Agnes Chavez, Founder/Director

Agnes is a new media artist, educator and creative producer whose work merges art, science and technology to create data visualized light-sound experiences.  In 2009 she founded the STEMarts Lab which delivers sci-art installations and STEAM programming for schools, art/science organizations and festivals. In 2014 she co-founded The PASEO Festival where she served as co-director/youth program director until 2019. She is founder of the Sube Language Curriculum since 1996.

STEMarts Alumni/Tech crew. Dania Loya attended UNM and received her BS in Instructional Technology and Training. She is a multi-media artist primarily focusing on projection mapping installations displaying natural technology and Sacred Geometry. She is a STEMarts Alumni and currently joined the tech crew of the Projecting Particles Collective. She is also a STEMarts Ambassador for the International Space Messengers project. In her current job in Cleveland, she is working on curating a project for a permanent projection mapping installation. As a STEMarts alumni, she has worked on STEMarts projects since high school at Taos Academy in 2012 where she participated in the Corpus Electric presentation for the ISEA2012 festival in Albuquerque and co-created the jellyfish dress in collaboration with her team and Patricia Michaels as mentor.  Since 2014, she has served as a PASEO Festival volunteer working with cutting edge new media artists. She also participated and showcased her collaborated work with BARTKRESA Studios in Denver, CO and Las Vegas, NV. Dania is now serving on the Space Messengers tech crew and as a STEMarts projection mapping instructor.

Alyson Martinez

Alyson Shannon Martinez has joined the STEMarts Lab team as a Director's Assistant Apprentice, funded through the Taos Pueblo Education and Training Division Apprenticeship program. "Coming from Taos, New Mexico, I am half Native American and half Spanish. Growing up in this beautiful town surrounded by not only a family of artists, but a town of creative and imaginative minds, I learned the value of art and how much power it holds. I graduated from an online high school called Pecos Cyber Academy. I will be attending a couple years in the Taos branch of UNM and transferring to Highlands in Las Vegas, New Mexico to pursue counseling, psychology, and art therapy. As an artist I look for new ways to help youth understand their mind in order to help better themselves and their community."

Juniper Manley, Board Chair

Juniper Manley joins STEMarts Lab as a non-profit management professional with 26 years of experience in arts and environmental organizations. Focusing on fundraising and executive management, she has helped organizations raise millions of dollars and implemented large-scale, mission driven programs that take these institutions to a new level.  Growing up in Peñasco and attending Taos High School, Juniper holds a Masters in Arts Management from the Carnegie Mellon Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, and a BA in Anthropology from Reed College. She serves on the Board of the New Mexico Humanities Council and the MAE Private Foundation.

Bettina Sandoval, Vice Chair

Bettina is from Taos Pueblo and has always had a passion for education. She has 10 years of progressive experience in the education field and is Director of the Taos Pueblo Education & Training Division. In the past two years she has successfully grown and maintained the programs she oversees; building relationships with schools, alternative educators, and all stakeholders involved in education, employment, and training. Bettina is also a curriculum advisor and shares her knowledge in Educational Perspectives.

Molly Robertson, Secretary

Molly Robertson holds degrees in Art History and Studio Art from Mills College in Oakland, CA.  Women she considers mentors include Moira Roth, Claudia Bernardi, and Hung Liu.  Molly has worked in the fields of art and education for many years and is excited to have the opportunity to expand that support through being a board member of STEMArts Lab.  Molly is a native of Pilar, New Mexico and former board member of The Paseo Project. 

Dr. Anita McKeown (FRSA), Board Member

Anita is based part time in Ireland and in Taos, New Mexico. She is an itinerant interdisciplinary artist, curator and researcher interested in Creative Placemaking and Open Source Culture and Technology. She is the co-director of SMARTlab Skellig, one of SMARTlab's international research social enterprises situated on the edge of the Wild Atlantic, S.Kerry. Current research has been funded by the EPA Ireland, CPL Ltd, Ireland's largest recruitment company and the Department of Rural and Community Development to develop place-based STEAM education, teacher training and community development. She also serves on the board of Acard Development Ltd and The Cahersiveen Community and Business Alliance, embedding best practice in Creative Placemaking within community development.

Tom Greenbaum, Board Member

Tom retired in 2016 after working 16 years for Intel Corporation as a Senior Software Engineer, Innovation Center Executive Director and Datacenter Manager. Now Tom volunteers and contributes to non-profit organizations by applying the skills and experience acquired during his 38-year work history mostly in information technology and design. Tom was a Board Member on the New Mexico Technology Council for six years, he has been on the Board of CURRENTS / Parallel Studios for 3 years and is a core member of SciArt Santa Fe. Tom is also a new media artist creating interactive artworks with kiln-fused glass, hand-painted silk and microprocessor controlled LED lighting.

Phyllis Kennedy, Board Member

Phyllis Kennedy is a photographer, arts education advocate, visual art teacher, and arts administrator with 38 years’ experience in New Mexico’s arts education ecosystem. She believes in the importance of expanding arts education opportunities that can be sustained in New Mexico’s rural districts and sustaining equitable arts education programming in our urban districts. Her degrees include a BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MA from New York University. She holds a New Mexico elementary teaching license with K-8 visual art endorsement and a Montessori Early Childhood credential. Her photos of southwestern urban landscapes have been purchased by the New Mexico Museum of Art, the Albuquerque International Sunport, and the City of Albuquerque Public Art Collection.

