Board and Staff
Board
Staff
Board
Chris Calvert
President
Chris Calvert was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1948. He graduated from Alamo Heights High School in 1966. He then attended the Air Force Academy in Colorado. Upon graduating he completed pilot training and became a C-141 pilot during the Vietnam War. Chris left the Air Force in 1975 and enrolled in the Conservation of Natural Resources Program at U.C. Berkeley. After receiving his second Bachelor’s degree, Chris went to Sacramento and worked as an intern for a California State assemblyman. Chris then returned to the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Public Policy, where he earned a master’s Degree in 1979. Chris worked for eight years for Blue Cross of California, followed by a career with the U.S. Postal service as a letter carrier. During this time Chris served in numerous civic capacities including planning commissioner, code enforcement commissioner, president of neighborhood associations, Democratic ward vice-chairperson, and a water conservation committee member. In 2006 Chris was elected to the Santa Fe City Council where he served for two terms until 2014. Chris also retired from the US Postal Service in 2014.
Jacques Paisner
Vice President
Santa Fe Independent Film Festival Founding Director Jacques Paisner received a BA degree in English-Philosophy in 2003 from the University of New Mexico. He was born in Minneapolis in 1980, grew up in Oregon, Navajo Nation and Santa Fe, and he is a 1998 graduate of Santa Fe High School. Jacques is the author of Albuquerque Blues 2007 and was writer and director of the 2009 feature film, Rejection.
Oscar Rodriguez
Treasurer
Oscar Rodriguez is a public sector executive with a long career in New Mexico, elsewhere in the US, and abroad. His bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and masters from MIT prepared him for work as an international consultant, primarily in Latin America, in addition to service as Assistant City Manager for the City of Austin, and Executive Director of the Maryland National Capital Park & Planning Commission. His appointments in New Mexico have included Town Manager for the Town of Taos followed as well as Finance Director for the City of Santa Fe. Mr. Rodriguez is currently the Chief Financial Officer for the New Mexico Finance Authority. He and his wife are proud parents of a child who happily attends Santa Fe Public Schools, and he is an enrolled member of the Lipan Apache Tribe where he continues to serve as an ex officio member of the tribal council.
Ellen Bradbury
Secretary
Ellen Bradbury is the Director/Founder of Recursos de Santa Fe, a non-profit designed to stimulate an active intellectual and artistic exchange of ideas and to bridge the gap between academe and popular audiences. Ms. Bradbury has also been involved with the Santa Fe Festival of the Arts, Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Consultant to Regis Collection of Contemporary 20th Century American Art in Minneapolis, Guest Curator with Manos de Mexico in St. Paul, Curator of Primitive Arts at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Registrar and Curator of Pre-Columbian Art in Minneapolis.
Ms. Bradbury received her B.A. from the University of New Mexico as well as her M.A. continuing with Advanced Graduate Study in the Ph. D. program in American Art at UNM. She also attended Yale from 1967-1968.
She grew up in Los Alamos where her father worked on the Manhattan Project.
Richard Czoski
Member
Prior to being elected to the Board of Directors in 2023, Richard was SFRCC’s Executive Director from 2005 to 2021. Richard was responsible for the construction, leasing and management of the Santa Fe Railyard from the design of the infrastructure to 95% completion of the development of the project. He negotiated all of the leases and was responsible for completion of $14 million in infrastructure construction. He worked closely with all of the Railyard stakeholders and with the City of Santa Fe through several administrations. He negotiated the Amended and Restated Lease and Management Agreement with the City in 2011 that is in place today.
Richard brings more than four decades of both domestic and international commercial real estate and construction experience to the Board. After earning a BA degree from the University of Colorado, he worked in offshore oil and gas exploration in Southeast Asia and then spent three years in Saudi Arabia as a Project Manager for the construction of large oil and gas related facilities with Fluor Engineers. After seven years with Fluor, Richard joined the Tosco Corporation working on a large share oil development project in Western Colorado. In 1983 he joined La Salle Partners (now Jones Lang La Salle) where he was responsible for the property management, leasing, asset management and construction of a 2.2 million SF portfolio of office, industrial and retail buildings in the Denver, Colorado area.
In 1995 Richard joined Brookfield Properties, a Canadian Real Estate Investment Trust, to manage a 4 million SF portfolio of buildings in the Southwest US including the 1.2 million SF Republic Plaza, Denver’s tallest building. He relocated to Santa Fe in 2002 to work in asset management with the Santa Fe based BGK Group, where he was responsible for 13 buildings located East of the Mississippi River. In 2004 Richard joined the Santa Fe Railyard Community Corporation and was promoted to Executive Director in 2005.
