NMIIC LEARNING SESSION:
Using Integrated Capital to Reinforce New Mexico’s Commitment to Quality Education and Career Opportunity
Tuesday, May 7th, 2024
11AM-12:30PM MT
Hosted on Zoom Webinar
Session Goals: This Learning Session aims to:
Provide participants with a high-level overview of the State’s commitment to education and career readiness in New Mexico.
Explore the ways in which integrated capital can be deployed to reinforce the State’s programs, with a focus on investments that can support more equitable student outcomes.
Highlight for participants the role of the New Mexico Impact Investment Collaborative in helping increase the flow of capital to solve pressing issues where traditional capital has failed to flow.
NMIIC will hold its first virtual learning session of 2024 on Tuesday, May 7th, 2024. The session will explore how local, regional, and national impact investors can use integrated capital, reinforcing the New Mexico’s commitment to education from early childhood to postsecondary and workforce readiness, ensuring equitable access and outcomes for all New Mexicans.
New Mexico recently signed legislation creating the New Mexico Higher Education Trust Fund, the largest Higher Education Trust Fund for tuition-free college in the nation. A few years earlier, New Mexico also created the Early Childhood Trust Fund to provide a right to early childhood education for all, with the fund already worth $5.5 Billion. This has resulted in a 40% expansion in access to pre-K in New Mexico by increasing instructional hours for select programs, expanding the number of seats in classrooms, and providing pay raises for early childhood workers. In addition, the State provides over $1 billion from the Land Grant Permanent Fund each year, which helps students in Pre-K through grade 12.
While this historic commitment of resources presents an unprecedented opportunity to support New Mexico students in accessing free education, there is still a need to ensure equitable outcomes by supporting students’ persistence, completion, and workforce readiness. This means ensuring other equally important needs are met (e.g., housing, transportation, healthy foods, etc). This session will explore how impact investments can help to reinforce the State’s commitment to education and career readiness and achieve equitable outcomes for its residents.
panelists
Moderator: Representative Andrea D. Romero NMIIC Fellow @ Avivar Capital. Representative for NM House District 46
Andrea D. Romero is a daughter of New Mexico and joins Avivar Capital as the New Mexico Impact Investing Collaborative (NMIIC) Fellow. After attending the Santa Fe Public Schools, Andrea graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Political Science and received her J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law. She has dedicated herself to the growth of New Mexico’s community, economic, and environmental vitality. Andrea serves as a volunteer State Legislator for House District 46. Outside of work she is likely exploring in nature, cityscapes, and tinkering with eggs, with one patent issued on healthy probiotics eggs.
Kate Noble
President & CEO, Growing Up New Mexico
Kate Noble is the President & CEO of Growing Up New Mexico. She has spent the past six years immersed in early childhood in New Mexico including leading substantial projects to listen in communities and aggregate data and recommendations for the early childhood sector. These projects include: completing the Preschool Development Grant Needs Assessment (2019) and Strategic Plan (2020), launching the Home-based Child Care Accelerator, initiating shared services supports for child care providers, and vetting ‘A Business Plan for Early Childhood’ which led to Senate Bill 22 creating the Early Childhood Education and Care Department.
Kate was born and raised in Santa Fe. After graduating from Santa Fe High School, she attended Columbia University in New York City. Kate then spent ten years in New York and London as a producer, reporter, and anchor for BBC World News, covering business and economics, before moving back to her hometown. She then worked for almost ten years in economic and community development for the City of Santa Fe.
Patricia Trujillo, Ph.D.
Deputy Cabinet Secretary, New Mexico Higher Education Department
Patricia Trujillo, Ph.D. is the Deputy Cabinet Secretary of the New Mexico Higher Education Department, appointed by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in 2020. During her time at the agency, New Mexico passed the Opportunity Scholarship Act, creating the nation's tuition-free college program, established the country's largest higher education trust fund, prioritized funding for student basic needs and championed college equity and access statewide. Prior to the appointment, she was a faculty member in the Department of Languages and Letters for over a decade at Northern New Mexico College and the founding director of the Office of Equity and Diversity. Her work in the classroom, higher education administration, and policy making is rooted in community wealth strategies and racial equity. She has a Ph.D. in U.S. Latina/Latino Literature from the University of Texas in San Antonio, was the Creative Writing editor for the Journal of Chicana/Latina Studies (2016-2021) and has numerous publications in anthologies and journals. She is or has been a member of many boards, including Tewa Women United, LANL Foundation, Rural Opportunities for College Access, and NewMexicoWomen.org. Most recently, Trujillo was named to Complete College America’s Council on Equitable A.I., a nation-wide council dedicated to making A.I. available, affordable, and ethically adoptable for all higher education institutions.
Jessica Haselton
Managing Director, Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC)
Jessica Haselton is responsible for ECMC’s strategic, financial and operational effectiveness of the organization, in addition to leading Education Innovation Ventures, the Foundation’s impact investing program.
Jessica has a broad background in philanthropy, social enterprise, impact measurement and impact investing. Prior to joining ECMC Foundation, Jessica was a partner at TriLinc Global, an investment management firm that makes impact investments in small and medium enterprises in developing economies, where she managed investor relations, corporate social responsibility and corporate communications for the firm.
Jessica has worked with multiple organizations and companies spanning Southern California, Washington, DC, and Southeast Asia, and currently serves on the board of Beam and chairs the impact committee of MADE by DWC. She has served on multiple boards and in various leadership capacities with organizations like WISE LA, the SAM Initiative, and Temple Akiba.
Jessica holds an MBA with an emphasis in social entrepreneurship from the USC Marshall School of Business and a B.A. in political science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
