BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Dale Dekker, Chair
Dekker/Perich/Sabatini

Caroline Garcia, Treasurer
KPMG LLP

Linh Nguyen, Secretary
Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group

Sarah Brown
Retired

Veronica Garcia
Retired

Kara Bobroff
One Generation

Randi McGinn
McGinn, Montoya, Love & Curry

Dawn Nieto-Gouy
Kiva Ventures

Georgie Ortiz
CliftonLarsonAllen

Jennifer Ramo
New Mexico Appleseed

JENNY RAMO
Founder & Executive Director

Jennifer Ramo is the founder and Executive Director of New Mexico Appleseed. An experienced attorney, she designed New Mexico Appleseed’s effective system of change and created Appleseed’s first-in-the-nation programs such as the Hunger-Free Students’ Bill of Rights (prohibited lunch shaming children whose parents owe school meal debt), the Breakfast After the Bell law (requires all high poverty elementary schools to serve breakfast during the school day that has been replicated by over a dozen states and districts) and the Food Access Navigator project on the Navajo Nation (awarded a USDA innovation demonstration grant).

Ms. Ramo’s professional focus is on multi-generational systems involvement and using community voice/qualitative data and quantitative data to improve poverty outcomes. The lens of racial equity in the poverty arena is a natural extension of this work.

Her anti-hunger and homelessness work has received international attention and been highlighted in the New York Times, CNN, USA Today, Le Monde, BBC and Al Jazeera, among others.

Ms. Ramo is a graduate of the Albuquerque Academy, the University of Southern California and Tulane Law School. She was a recipient of the Coro Fellowship.

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HILARI LIPTON, ESQ.  
Director of Law and Policy

Hilari Lipton is Director of Law and Policy at New Mexico Appleseed, providing policy and legal expertise across all of Appleseed’s issue areas.  She has worked on social justice and child welfare issues for almost two decades and has extensive experience as a legal advocate, policy analyst, and program manager. Prior to joining New Mexico Appleseed, Hilari held several leadership roles in New Mexico state government. Most recently as the Senior Advisor to the Secretary at the New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department. In this role, she was responsible for innovations and agency strategies that improve outcomes for system-impacted families and youth.

Hilari also served as the Statewide Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Attorney for the New Mexico Supreme Court, where she led a major initiative to improve the quality of legal representation for New Mexico's most vulnerable children and families. She also served as a consultant to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, specializing in cross-sector collaborations around the country that promote equitable outcomes for older youth, and authentic youth engagement in systems change. Before her life as an advocate for young people and families, she was a data geek at a legal software company for several years.

Hilari earned her law degree with a certification in Children’s Law from Capital University Law School, and her undergraduate degree from Chatham College.

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DANIEL VALVERDE
Director of Strategy

Daniel Valverde is responsible for bringing awareness about child hunger issues across the state and helps support federal programs, such as school breakfast, school lunch, and after school meals. He helps assist after school programs in receiving free reimbursable meals and snacks using federal funds. He also works on Appleseed’s McKinney-Vento program. His work includes supporting school districts around the state with their McKinney-Vento programs, offering technical assistance, and identifying issues on the ground that require policy changes.

Mr. Valverde was accepted as an Emerson Hunger Fellow with Congressional Hunger Center in Washington D.C., He improved access to SNAP at the Southwestern Pennsylvania Food Security Partnership in Pittsburg Pennsylvania, and then moved on to explore health care providers' role in ending childhood hunger at the Share Our Strength in Washington, DC with the Partner Impact and Advocacy team. Most recently, Daniel was a Child Hunger Outreach Specialist with the Texas Hunger Initiative at Baylor University School of Social Work. Mr. Valverde received his bachelor's degree in anthropology at Eastern New Mexico University, and his master's degree in cultural anthropology and food studies at New Mexico State University.

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JOSEPHINE BENAVIDEZ
Director of Administration

Josephine Benavidez, as Director of Administration, is responsible for all aspects of the accounting for the organization, including maintenance of donor databases, and management of the office and support to staff.

A native to Northern New Mexico Josephine has spent her life raising her family with her husband and giving back to the community she was raised in, something that is deeply important to her. Josephine attended the Santa Fe Community College while raising her family and working full-time obtaining her associate degrees in accounting and business to further compliment her twenty-eight years of experience in the fields of accounting and office management.

She is known for her attention to detail and dedication to her trade. Her ability to adapt and solve problems, often with limited resources working toward team and personal goals is a key character trait she possesses. Her comprehensive bookkeeping, administrative, and office management experience in her career and her latest role as finance and operations manager will contribute to her success in supporting New Mexico Appleseed’s initiatives.

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