Celebrations, Aug. 14, 2016

Aug. 14--Julianna Koob, the founder of Emerge New Mexico, has been named Emerge's Democratic Woman of the Year.

Koob has fought to advance the rights of women and children for the past 20 years, beginning as a domestic violence shelter crisis advocate, working with victims of domestic violence, and later becoming a legislative advocate fighting for the rights of girls and women to make their own health care decisions, to receive equal pay and to live without violence in their communities.

Koob is particularly proud of her work to pass legislation that increases equity in sports programs for girls in public schools, to require equitable pay for women and to defeat multiple pieces of legislation that would restrict access to abortion. Koob has earned a master's degree in social work and a law degree, but she credits survivors of domestic and sexual violence with the bulk of her education on women's rights and systems change.

----Dr. Alfredo Vigil, professor of family medicine at The University of New Mexico, has been named the UNM School of Medicine's 2016 Distinguished Alumnus. Vigil, former secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health, practices family medicine at El Centro Family Health in Taos.

Vigil is board chairman of the Con Alma Foundation and New Mexico Health Resources, and is a staff physician and former CEO of El Centro Family Health. A longtime member of UNM's clinical faculty, Vigil is an active preceptor in the UNM School of Medicine primary care curriculum and a fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the National Public Health Leadership Institute.

His 30 years of extensive clinical and management experience includes specializing in family medicine, geriatrics, emergency medicine and reproductive health issues.

Community service has been a keen focus of Vigil's throughout his career, and he has been a leader in professional recruitment and retention, medical ethics and healthcare access for New Mexicans over the decades.

----Jack Schlachter has been named the new rabbi at HaMakom. Shlachter works as a full-time physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and is the leader of the Theoretical Division, home to more than 200 theoretical physicists, chemists, biologists and mathematicians.

Ordained by Rabbi Gershon Winkler in 1995, Schlachter served as rabbi of the Los Alamos Jewish Center for many years. Since becoming rabbi emeritus at the center, Schlachter has been invited to lead High Holiday services in Vienna at the progressive congregation Or Chadasch. In 2014, he and his wife, Beverly, spent three weeks as guests of the progressive Jewish community in Beijing.

----Andrea Cassutt is the new executive director of the Santa Fe Youth Symphony Association. Cassutt said she is glad for the opportunity to work with the board of directors and staff to fulfill the association's mission to inspire, empower and engage the multicultural youth of Northern New Mexico through excellent music education.

----The School for Advanced Research has appointed four new members to its board of directors. They are Nancy F. Bern, John R. Camp, Joe Colvin and Meg Lamme.

Bern recently retired from IBM, where she worked as a client executive for American Express and AXA Financial. Previously, she was a senior vice president of John Hancock Group Insurance in Boston. She has served as a board member of several organizations, including the Huntington Theatre and the New England Conservatory in Boston. She serves on the board of the New Mexico Women for the Arts.

Camp is an author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. He has 43 best-selling novels. Camp began his journalism career as an Army reporter and went on to work for The Miami Herald and the St. Paul Pioneer-Press. He was embedded with the 2-147 Air Assault Battalion during the Iraq War.

Colvin graduated from The University of New Mexico in 1969 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in nuclear engineering. He attended the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program. Joe retired in 2005 having served 22 years as the president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute Inc. in Washington, D.C. Colvin had a distinguished career as a Naval nuclear submarine officer. Colvin is very involved in the Santa Fe community, having served as president of the Club at Las Campanas for three years and on the board of the Cancer Foundation for New Mexico.

Lamme is a professor of public relations at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. She has 15 years of public relations experience in Atlanta in the corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors, and she is in her 17th year in the academy, teaching public relations and researching the history of the field. She is the author and co-author of more than 35 academic publications.

Education standouts

The Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation recently celebrated the 2016 Los Alamos Employees Scholarship Fund winners during a reception in Española. Winners from Santa Fe County:

--$20,000 Gold Scholarship: Solomon Sindelar, New Mexico Military Institute.

--$10,000 Silver Scholarship : Harsh Bhundiya and Francis Castillo de Mulert, Santa Fe Preparatory School; and Jackson Miller, Santa Fe High School.

--$10,000 Senator Pete Domenici Scholarship: Tavi Zeir, Monte del Sol Charter School; Kylea Garcia, Santa Fe Indian School.

--$10,000 John & Marti Browne Leadership Scholarship: Shaefer Bennett, Santa Fe Waldorf School; and Veronica Hutchison, Academy for Technology and the Classics.

--$10,000 Susan Herrera Scholarship: Augusta Skoog, New Mexico School for the Deaf; Shayna Naranjo, Santa Fe Indian School.

--Up to $5,000 Bronze Scholarship: Luis Aguilar, Kevin Martinez and Andrew Wiggins, Capital High School; Olivia Arellano, Dayna Campbell, Miranda Martinez, Kyana Montoya,Mariah Pacheco and Megan Vigil,Pojoaque Valley High School; Carly Bonwell and Nizhoni Redmond,ATC; Elizabeth Brockey and Kathryn Monahan, St. Michael's High School; Jade Comellas, Carley Cook and Morelia Cuevas, Santa Fe High; Theo Hoy, Bard College; Tilcara Webb and Jasper Keen, New Mexico School for the Arts; Shannon Kossmann and Hugh Merians, Santa Fe Prep; RayLee Otero-Bell, The University of New Mexico; Michael Bancroft, Misty Quam and Chyanne Quintana, Santa Fe Indian School.

--$4,000 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Scholarship: Miranda Martinez, Pojoaque Valley High.

--Memorial & Individual Awards: $2,500 Raymond M. Chavez Memorial Scholarship, Dayna Campbell, Pojoaque Valley High; $1,000 Allan Johnston Memorial Scholarship, James Naranjo, Capital High; $1,000 William & Gertrude Fradkin Memorial Scholarship, Morelia Cuevas, Santa Fe High.

--$1,000 Northern New Mexico American Society for Mechanical Engineering Scholarship: Craig Pajarito, Santa Fe Indian School.

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