We’ve missed seeing you all these socially distanced months. We had hoped to hold the Annual Meeting in person, but no such luck.

Please join us on zoom for the Annual Meeting of the League of Women Voters on Saturday, October 3 at 10 a.m. This is one of our most important meetings of the year since we will elect officers, and conduct other business.

You can access all the information you need from the April Voter on our website. I’ve also attached an agenda for the meeting and the amended budget proposal.

We have an interesting panel of speakers for this meeting, the JEDI committee of the League of Women Voters of New Mexico. JEDI stands for Justice, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

We have frequently discussed among ourselves the need to bring younger and more diverse members into the League. Our tradition of study and consensus, then advocacy of issues is not always appealing to younger people in the hurry, so Irene Epp, Rebecca Alvarez and Katie Christianson will do their best to give us ideas. Here’s a little about them. Irene is the JEDI Coordinator.

Irene joined the League in August 2019 after she returned from 26 years overseas as an educator at US Embassy schools in Asia and Africa. She served as Head of School in four African nations, Mali, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone. She also served as a school administrator in Cairo Egypt and Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, after one-year teaching AP English in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Before moving overseas, Irene was the Deputy Head of School at Santa Fe Prep. Irene earned a PhD in American Literature at the university of Colorado, Boulder.

Rebecca Álvarez is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at New Mexico Highlands University. Her research interests are in forms of gender violence and diversity and representation in social movements. Her article “The Contours of Color at the World Social Forum: Reflections on Racialized Politics, Representation, and the Global Justice Movement” was published in Critical Sociology.

Dr. Álvarez was previously vice-president of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics (NMMOP), a grass-roots organization that has partnered in advocacy with the League of Women Voters on legislative issues around money in politics. As a member of the Outreach Committee for NMMOP, she organized and led a workshop training covering strategies for reaching out successfully to diverse populations in New Mexico. Her book Vigilante Gender Violence: Social Class, the Gender Bargain, and Mob Attacks on Women Worldwide is out in September of this year from Routledge.

Katie Christianson is a Santa Fe transplant from Washington state. Passionate about amplifying the voices of marginalized people, she has made several careers around speaking up, from preschool teacher to community organizer.  Most recently, she joined a remarkable team to open the first rural southwestern Washington public charter school, a middle school founded to serve kids impacted by poverty and other trauma.  She is finishing her Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology at New Mexico Highlands University with an emphasis in Gender and Women’s Studies.  

This committee has been working hard all summer to assess the way the League of Women Voters can work to diversity. This is something the league desperately needs to do if we are going to grow and continue to be an important part of life in our communities.

We hope everyone can attend. This meeting is scheduled for 10 to noon.

We look forward to seeing you online!

Topic: LWVCNM Annual Meeting

Time: Oct 3, 2020 10:00 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada)

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Your Co-Presidents

Karen Douglas

Karen Wentworth