Henrietta Gomez, Tribal elder/speaker

Henrietta is a living treasure in Taos serving as a cultural specialist for so many organizations and projects. She has a unique gift of sharing traditional knowledge while seeking new ways to create intercultural bridges of understanding and communication. Henrietta is a speaker for the BioSTEAM Youth Program and shares her personal experience and knowledge in our INTERview series.

Dr. Greg Cajete, author, native science advisor

Greg is an educator dedicated to honoring the foundations of indigenous knowledge in education. Dr. Cajete is a Tewa Indian from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. He has served as a New Mexico Humanities scholar in ethno botany of Northern New Mexico and as a member of the New Mexico Arts Commission. Dr. Cajete has authored five books including “Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence”. Greg is a speaker and shares his expertise about native science in our INTERview series.

Steve Tamayo

Steve draws upon his family history as a member of the Sicangu Lakota tribe. His fine arts education (BFA from Singe Gleska University), along with his cultural upbringing, have shaped him as an artist, historian, storyteller and dancer. Steve provides activities during his residencies that include art and regalia making, drumming, powwow dance demonstrations and lectures on the history, symbolism, and meaning behind the Native customs and traditions. Steve leads our youth workshops as a Lakota Cultural specialist.

Dr. Gladys Herrera-Gurule

Gladys is working in the Taos Municipal Schools as the District Family Engagement Coordinator. She has worked in the K-20+ spectrums and served in different teaching and administrative capacities in the public school, higher education systems, and the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) in her native country of Colombia and New Mexico. She has been actively engaged in working collaboratively local, state, national, and international agencies; and stakeholders to enhance services and resources to our student population and serves as advisor for STEMarts Lab.

Dr.Nicole Lloyd-Ronning, Astrophysicist, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Nicole is an astrophysicist at Los Alamos National Lab, where she studies the black holes created in the deaths of massive stars, and leads the outreach efforts on behalf of the Center for Theoretical Astrophysics. She is also on the faculty of the University of New Mexico, Los Alamos where she teaches physics. She is a science advisor and guest instructor in STEMarts projects.

Dr. Steven Goldfarb, physicist, ATLAS Experiment at CERN.

Steven is an experimental particle physicist working for the University of Melbourne on the ATLAS Experiment at CERN. He chairs the International Particle Physics Outreach Group, coordinates University of Michigan undergraduate research programs at CERN, serves on the QuarkNew Advisory Board, and is a fellow of the American Physical Society, serving on the Committee for Informing the Public. Steve frequently gives public talks on science, discovery and international collaboration, co-wrote a popular TED Ed video “The basics of the Higgs boson” and, most importantly, fronts the world-famous Canettes Blues Band. Steven has been an advisor for STEMarts Lab since 2013 and a key collaborator for the Projecting Particles project.

Dr. Johan Sebastian Bonilla, CERN physicist, Postdoctoral at University of California, Davis

Johan is a first-generation college graduate raised by an immigrant Costa Rican family in their hometown of Hialeah, Florida. Johan started pursuing particle physics research during their undergraduate years at Stanford. They then earned their PhD at the University of Oregon for research with the ATLAS experiment, and they are now a postdoctoral scholar for University of California, Davis working with the CMS experiment at CERN. Johan is co-designer for the Fluidic Data installation at the CERN Data Center and serves as science advisor.

Shane Wood, QuarkNet National Staff

Shane Wood is a member of the QuarkNet national staff, and is a science/STEAM coach in the Mounds View Public Schools near Minneapolis, MN. With QuarkNet, he works with teachers and scientists around the country and around the world to provide opportunities for students to learn about science and the world around them through the analysis of real data, including particle physics data. In his role at Mounds View, Shane works with teachers and administrators to align science and STEAM curricula district-wide. Shane also has over 15 years of classroom experience as a teacher of physics and physical sciences at the high school level and leads the STEMarts physics activities.

Frank Tavares,Affiliated Researcher, Space Enabled Research Group at the MIT Media Lab

Frank Tavares is a science writer joining the Space Enabled research group as an Affiliated Researcher, where they are thrilled to conduct research exploring an anti-colonial approach to space exploration, particularly in how to approach interactions with other planetary bodies. They have experience in science communications, astronomy, interactive and prose fiction, playwriting, and more. As a communicator, they have written on topics ranging from astrobiology to quantum computing, aiming to contextualize complex information into human terms. Working with an interdisciplinary group of scholars, they also were the lead author of “Ethical Exploration and the Role of Planetary Protection in Disrupting Colonial Practices,” a submission to the 2023-2032 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey. They are also a collaborator with the Immersive Realities Lab for the Humanities, where they work on digital projects with a focus on interactive narrative. Frank grew up in San Diego, CA and graduated from Amherst College in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Astronomy.

Dr. Catarina Pombo Nabais is a Scientific Researcher at the Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Science and the founder of the SAP(Science- Art-Philosophy) Lab at the CFCUL. She was the Art&Science Curator for the International Science Festival in Oeiras, Portugal that hosted Space Messengers in 2021 and 2022. Catarina is part of the creative team as curriculum advisor, Portugal liaison and guest instructor for the student workshops.