights violations that have always been here and continue to this day.

I appreciate your vote so I may continue to work even harder because the times call for all of us to stand up, be counted, speak out, step forward and help.


Molly Molloy

My interest in justice is rooted in my Louisiana childhood where injustice lived all around in the poor, mostly African American town where my father practiced law and served on the local school board. Our schools were not desegregated until 1969 and most white students left for “segregation academies.” I learned that separate had never been equal. In the 1980s I worked in Nicaragua where poor people struggled against oligarchs and cold war terror. Returning home, I found an immigration prison in the pine woods where Central Americans seeking asylum were deported daily back to the dangers they had fled. Not a single lawyer or judge in a 200-mile radius spoke Spanish or knew anything about Central American wars, asylum, or immigration law.

I became a librarian—a profession with intellectual freedom in its DNA. I joined the NMSU faculty in 1992 and spent my academic career raising awareness on border issues, including the violence pushing a new wave of refugees to seek safety in the U.S. I’ve provided expert testimony in immigration court, and I work with non-profits representing asylum seekers. An immigration judge once asked me why I testified pro bono. That’s simple: Because I believe in justice. Poor Immigrants are those least afforded due process in our system, and justice can’t exist without it.

The ACLU has long been on the front lines seeking justice for immigrants, a fight never more crucial as now in the face of the current administration’s attempts to eradicate our nation’s humanitarian response to refugees.

I’m honored to be nominated for re-election to the board of the New Mexico ACLU.


Natalie Saing

I am a first-generation law student at the University of New Mexico School of Law (Class of 2022), where I am a Kellogg Child & Family Justice Advocate, the 1L representative for the UNM School of Law Chapter of the ACLU-NM and a member of the Lambda Law Student Association. Originally from Portland, Ore., I relocated to New Mexico in July 2017 to join the New Mexico Asian Family Center (NMAFC). In this work, I advocated on behalf of limited English proficient, extremely low income, immigrant and refugee survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence in pan-Asian communities. I organized free, culturally-specific, traditional healing spaces for survivors that reclaimed yoga and meditation – practices that have been culturally appropriated by the mainstream. I also advocated for systems-level change, pushing for greater culturally-specific and linguistically-appropriate access to sexual assault and domestic violence resources and for trauma-informed, survivor-led service provision.

I hope to maintain the connection I have with these communities and bring this connection into the work I plan to do as a board member of the ACLU-NM chapter. Lastly, I want to serve on the ACLU Board of Directors because I want to work towards fostering a more meaningful relationship between the Board and the ACLU-NM student organization at the University of New Mexico’s School of Law.

Rodney Bowe

My adult life has been spent serving and supporting my community in multiple capacities, always striving to doing what is right. Even though we live in what is considered the greatest country in the world, we still have challenges with injustice and inequities in our society. My background comes from a community and university perspective in diversity, equity, and inclusion. I believe that the ACLU entity is one of the few entities dedicated to combating injustice, looking beyond just the laws of our country, stand for what is right based on morality, integrity, and human dignity, giving everyone the same opportunities to their civil liberties and rights.

My leadership encompasses the experiences of a compassionate man of color, utilizing a much-needed common sense denominator of love and compassion, even for those who I may differ with. I have a strong sense of integrity and fairness in the charge of assisting and protecting those from diverse backgrounds. I would work to uphold the precepts of the American Civil Liberties Union and augment the work with the life knowledge, abilities, and training I bring to change the lives to those in need. This would be done from an open and fair-minded perspective in the pursuit of truth.