2011 East Mountain High School Foundation Trustees
Susan McGuire, President,
retired in 2003 after a 25 year career with the US Congress. Her most recent position was New Mexico State Director for US Senator Jeff Bingaman. She has been active in numerous community organizations including New Mexico First, a statewide public policy organization; the Albuquerque Committee on Foreign Relations; the Albuquerque Literacy Project and the Urban Council. She holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Michigan. She and her husband Bob have lived in the East Mountains since 1992.
Judy Suiter, Vice-President,
has over thirty years of experience in the areas of land use planning, site planning, visual resource analysis and NEPA compliance. Since 1988, she has been the President of Zephyr Design, a woman-owned environmental consulting and planning firm specializing in land use and visual resource analysis, site planning and landscape design. Previously, she was employed by PNM to prepare assessments on numerous proposed projects for electric generation, transmission and distribution in New Mexico and Arizona. Judy’s daughter Catherine graduated from East Mountain High School in 2005.
Lisa Quick, Treasurer,
has served as the Treasurer of the East Mountain High School Foundation since June 2004, and served on the school's first Governing Council from 2000-2002. She holds a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix and a BA in International Studies from Southwest Texas State University. Lisa has worked in the financial field for over 25 years for firms such as Southwest Guaranty and Title, Sutin, Thayer and Brown, P.C. and First American Title Insurance Company. Lisa has three children: Elizabeth, Mason and Annie. Elizabeth is a graduate of the University of New Mexico; Mason and Annie attend East Mountain High School.
Kevin Crist is a program manager at Emcore Corporation in Albuquerque and has been employed there since 2001. Kevin’s primary responsibilities are to deliver solar cells, solar panels and other related items to various commercial and government satellite customers on schedule and within budget. Kevin graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of California - Davis and a Masters of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Santa Clara University. Kevin is active in the community, volunteering as a referee for his kids’ soccer and basketball games as well as participating in a local community theater group. Kevin’s wife, Meg, has been an active volunteer for San Antonito Elementary school, serving both as Treasurer and President of the PTA and as president of the SABA basketball league. Meg is also a member of the board of the Sandia Performing Arts Company and has been coaching her son’s and daughter’s soccer teams for the last several seasons.
Valerie Jones is a South Dakota native new to New Mexico. Valerie has spent the better part of her career in management for large financial services corporations including Citibank and BANKFIRST. Most recently, she served as the Executive Director of The Mentor Fund in Manhattan. As a wife and mother of five, Valerie has always been concerned with education. She has been an active volunteer for a wide variety of community charitable organizations and events, including Big Brothers/Big Sisters, American Cancer Society, The Make-A-Wish Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, The Girl Scouts, The Family Connection, The Teddy Bear Ben, The Children’s Inn, Youth Enrichment Services and Lutheran Social Services. Valerie’s daughter, Lacey, attends East Mountain High School.
Scott Kuszmaul has been at Sandia National Labs for over twenty-six years as an Electrical Engineer. Scott is a team member of Sandia’s Energy and Infrastructure Future groups and is responsible for oversight of test facility upgrades to ensure readiness for testing of next generation photovoltaic system-related products. Scott received his BS in Electrical Engineering from New Mexico Tech and an Associates in Electrical Engineering from Youngstown State University. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Solar Energy Society. Scott lives in the East Mountains with his wife, Tricia McKenna. Scott has five children, two of whom he shares with Tricia.
Kathy McCoy served as the representative for District 22, covering portions of Bernalillo, Sandoval and Santa Fe Counties, from 2005 to 2010. She did not run for reelection in 2010. Prior to serving in the New Mexico House of Representatives, Kathy ran the East Mountain Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit established to educate and advocate for positive land use in the East Mountains. Kathy received a BA from the University of New Mexico, with a major in Professional Writing and minor in Anthropology. She has edited work for the National Park Service. Kathy has a home in Cedar Crest.
Peter Nyland currently serves as Senior Vice President of Purchasing and Asset Management for Sun Healthcare Group, a 1.8 billion dollar public company. He also serves as President of Americare, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sun Healthcare Group. He has been employed by the Albuquerque based Sun Healthcare which provides nationwide healthcare services since 2002. Prior to Sun, Peter worked for Beverly Enterprises for twenty years, holding a number of positions from Administrator, Regional Vice President, to Vice President of Purchasing and Construction. In addition to serving on the Board of Americare, Peter also served on the Board of the Fort Smith Montessori School in Arkansas prior to moving to Albuquerque in 2002. He graduated from State University of New York-Utica with a bachelor's degree in healthcare management. He volunteers his time to coach the Middle School Golf Team at Roosevelt Middle School. Peter has two children, P.J. (15) and Quinter (13) and has been married to Valerie Nyland for twenty years. Peter's son P.J. currently attends East Mountain High School and Peter joined the Board of Directors in 2010.
Tonya Patton
joined the East Mountain High School Foundation in 2009. After relocating to New Mexico from Texas in 2004, Tonya accepted a position as the Senior Director of Financial Performance Management at Gap Inc., a $15 billion per year global retailer. In this position, Tonya sponsored the adoption of process metrics and Six Sigma for finance at the Corporate Shared Service Center. A few months later, Tonya responded to an internal need and accepted the responsibility of heading Real Estate Processes for Gap, Inc. which includes global process responsibility for Acquire to Retire and for Procure to Pay for Real Estate Leases, property taxes and business licenses for all Gap, Inc North America locations. Tonya’s career includes positions as the VP Controller at Siemens USA, CFO of Siemens Shared Services and CFO of a Dallas-based global telecommunications company. Tonya started her career in public accounting at KPMG after graduation from University of Texas. Tonya and her husband, Ken, live in Sandia Park.
Jim Smith
has taught Science at East Mountain High School since 2005 and has served on the East Mountain High School Foundation since 2006. Prior to working at EMHS, Jim taught at Moriarty High School and is now completing his fifteenth year in education. Before beginning his education career, he managed a petroleum engineering laboratory for 9 years and a soils engineering laboratory for five years. In addition to serving the community through the East Mountain High School Foundation, Jim also serves as the Treasurer of the Board for the Wildlife West Nature Park in Edgewood. Jim has three sons. His oldest, Trey, is a graduate of the University of New Mexico and also works at East Mountain High School. Austin graduated from EMHS in 2010 and Brandon attends middle school in Albuquerque. Jim serves as the State Representative for House District 22.
Greg Theobald holds a current C.P.A. license in New Mexico and graduated with a degree in Business Administration from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. Greg has worked in Public Accounting, Health Care Finance, Insurance Compliance and is currently Underwriting Manager at the New Mexico Mutual Group in Albuquerque, NM. He has sat on and volunteered for several Boards of Directors in the past, including serving as Treasurer and Regional Director for all of the Western States for the Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals. Greg’s wife currently is an Art Teacher for APS and their 10 year old son attends a Charter Elementary school in Albuquerque so Greg sees the many facets and challenges of the current educational system in New Mexico.