People of SWOP

Current Staff of the SouthWest Organizing Project

Tomás Garduño is a 30 year-old, Native New Mexican Chicano, born and raised in Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico. His family is from Nambé, New Mexico (the border crossed us we didn’t cross the border). He lived in Portland, OR for seven years where he did student organizing and anti-racist organizing in the anti-globalization movement culminating in the WTO protests in Seattle, and has been doing social justice work ever since. He has worked for Western States Center, Community Alliance of Tenants, and co-founded ‘ROOTS! Reclaiming Our Origins Through Struggle, a racial justice organization.  Most recently he was a campaign organizer with the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice. He is also a traditional organic farmer, and is currently SWOP's Director of Mass Base Organizing.

E-mail Tomás at tomas@swop.net

Sandra Montes, originally from Mexico, is a long time Albuquerque resident. She is a mother of 4 children, 5 grandchildren, and 1 great grandchild. She lives in the Pajarito Mesa colonia on Albuquerque's southwest mesa. She organizes in that community for basic services and specializes in immigrant issues. Sandra is a founder and President of the Pajarito Mesa Mutual Domestic Water Consumer Association, formed during organizing work on the mesa. Sandra also edits and produces Un Pajarito Me Dijo, or A Little Bird Told Me, Pajarito's community newsletter.

E-mail Sandra at sandra@swop.net

Roberto Roibal was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is a graduate of the University of New Mexico, receiving a BA degree in anthropology, history and fine arts. He has been active in student, labor, community, and social justice issues in New Mexico for over 39 years. He was a SWOP volunteer since 1980 and joined SWOP’s staff in 1991, where he's had a number of positions, including the marketing and distribution of the book 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures and related materials, production of our news magazine Voces Unidas, field organizer, grant administration and now office management. He is responsible for our information and technology needs, and is our database developer and administrator. He is the father of three daughters, all of whom have gone through SWOP’s youth internship programs. Rosina, who graduated from Loyola University and received her Master’s Degree from UNM, and Lolita, a graduate of Stanford Univesity, currently live in Oakland. Lucía graduated from Barnard College in 2009.

E-mail Roberto at roberto@swop.net

Tomasita González was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a mother of 2 and resides within the South Valley of Albuquerque. Tomasita joined SWOP’s staff in 2003 as an environmental justice organizer. She is a community expert on the effects of industrial pollution in the South Valley. She worked a number of years as a Promotora with the Rio Grande Community Development Corporation, and represented SWOP on the New Mexico Environmental Justice Planning Committee, helping that committee plan a series of EJ Listening Sessions around the state in 2004. Since 2007 she has been SWOP's administrative coordinator, and is currently pursuing a degree in Accounting at the local community college.

E-mail Tomasita at tomasita@swop.net

Joaquin Lujan is a native New Mexican who has been active in student, labor, community, and social justice efforts for over 30 years. In the 1970s he was a member of the Black Beret organization, an Albuquerque youth organization focused on Chicano liberation. He also collected stories and helped produce El Grito del Norte, a northern New Mexico Chicano political publication, and later worked with the Chicano Communications Center that produced the book 500 Years of Chicano History. In the early 1980s he was part of SWOP's southwest voter registration project, that brought in over 20,000 new Chicano voters. After leaving the state for a decade, he came back in the late 1990's and worked as an organizer for the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, during which time he helped organize the SNEEJ delegation to the WTO protests in Seattle. He farms four acres in Polvadera, New Mexico and joined SWOP’s staff in 2004 as an organizer working with Chicano farmers in the Middle Rio Grande valley. He currently spearheads SWOP's community garden and back yard cold-frames campaign, to reconnect our communities with the land and the food they eat. 

E-mail Joaquin at joaquin@swop.net

Marisol Enyart is a native Burquena who has a strong love for New Mexico and tries to spend her life improving the beautiful place she lives in. She likes to read and spend time outdoors camping or riding roller coasters. A life-long resident of Albuquerque, she began the Albuquerque chapter of the League of Pissed Off Voters and co-authored How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office, in 2004. She ran the LULAC Upward Bound Program at Highland High School before accepting the position at SWOP. For the past 6 years, she has served on the Catholic Campaign for Human Development Board, which gives grants to local community organizing and economic development non-profits. She loves traveling and specializes in writing and being particularly organized. Marisol brings leadership experience and a genuine passion for achieving social justice as the Development Coordinator at SWOP.

E-mail Marisol at marisol@swop.net.

George Lujan joined the staff as Communications Organizer in 2009, after being a life-long member of SWOP. He worked on Community Garden and Youth projects, as well as contributing artwork for Voces Unidas magazine. He studied Media Arts at the Universidad de Nuevo Mexico and now works on promoting SWOP's media presence. In his free time he enjoys walking his dog along the bosque and watching samurai movies.

