Meet the Team

Extension Family and Consumer Sciences

Department Head: Efren Delgado, Ph.D.
Associate Department Head: Laura Bittner, Ph.D.
Administrative Assistant, Intermediate: Elisa Anderson
Administrative Assistant, General: Cheyenne Cano

Specialists

Provide statewide leadership in planning, coordinating and evaluating FCS programs. Provide resource material and subject matter training for county Extension personnel. Responsible for securing and managing funding, reporting program results to administration, and maintaining partnerships with other faculty, agencies, and organizations.

Health & Wellbeing

Laura Bittner, Ph.D.

General Health - The Health Program revolves around activities related to healthy lifestyles, including maintenance of social, emotional, and physical health. The goal of the Health Program is to provide reliable, research-based information that covers the lifespan in all areas of individual, family, and community life. Topic areas include cancer facts, vaccinations and public health, osteoarthritis pain management, selecting over-the-counter medications, stress management, sun safety, and other general health areas of interest.
Healthy Homes and Communities – Programs are designed to administer guidance and provide resources for maintaining or rehabilitating areas both within and outside the home or workplace in a manner that supports the health of residents. The program area provides education focused on a variety of human health issues that are impacted and/or exacerbated through the environment in which people live, work, and play. Examples are mold control and remediation, air quality, and controlling pest infestation. The program covers disaster preparedness as it impacts individual, family, and community health.

Family Resource Management

Bryce Jorgensen, Ph.D., AFC, CHC

Family Finance

Easy Ways to Grow Your Savings.
Eliminate your Debt Quickly and SAVE $1,000’s.
Student Loan Debt: What Should I Know?
Improve your Credit Score and SAVE $100’s every Month.
Why Everyone Needs a Will.
How to Get a $500 per/ Month Raise Without Asking Your Boss!
Building Wealth: How to Become a Millionaire.
How and Where Should I Invest My Money?
Banking Safely in Today’s World.
Protect Yourself from Identity Theft!
Should I get a Reverse Mortgage? Facts and Myths.
Forming Financial Futures: Teaching Your Children about Money (Two-part program).

Family Resource Management

Why Resolutions Fail and How to Create Goals That Work
The 6 Principles of Strong Families
The Productivity Factor: Accomplishing More by Doing Less
The 6 Principles of Happiness
The 8 Success Habits Everyone Should Implement
Families and Technology: The Realities and Improvements for Technology Management

Family Life and Child Development

Karim Martinez, Ph.D., CFLE

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) - understanding how childhood trauma influences health outcomes across the lifespan.
Stress and Resilience - understanding how stress affects brain development and learning strategies to build resilience; this included the related program, Resilient Mothers, Resilient Children.
Behavioral health and wellness - understanding mental health and reducing the stigma of seeking treatment for mental health challenges.
Interpersonal communication - strengthening couple and family relationships through the development of communication skills.
Parenting - promotion of online Just in Time Parenting newsletter through Extension.

Food Technology

Food safety training for food business:

Better Process Control School for Acidified Foods: has been converted to an online course for managers and supervisors of food processing operations of thermal procession systems, acidification, and container closure evaluation programs for low-acid and acidified canned foods.
FSPCA - Preventive Controls for Human Food Course for Preventive Controls Qualified Individual -training for the food safety professional in the efficient management of an FSMA Food Safety Plan and Good Manufacturing practices; conducting a risk assessment to determine controls for process, food allergen, sanitation, and supply chain procedures in the food processing environment; implementation of the requirements for verification, validation, and record keeping.

Food safety training for consumers:

Understanding Food Preservation course support the practice of food preservation starting with home canning. Learning materials, such as videos and publications presented in this course, support each of the learning objectives. Activities allow for practice or application of concepts presented in each module.

Food and Nutrition

Zahra Zadeh, PhD, RD

Building nutrition practices to meet your needs and promote optimal development and health, including eating well on a budget.
Developing healthy relationships with foods.
Addressing and applying nutrition habits to lower specific disease risks, such as heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and inflammation.
Using nutrition to improve sports performance.
Improving nutrition in areas with limited food access.

Extension Associates II

Masters-level Extension professionals, similar to Extension agents, but housed in the EFCS department. These positions can be involved in a variety of FCS programs at the county or state levels. Many of the programs are grant-funded initiatives.

Lucinda Banegas-Carreon, MPH, CHES, Extension Associate II

Fit Families (Program Manager): 12-week nutrition program delivered to families with children 5-12 years of age. Benefits are increased knowledge about healthy food choices, physical activity, and promoting social and emotional well-being. Instruction includes a cooking demonstration and a nutritious meal. Available in Doña Ana County. Fit Families
National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) (Program Manager): evidence-based, lifestyle intervention program taught by lifestyle coaches trained through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The target audience is people with pre-diabetes or risk factors for developing diabetes. Meet weekly for 6 months and then monthly for 6 months. There are multiple NDPP curricula such as Native Balance and Spanish-language curricula.

Lourdes Olivas, MA, Extension Associate II

On the Road to Living Well with Diabetes (Program Manager): program provided to individuals with prediabetes and those at risk for developing diabetes. It covers the five most important tests for diabetes; how to discuss test results with your healthcare provider; how to prepare healthy meals; and why it's important to be physically active.
Familias en Forma (Fit Families Spanish Curriculum Program Manager): 12-week nutrition program delivered to families with children 5-12 years of age by promotoras. Benefits are increased knowledge about healthy food choices, physical activity, and promoting social and emotional well-being. Instruction includes a cooking demonstration and a nutritious meal. Available in Doña Ana County.
Assists with Kitchen Creations, National Diabetes Prevention Program – Lifestyle Coach, Chronic Disease Self-Management Program – Master Trainer, and Healthy U.
Undergraduate degree in Kinesiology, (studied human movement as well as the impact of age, injury, and/or disease on normal, human function and performance). Interested in assisting with physical activity programs.
Supervise graduate dietetic interns. If agents would like dietetic interns to research nutrition-related topics, let Lourdes know.

