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SWOP staff is composed primarily of people of color. The average length of time at SWOP for current staff is over 10 years. SWOP's mission is to "empower our communities to realize racial and gender equality."
Click on the staffperson's name if you wish to email them. For general email use swop(at)swop.net.
Sandra Montes, Field Organizer. Sandra, originally from Mexico, is a long time Albuquerque resident. She lives in the Pajarito Mesa colonia in Albuquerque's southwest mesa. She organizes in that community for basic services and specializes in immigrant issues. She started work with SWOP in July 1999.
Sandra is a founder and President of the Pajarito Mesa Mutual Domestic Water Consumer Association, formed during organizing work on the mesa, and works as a promotora for Rio Grande Community Development Corporation. As President of PMMDWC, Sandra facilitates community meetings to build a core group of residents to plan and implement strategies to meet the many needs of Pajarito Mesa. As a promotora for RGCDC, her duties are to address reductions of environmental health threats to low income hispanic residents of the South Valley, and to develop and conduct environmental impact health studies. Recently Sandra and the residents of Pajarito Mesa successfully denied the expansion of a landfill in their community.
Sandra also edits and produces Un Pajarito Me Dijo, or A Little Bird Told Me, Pajarito's community newsletter. She also has experience in Spanish to English and English to Spanish translation.
Robby
Rodriguez, Director.
Robby is originally from Southern California by way of Tucson, Arizona. As
a Cornell undergraduate student, he interned with SWOP during the summer of
1996. After becoming a full-time organizer with SWOP in 1997, he has helped
to organize New Mexico communities around issues of youth criminalization,
environmental, economic and social justice. He is currently a member of the
Corrales Air Quality Task Force and past chair of the Youth Leadership Development
Campaign of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (SNEEJ).
Robby has also participated in the movement for social justice at the regional,
national and international level by representing SWOP and the SNEEJ at various
conferences and meetings and by participating in and conducting trainings
throughout the United States and internationally.
Victoria
Rodriguez, Field Organizer. Victoria Rodriguez was born in Cueramaro Guanajuato Mexico. She received a diploma
from Escuela primaria Benito Juarez & La Escuela Secundaria Francisco Venegas
at Cueramaro Guanajuato Mexíco. She then attended West Mesa HS Albuquerque
N.M. followed by ESL at TVI. She has been a resident of Albuquerque N.M. for
22 years and is a mother of 4. Victoria has lived in the Barelas community,
the South Valley and was a resident of Pajarito Mesa for 8 years. She
began working at the South West Organizing Project in 1998 as a field Organizer
in Pajarito Mesa.
Roberto
Roibal, Office Manager . Roberto was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is a graduate of the University of New Mexico. He has been active in student, labor, community, and social justice efforts for over 35 years, and a SWOP volunteer since 1980. He began working as a SWOP staff person in 1991 in order to coordinate the marketing and distribution of the book 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures and related materials, as well as the production of our news magazine Voces Unidas.
Tomasita González, Field Organizer. Tomasita was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a resident the South Valley. She currently conducts educational campaigns on health and environmental justice in Albuquerque’s South Valley and Pajarito Mesa. She coordinates our South Valley Clean Environment Campaign. She joined SWOP’s staff in 2003.
Marjorie Childress, Grants Administrator and Development Coordinator. Marjorie was born and raised in East Texas. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Texas and is currently working to obtain a Master’s in Planning at the University of New Mexico. She became a SWOP volunteer and then staff member in 2001.
Joaquin Lujan, Field Organizer. Joaquin is a native New Mexican, and has been active in student, labor, community, and social justice efforts for over 30 years. He farms his four acres in Polvadera, New Mexico and joined SWOP’s staff in 2004 as a part-time organizer of Chicano farmers in the Middle Rio Grande valley.
Rosina Roibal, Cultural Worker. Rosina is a native New Mexican and has been active in SWOP since her childhood. She received a Master’s degree in music at the University of New Mexico and teaches Orchestra at Ernie Pyle Middle School. She began her part-time position at SWOP in 2004 as the Jóvenes Unidos Cultural Worker.
Karlos
Schmieder, Communications Organizer.
Karlos was born and raised in Albuquerque and is a life-long SWOP member.
He is the editor and designer of Voces Unidas, SWOPs newsletter, and designs
and maintains SWOPs website. Karlos works with organizers and community members
to coordinate media and communications strategies for SWOP campaigns. He produces
and conducts trainings for staff, members, citizens, organizations, etc. on
strategic media use for social change, media literacy and media activism.
Through the years, SWOP has had many individuals work with us as volunteers. Our volunteers have been unemployed workers, students, work study students, Service Learning students, interns from various programs, supporters, and of course, our members. We have had volunteers work full time during the summer, and we have had volunteers work from four to fifteen hours a week during the summer or during the school year. If you are interested in volunteering anytime of the year, please contact us. Volunteer work is crucial to the success of our organization and our volunteers too have reported great personal benefit after working with SWOP.
Jeanne Gauna - Jeanne is a founding member of SWOP and was raised in eastern New Mexico. She has a BA in Southwestern Studies from the University of New Mexico and has over 25 years of experience as a community and student activist and organizer. Her work has involved organizing among welfare recipients, the disabled, undocumented people, farmworkers involved in union struggles, and those facing political and police repression. She has worked as an organizer and in many other capacities with SWOP. She is responsible for the overall coordination of SWOP efforts, including organizing, fundraising and networking, and is an ex-officio member of the SWOP Board of Directors. Jeanne is also a Community Developer with the United Methodist Church, and serves on the Boards of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment and the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies.
Michael Leon Guerrero is now working with Grassroots Global Justice and was a community organizer for twelve years in Albuquerque. Michael was Co-Director of the SouthWest Organizing Project where he supervised community organizing efforts in low-income communities of color throughout New Mexico. He has worked on environmental justice issues, corporate accountability and globalization issues.
Michael is Chamoru (from Guam), and is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. He studied for 18 months at the National Autonomous University and the National Visual Arts School of Mexico City. He began working with SWOP as a Minority Activist Apprenticeship intern with the Center for Third World Organizing in 1987. Since then he has served as a field organizer for various campaigns for human and civil rights throughout New Mexico. He has served as a Co-Chair of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, and Chair of the Network's High Tech Campaign.
He has been recognized as one of "Albuquerque's Rising Stars" in 1993, and has been honored with the Mario Savio Young Activist of the Year Award in 1998, the De Colores Humanitarian Leadership Award in 1999, the 1999 Guardian of the Constitution Award by the New Mexico American Civil Liberties Union, the 2001 Albuquerque Human Rights Board Miguel Trujillo Unsung Hero Award, and as an Alston-Bannerman Fellow in 2001.