Before he retired, he held the CCIM (Certified Commercial Investment Manager) and CPM (Certified Property Manager) designations. Richard served a Treasurer of the Sixteenth Street Mall Board in Denver and was active in the NAIOP and BOMA commercial real estate organizations. A lifetime skier and ski racer, he volunteered as an instructor for the Adaptive Ski Program where he helped disabled individuals experience the joys of skiing in the Rocky Mountains.
Richard has made his home in Santa Fe and with his wife raised two daughters, Paige and Brooke, both who live and work in Santa Fe today. He stated, “I am honored and pleased to be able to continue to contribute to success of SFRCC and the Santa Fe Railyard in my new position as a Board member."
Michael Chamberlain
Member
Michael has an extensive career working with nonprofit organizations. He has served in executive leadership positions with local organizations (10 years each as Co-Director of the Plaza Resolana Study and Conference Center and then COO of the NM Community Foundation), as well as ten years as CFOO of the Seven Hills School, an independent school in California. He holds undergraduate degrees in Business and Finance, and earned his J.D. from the University of San Francisco in 1982. As a practicing attorney, he currently serves as principal of the Non Profit Mediation and Consulting LLC, and also serves as Of Counsel to a California law firm that focuses on non-profit organization clients. Michael lives in Santa Fe with his spouse of 40+ years, Kathleen Jiménez, and hiking/fishing dogs Charlie and Blu.
Robert Dunn
Member
Robert Dunn is the President and founder of Robert Dunn Real Estate, Inc. His experience in the Santa Fe real estate market spans over 25 years. He served as President of the Santa Fe Association of Realtors in 1995, and in 1999 was President of the Realtors Association of New Mexico. He was a member of The National Association of Realtors Land Use, Property Rights, and Environment Committee. In 1989 he was named Santa Fe Association's Realtor of the Year. On the state level, he is currently active on the Legislative and Budget Committees, and has previously served as Legal Affairs Committee chair and Strategic Planning chair.
Robert Dunn's community involvement includes seven years serving on the Board of La Nueva Vida, he was Realtor Liaison for United Way, sponsor for The Jimmy Huega Snow Express for Multiple Sclerosis, and is a member of The Rotary Club of Santa Fe.
In 2003 he was appointed by Governor Richardson to the New Mexico Real Estate Commission. Mr. Dunn was appointed to the SFRCC Board in April 2002.
Robert Griego
Member
Robert Griego is a native multi-generational New Mexican who has worked in planning and development for 25 years. He earned a master’s degree in community and regional planning and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of New Mexico. Robert retired from Santa Fe County after having served as Planning Manager for 15 years and has worked on community development, affordable housing, land use and economic development. Robert is currently a Fellow through the Livable Santa Fe Fellowship, serves on the Board of Chaplin Joes Street Outreach and is working to obtain a Sustainable Technologies Certificate through Santa Fe Community College.
Ron Pacheco
Member
Ron Pacheco has a total of twenty-one years of local government service working for the City of Santa Fe for seventeen years and four years of service for Santa Fe County. For the Past Three years he has been the Director-of the Santa Fe County Division of Senior Services. Prior to working at Santa Fe County, he was the Affordable Housing Administrator for the City of Santa Fe for two years and the Deputy Director of the Santa Fe County Public Housing Office for one year.
In the fifteen years prior to working as an affordable housing administrator at the City of Santa Fe he held three positions at the Division of Senior Services. He began his career in government in the summer of 1991 when he was hired as the Inventory Specialist for the Senior Nutrition Program. He was then promoted to the Safe-Kids Safe Seniors Program Coordinator where he was able to promote health and safety programs for seniors and children thereby working inter-generationally. His final five years in the City of Santa Fe Senior Program were in the capacity as the Senior Olympics Program Administrator.
Rosemary Romero
Member
For the past 30 years, Ms. Romero has designed and facilitated numerous public involvement projects, assessed the potential for neutral conflict resolution services in diverse cases, consulted with public and private organizations on the use of alternative dispute resolution techniques, trained hundreds of persons in negotiation and mediation and public involvement skills and promoted the use of mediation and facilitation in the environmental field and other public policy arenas. She has facilitated controversial issues with various federal, state, local governments and nonprofit organizations and lead strategic planning efforts for numerous entities.