E-mail George at george@swop.net

Robby Rodriguez became the youngest Executive Director of SWOP in 2003, at the age of 29, and helped to lead the organization through a leadership transition and generational shift.  Since 1997, he has helped to organize New Mexico communities to achieve social change in various capacities with SWOP.  Between 1998 and 2001 Robby was a trainer for the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (SNEEJ), the United Methodist Church General Board of Global Ministries, the Lifting New Voices Initiative and Youth Action.  In 1999, he represented SWOP and the SNEEJ at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, WA.  During the years 2000 and 2001, Robby was co-chair of the Youth Leadership Development campaign of the SNEEJ and a member of the International Environmental Justice Working Group that participated in the World Conference against Racism.  From 2002-2005 he was a member of the New Mexico Environment Department’s Corrales Air Quality Task Force and the City of Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Water Resources Advisory Committee.  He is a past board member of the New Mexico Non Profit Association and is a current board member of the New Mexico Environmental Law Center.  Since 2004 Robby has been a project team member of the Building Movement Project and a founding steering committee member of the Pushback Network where he currently serves as Chair.  Robby has recently co-authored, along with Frances Kunreuther and Helen Kim, a book entitled Working Across Generations:  Defining the Future of Nonprofit Leadership published in 2008.  He has represented the U.S. social justice movement as a speaker, panelist and trainer throughout the United States and in Mexico, Chile, Paraguay, Switzerland, South Africa, Costa Rica, Cuba and Brazil.

E-mail Robby at Robby@swop.net.

Mónica Córdova is a native New Mexican born in Clovis and raised in Albuquerque. She grew up in youth organizing, from working with her local neighborhood association youth group as the first young person elected to a neighborhood association board of director’s. She also worked with many other youth organizations from across the city regarding youth rights.  This built a strong framework for social justice and empowerment that she continued to build upon as the Youth Coordinator at SWOP.  At SWOP she developed her leadership at both the local and national level rapidly, through local youth rights campaigns and in planning the first United States Social Forum. Currently Mónica is the Director of Community Organizing at SWOP. She also represents SWOP nationally on the Grassroots Global Justice Executive Committee. Monica has her bachelor’s in Social Work from New Mexico Highlands University.

E-mail Monica at monica@swop.net

Marjorie Childress moved to New Mexico in 2001, and joined SWOP later that year with a focus on fundraising. She finished her education in 2005 at the University of New Mexico, where she studied community planning. Currently she leads the policy and media program, while continuing to participate in fundraising efforts.  She also knocks on doors and does the dishes in turn with her fellow Swopistas.

E-mail Marjorie at marjorie@swop.net

Michael Montoya was born and raised in Alburquerque, Nuevo México. He is proud to be a 4th generation Nuevomexicano on his paternal side as well as a 2 generation Mexican-American on his maternal side. Prior to joining SWOP as Mass Bass Political Organizer, he was a 7-year long member of SWOP and served as a canvasser, precinct captain, and Chair of the SWOP board in 2008. In November '08, Michael worked as the field organizer for the South Valley on the successful Martin Heinrich for Congress Campaign. In January 2009, he successfully managed the campaign of Lorenzo Garcia for a seat on the Albuquerque Public Schools Board. He enjoys traveling and practicing the languages he studied at the University Of New Mexico where he earned a B.A. in languages.  At the end of the day Michael enjoys having a Pint of IPA from Marble Brewery, his favorite local brewery.

E-mail Michael at michael@swop.net

Kathy Orgain-Kelly is African American and has been the Field Organizer in the SWOP Carlsbad office since 2008.  A native of Carlsbad for 52 years, she is a mother of three daughters, 6 grandchildren and 2 great grand children.  She attended New Mexico State University-Carlsbad with a major in Secretarial Administration.  She got involved with SWOP through the Campaign for a Better New Mexico survey in January ’08, doing canvassing surveys.  She currently is in collaboration with Littleglobe, a group based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico that does Community Building projects using the performing arts.  A bigger, better, brighter future for our youth and our seniors is the reason she is doing this work.

E-mail Kathy at kathy@swop.net.

Emma Sandoval was born and raised in the south valley of Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a single mother of a one year old son named Cruz. She began working with SWOP is 2006 as a summer youth intern and never turned back. Since then Emma has dedicated her life to the fight for social justice. She served as youth intern twice and has been an active volunteer and youth member. Currently Emma is the youth rights organizer at SWOP. In her spare time she enjoys listening to her son play the drums, spending time with her family, and making music videos with her rock band, the "Firme Hynas".

E-mail Emma at emma@swop.net

Juan Reynosa is a born-and-raised New Mexican who enjoys working on social justice issues, working with youth to develop their skills, and working on pieces of policy that help to lift up his community. He has been involved in a variety of organizing work in his lifetime and plans to use this experience to continue to work with the people in his community to bring more positive projects to his state. Juan is also interested in blogging, being involved with the local arts and music scene, and helping to spread organizing work to smaller communities in New Mexico. Juan has his Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Science and plans on going back soon for his graduate degree in a social justice related field. During his time as an organizer Juan has worked with a few organizationas, including the League of Young Voters New Mexico Chapter, New Mexico Youth Organized, and currently the SouthWest Organizing Project.

E-mail Juan at juan@swop.net