Cassandra Vanderpool, MS, RDN, LD, Extension Associate II

Kitchen Creations (Program Manager): Four-part diabetes cooking school funded by grants from NM Health and Presbyterian Healthcare Services.
Part-time position (20 hrs. per week) from Albuquerque, NM.

Program Coordinators

Center of Innovation for Behavioral Health and Wellbeing (COI)

Contact COI by Email.

This program is housed in the EFCS department and was created with a focus on Children’s Behavioral Health and its services. The COI serves as a training hub and workforce development center, providing training and program implementation support to the State of New Mexico and Community Behavioral Health Provider agencies. The center also coordinates and provides continuing education training to social workers, attorneys, advocates, law enforcement, educators, peer support workers, and community members. Please contact the Center of Innovation for custom content requests.

Visit the COI’s staff webpage to learn more about each individual’s role and associated programs.

COI Staff:
- Brooke Stanley Tou, MPH, LMSW, Director
- Nicole Butler, MHA, Program Manager, Sr.
- Dawn Nemeth, LCSW, Program Manager, Sr.
- Sandra Gallegos, LBSW, Program Manager, Sr.
- Enas Khaleq, MA, Program Manager, Sr.
- Claudia DeJesus, MA, Marketing Manager
- Priscila Solis, MA, Program Manager
- Bob Brazell, Program Manager
- Darah "Spence" Spencer, MPA, Program Manager, Sr.
- Jesus Romero, Program Specialist, Sr.
- Melissa Spence, Program Specialist, Sr.
- Stephanie Frisch-Riddle, MPH, Program Specialist, Sr.
- Maricella Frias-Guerra, Program Specialist, Sr.
- Renee Reyes, Wraparound Coach
- Jessica Orozco, Wraparound Coach
- Marceline Sipila, Program Specialist
- Gabrielle Manchego-Sanchez, MPH, Program Specialist
- Alana Hancock, Program Specialist
- Sarahi Soto-Talavera, Program Specialist, Sr.
- Lorretta Diaz, Event Planner & Program Support
- Mary Ortaleza, Program Coordinator - Fiscal
- Arwen Kittelson-Aldred, M.Ed, MSW, Program Manager
- Sarah Owensby, MA, Marketing Specialist, Sr.
- Sophia Sepp, LMSW, MPH, Program Manager
- Jessica Chacon, Program Manager, Sr.

New Mexico Quality Service Review Staff
- Kate Gibbons, Ph.D., Director of Continuous Quality Improvement and Learning
- Rebecca Tarango-McCabe, Program Manager, Sr.
- Lynda Moore, LPCC, Senior Reviewer Program Manager, Sr.
- Linda DeMarino, Program Manager
- Jessica Chacon, Program Manager, Sr.
- Ida Aguirre, Program Specialist, Sr.
- Sophia Redwine, Program Specialist
- Charlene Gamboa, MBA, Program Coordinator

ICAN (Ideas for Cooking and Nutrition)

Ideas for Cooking and Nutrition (ICAN) is a New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service (NMSU CES) program funded by Federal grants to provide nutrition education to SNAP-eligible audiences in New Mexico. Our mission is to inspire New Mexico’s families to make healthy food and lifestyle choices and to make those choices possible by creating health-friendly communities. ICAN is the largest implementing agency for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) grant in New Mexico, and the only agency for the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) grant.
ICAN State Office Staff:
- Donna Sauter, MS, RDN, LD, Director (Albuquerque)
- Gabriel Gomez, BS, Regional Coordinator - Northern District and EFNEP (Albuquerque)
- Brenda Weatherford, BA, Regional Coordinator - Eastern and Southwestern Districts (Lincoln County Extension)
- Marisa Van Dommelen, MS, Program Manager (Las Cruces)
- Angie Jonsson, MS, ACSM-CEP, Food Systems Specialist (Albuquerque)
- Abigail Orta, BS, Financial Manager (Las Cruces)
- Marisa Stevenson, MS, Data Manager (Las Cruces)
- Ester Thompson, MBA, Administrative Assistant (Las Cruces)

Anna, Age Eight Institute/100% New Mexico Initiative

Provides statewide and local leadership in transforming the adverse social determinants of health into positive ones, with a focus on ensuring within each community in a county has access to the ten vital services for surviving and thriving. These services include medical care, mental health care, housing security, food security, transportation, parent supports, early childhood learning, community schools, youth mentors, and job training. The goal is to prevent adverse childhood experiences, family trauma, and social adversity.
Institute staff work with county-based 100% New Mexico initiative participants (currently in 15 counties) in the data-driven continuous quality improvement process that includes assessment, planning, action, and evaluation. Provide resource material, subject matter training (including adaptive leadership, collective impact, and using the social-ecological model), and opportunities for local engagement in the local initiative for county Cooperative Extension personnel eager to innovate in food security and end local hunger. Responsible for securing and managing funding, reporting county-based assessments revealing service barriers to the public, lawmakers, and high education administration, and maintaining partnerships with other faculty, agencies, and organizations committed to turning science into real-world solutions to benefit every New Mexican child, student, and family.