East Mountain High School Foundation Board
Mackenzie Bishop, President, is a graduate of East Mountain High School, Class of 2004. After graduating, Mackenzie received a BBA from the University of New Mexico in Entrepreneurial Studies and worked as the Marketing Coordinator for Vantage Homebuilders in 2006 and 2007, at the time one of the largest homebuilders in the state. In 2008, Mackenzie launched Por Fin Nuestra Casa (PFNC) with business partner Brian McCarthy. Their business model used surplus shipping containers to build homes in Mexico and the developing world for less than $10,000. In 2010, Mackenzie and McCarthy launched Abrazo Homes, where they build in the greater Albuquerque metro area, including Rio Rancho, & Los Lunas. Mackenzie is married and has a young son.
Elveta Bishop, Treasurer, is one of the community founders of East Mountain High School. Elveta holds an accounting degree from Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO, an MBA from the University of New Mexico, and is retired from Sandia National Laboratories. Currently, Elveta‘s consulting practice and executive coaching in organizational design and program management fill her professional life. Elveta is married, has two children (one of whom is a graduate of EMHS), and three grandsons.
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 sonattends middle school in Albuquerque, so Greg is familiar with the challenges facing the education sector in New Mexico.
David Armstrong is the Chief Executive Officer of AGI Consultants. As a founding partner, he has ten years of experience in developing consulting and quality control procedures for clients across the state of New Mexico, including many school districts. David has over two decades of experience providing building envelope asset evaluations and management, with additional experience in testing, forensic assessments, project development and development of plans, details and specifications. David attended Fort Lewis College. He and his wife, Hillary, have a son, Wyatt, who attends East Mountain High School and a daughter who is in middle school.
Scott S. Kuszmaul has worked at Sandia National Laboratories for over 30 years as a project team leader and Electrical Engineer. He has experience as a technical project leader directing multi-disciplinary teams and as a designer of system-level engineering concepts. He received a Professional Project Management (PPM) Master Certificate from George Washington University, a BS in Electrical Engineering from New Mexico Tech and an Associate in Electrical Engineering from Youngstown State University. Scott was previously a board member from 2011-2013, rejoining in 2015. He has three adult children and six grandchildren in the Albuquerque metro area and lives with his wife, Dr. Tricia McKenna and their two children in the East Mountains. Harrison is a freshman attending East Mountain High School and Maura is a student at San Antonito Elementary School.
Charlotte Nee is a native New Mexican with family roots in Curry County dating back to the early 1900s. She is a graduate of Clovis High School. She attended Stephens College in Columbia, MO, then graduated from the University of New Mexico with a BA in Sociology. Charlotte has an extensive background in the health insurance industry, working with a global employee benefits and pension consulting firm and eventually opening The Nee Agency in 2004 with her husband, David where they specialize in individual and group employee benefits. They have two children, Adelynn, Class of 2015, and Kellen, Class of 2019. Charlotte has been an active volunteer at East Mountain High School, especially for the speech and debate program. She now works as the school librarian at Rt 66 Elementary School.
Jim Smith, now retired, taught Science at East Mountain High School beginning in 2005 and joined the East Mountain High School Foundation board in 2006. Prior to working at EMHS, Jim taught at Moriarty High School. Before beginning his education career, he managed a petroleum engineering laboratory for nine years and a soils engineering laboratory for five years. In addition to serving the community through the East Mountain High School Foundation, Jim has also served 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 attended school in Albuquerque. Jim serves as the Bernalillo County Commissioner for District 5 and is the former State Representative for District 22.
Ryan Berryman is a 2011 graduate of East Mountain High School. Ryan graduated with his BBA from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 2015 and completed his MBA studies at UNM in 2016. During his graduate studies, Ryan was appointed by Governor Susana Martinez to serve as the student regent on the University of New Mexico Board of Regents. During his time as a regent, Ryan served on a number of committees including being the vice chair of both the Finance and Facilities committee and Academic and Student Affairs committee. Ryan now works full time as the Director of Operations for the Lobo men’s basketball team at UNM.
David Roberts is a Level IIIA Instructional Leader and certified administrator in APS. He taught high school social studies, Latin, and digital film production for 9 years at Sun Prairie, Manzano, and El Dorado High Schools. For the past 2 years he has served as a middle school Instructional Coach and currently serves teachers, parents and students as Instructional Coach and Dean of Students at Kennedy Middle School in Albuquerque. From 2013 to 2015, he worked as a content writer for a leading ed tech company, School Improvement Network. As a teacher in APS, he co-wrote a financial literacy course and a 4-year program of study in digital film production for the district, including articulated coursework to allow students to receive college credits for their work in his class. He lives in the Sandia Knolls with his wife, Alison Roberts, and daughter, Tegan Roberts, a student at San Antonito Elementary.
Anthony Thornton, Ph.D. As an aerospace engineer, the driving force behind Anthony Thornton’s career in national security is defending the nation through technology development. He is presently the Director of Corporate Strategy at Universities Space Research Association (USRA), a 501(c)(3) non-profit space research organization headquartered in Columbia, MD. Prior to that, Dr. Thornton led the Defense Systems and Assessments (DS&A) Program Management Unit strategy development and R&D activities as the Deputy to Vice President for Programs and Technology at Sandia National Laboratories where he retired in 2015 after 33 years of service. Anthony has served on a number of boards of directors including the National Atomic Museum, the Albuquerque Chapter of MESA (Math, Engineering, and Science Achievement), the National Science Foundation’s UCAN (Utah, Colorado, Arizona, & New Mexico) Rural Systemic Initiative, and Norwest Bank’s Leadership Council. He served on Purdue University’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics Industry Advisory Committee for seven years (Fall 2006 – Fall 2013). In 2016, Anthony served as Treasurer on the New Mexico Governor’s Mansion Foundation. Anthony lives in Paa-Ko with his wife Glenna Thornton and their two cats D.J. and Goose.
The East Mountain High School Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, partners with East Mountain High School and the community to create exceptional public educational opportunities. Our donors and volunteers contribute resources that enable the school to achieve its mission of preparing each student to succeed in college and beyond.