Ms. Romero is the former President of Western Network a non-profit organization that developed an extensive practice centered on conflict resolution specific to natural resource issues such as water planning and land use planning. She completed four years as an elected City of Santa Fe Councilor and is a former member of the Planning Commission. As a City Councilor, Ms. Romero served on several regional boards including the Chairmanship of the North Central Regional Transit District, Santa Fe Solid Waste Management Authority, and Santa Fe Regional Planning Authority while also serving on key City of Santa Fe committees.
Patrick Varela
Member
Patrick Varela is a native 5th generation Santa Fean. His mother is Antonia “Toni” Ortiz a 4th generation Santa Fean and his father was Celestino Varela Jr. a native from Pecos New Mexico a World War II veteran who passed away in 1998. Patrick received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Colorado Technical University and also belongs to the Sigma Beta Delta honors society in Business.
He has worked in both private and governmental sectors where he got the opportunity to master different skills and the opportunity to meet many people and got the interest to serve my community in a positive manner.
His roots are very deep in the city of Santa Fe and its history and he belongs to a family who is active in helping to preserve Santa Fe’s diverse culture. He recently served on the Santa Fe 400th Anniversary Board where he was active and responsible for bringing the Mayor from our sister city Santa Fe de la Vega Spain to Santa Fe New Mexico, where exact copies of the Capitulaciones (documents granting Columbus permission to find a new trade route to India) were presented to Santa Fe.
Staff
Christine Robertson
Executive Director
Christine Robertson joined the organization as Executive Director in September 2021 after a 20+ year career in Operations and Property Management. Christine’s work experience includes developments in Angel Fire and Santa Fe, New Mexico and Vail, Colorado. Her non-profit experience includes Executive Committee/Treasurer for New Mexico Hospitality Association and Chapter President & Advisory Board Member of HSMAI. She is thrilled to join the Santa Fe Railyard team and contribute to the development of the Railyard and Baca Neighborhoods while supporting the community’s vision.
Ginny Sanders
Director of Events & Marketing
Ginny Sanders is the Director of Events & Marketing for the Santa Fe Railyard Community Corporation. She worked as a shared employee of the Austin Parks Foundation and Downtown Austin Alliance and trained with Project for Public Spaces to redesign and program Republic Square Park, a downtown Austin historic square. She worked for KLRU-Austin’s PBS where she served as marketing manager for PBS programs including Austin City Limits where she managed ticket giveaways and studio tours as well as production of KLRU’s Distinguished Speaker Series. Ginny was Executive Director of First Night Austin, the New Year’s Eve celebration of the performing and visual arts in downtown Austin. Ginny has also worked for Texas Monthly, Cumulus and TEGNA media in advertising sales. She has a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University in English literature and a master’s degree from Saint Leo University in creative writing. She lives in the Railyard with her terrier mix, Augie.
Valarie Lyon-Vigil
Operations Manager
Valarie Lyon-Vigil, Ts’ee Ojegi (Evergreen Frost) born to the K’uu Pi’i Clan (Coral) of Santa Clara Pueblo, attended Santa Fe Indian School and graduated from Espanola Valley. After attending UNM in Albuquerque, she returned home to Santa Clara Pueblo to start her family and raise her children in the Pueblo surrounded by family and culture. Primarily working with Non-Profits for over 25 years, Valarie has held various roles and levels from Administrative Assistant, Accounting Manager, IT Support, Director of Planning & Development to an Executive Director position. Several of the Non-Profits include, Hands Across Cultures, Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council, Notah Begay III Foundation and Big Brothers Big Sister of Northern NM, most recently she was working at the New Mexico State Senate Chief Clerk’s Office. In 2013 Valarie co-founded a company called Rezonate Art, LLC with Artist Warren Montoya, to highlight, educate, guide and expose up and coming Native American Artists, the company has since disbanded and advanced into another organization that provides culturally specific programming, knowledge dissemination and resource development focused on indigenous peoples and communities throughout the southwest. Valarie resides in Pecos, New Mexico with her Husband Loren Paul and is the mother of three daughters and 6 grandchildren. Outside of work, Valarie most enjoys spending time with her husband, all her family, participating in cultural activities, working at the Bowles Family ranch in Colonias, NM and attending sporting events, art shows and fundraising events for her favorite causes.