Like all non-profits, we are governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. The Cooking with Kids Advisory Board is comprised of former board directors and other community members and experts. We are grateful to these volunteers in our community for championing the mission of Cooking with Kids!
Board of Directors
Matt has over 15 years of experience in the investment world having worked in venture capital, investment banking and trading for one of the largest hedge funds in Europe. His work has taken him overseas where he has lived in four different countries on three continents, but Matt now calls Santa Fe home where he is partners on a wealth management team managing investments for families and a few non-profits. In addition to serving on the board of Cooking with Kids, he is also actively involved with the Santa Fe Community Foundation’s Envision Fund as well as serving on the board of the Santa Fe Estate Planning Council. Matt also serves on the Alumni Association Executive Board for his alma mater (Kalamazoo College) as well as the Treasurer of the Santa Fe chapter of Chaine des Rotisseurs (the world’s oldest food & wine society).
Kristina Martinez was born and raised in beautiful Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she attended public elementary school but unfortunately missed Cooking with Kids by just a few years. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of Arizona and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of New Mexico. Kristina has practiced law in Santa Fe for the past decade, and recently started her own firm, Coberly & Martinez, LLLP, where she focuses her practice in the areas of civil rights, general civil litigation, and family law. She serves on the Ethics & Campaign Review Board for the City of Santa Fe as well as the boards of the St. Michael’s High School Foundation and WildEarth Guardians. She loves the Santa Fe community and she loves food – cooking it, eating it, and sharing it. Kristina is excited to cultivate her love of both by serving on the Cooking with Kids board, which she joined in 2016.
Tim loves to bake and cook with family and friends, so he is happy to be a part of Cooking with Kids, and to help grow the healthy community that takes strong root in cooking and eating healthy food together. During the day, Tim works as an attorney, focusing on estate planning and pro bono representation of non-profit organizations here in town. Originally from Portland, Oregon, he settled in Santa Fe in 2012 with his wife, Clarissa, who was raised here.
Active in the food industry with over 40 years’ experience as a Chef, Restaurant executive, and founding partner of a healthy snack food company, Hail Merry, Chef Ali as she is known by her industry friends, now works as an independent contractor. Graduating from the University of Minnesota with a BS in Food Science and completing further studies at the Culinary Institute of America where she serves as a Fellow, she semi-retired and moved to Santa Fe in 2016. Her culinary focus in the past few years has been to bring simple, healthy foods to everyone. Cooking is not just a passion, it is a way of life. As a mom of three kids (not really kids anymore) she also has a passion for teaching children many things including how to prepare great foods.
Born in France of American parents, and a graduate of Princeton University with a combined degree in Romance Languages and Art History, Charles Dale has worked with many of the best chefs in the United States and beyond, including Daniel Boulud, Barry Wine, Jean-Paul Lacombe and Georges Mazraff. Charles is an acclaimed chef and author, and a 35-year veteran of the food and restaurant industry. His restaurants have received critical acclaim and international press coverage, with recognition from Food and Wine Magazine, the James Beard Foundation, and Wine Spectator.
In February 2013, Charles opened Bouche Bistro in Santa Fe, which has garnered substantial acclaim and press, including Travel and Leisure Magazine’s “Top Ten French Restaurants in the U.S.” In August of 2017, Charles sold Bouche to NM Fine Dining, a restaurant development group based in Santa Fe. Charles has stayed on with NMFD as Consultant, spearheading the development of two new projects, the Modern Southwestern Maize Restaurant and Trattoria A Mano, which features freshly-made pasta nightly. NM Fine Dining has several new projects in the works, including the revival of the iconic Bobcat Bite, on the outskirts of Santa Fe.
When not developing new dining opportunities for Santa Fe locals, Charles cooks with his wife and children, enjoys an active lifestyle of hiking and yoga, and travels the world seeking new flavors and ideas.
After receiving his MA and PhD degrees in Neuroscience from Princeton and the University of Massachusetts, Alan served for three years as an NIH post-doctoral research fellow and instructor in Pediatric Neurology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. He joined the faculty at Pitzer College in Claremont CA in 1985 where he later served for twelve years as Dean of Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs, overseeing the development of Pitzer’s Firestone Center for Restoration Ecology in Dominical, Costa Rica, the Ferré/Marquet Vaccine Research Center in Gaborone, Botswana and the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability in Claremont, CA. Alan has been the recipient of a number of research grants from NIH and NSF and has authored numerous research papers on the epigenetic, metabolic and neurobiological bases of obesity. After retiring from Pitzer in 2016, Alan moved to his home in Santa Fe where he enthusiastically enrolled in the Culinary Arts Program at Santa Fe Community College, from which he will be graduating this May.
Patrick Mares is Santa Fe’s shining example of a local success story. Born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico and a graduate of the Santa Fe Community College culinary program, he brings to the table depths of knowledge about local flavors, culinary history and New Mexico culture. Patrick has worked in many of the local fine dining establishments in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, including but not limited to, Sandiago’s at the Tram, The Old House, Bishops Lodge, The Inn of the Anasazi and The Red Sage. Patrick’s culinary passion is the fusion of formal culinary techniques with local and seasonal ingredients and flavors.
In addition to being a Co-Lead Chef Instructor at his Alma Mater, the Santa Fe Community College, he also teaches at The Santa Fe School of Cooking. He loves working with the students and getting the opportunity to help shape and impart his knowledge and experience into the culinary potential of these bright individuals.
Linda Myers earned her degree in Home Economics Education from New Mexico State University and taught culinary arts for 26 years, bringing the National Restaurant Association’s curriculum, ProStart, to the schools she served. Linda’s culinary students competed on the state and national levels, and she was selected ProStart teacher of the year by the New Mexico Restaurant Association. Recently retired from Santa Fe Public Schools, she is very excited to serve on the Cooking with Kids Board of Directors, especially because her children (now adults) participated in Cooking with Kids as elementary students!
Since retiring in 2011, from a 31 year career at Sandia National Laboratories as a government affairs manager, Gloria Zamora has found new interests and activities. She is one of the Founders of a new non profit in Santa Fe, the Women’s International Study Center and serves on the Board of Directors and as the Chair of this groups’ Academic Advisory Council. Gloria continues to be active in the library and information community, and was named to the Special Libraries Association Hall of Fame in 2013. When she is not working hard at retirement she enjoys cooking, wine education and she indulges her passion for movies and classical music.
Advisory Board
Kate Collins
- Grapeful
- Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta, founder & continuing board member
- ARTSmart board member
Veronica C. García, Ed.D.
- Superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools
- Former Executive Director for New Mexico Voices for Children
- New Mexico’s first Cabinet Secretary of Education
Diana Gonzales-Pacheco, DCN, RD
- Research Nutrition Manager at the CTSC Exercise Lab and the Metabolic Kitchen at the University of New Mexico Clinical and Translational Science Center
Cheryl Alters Jamison
- Four-time James Beard award-winning author
- Culinary Consultant (culinary tourism & outdoor kitchen design)
Michael Knight
- Former Managing Director of Client Management Services, Wellington Management Company, LLP
- Former member of the international operations group for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu International in New York and the Director of Professional Networks
- B Comm and B Acc from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
- Chartered Accountant and CPA
Carla Lopez
- Former Board member on the Santa Fe Public School Board of Education
- Community activist and organizer in the fields of law, environment, Native American and Chicano-specific issues, schools, & health
Carl Luff, CPA
- White & Luff Financial Inc./Raymond James Financial, co-founder & co-owner
Deborah Madison
- Founding chef, Greens restaurant in San Francisco
- James Beard award-winning cookbook author
- Former board member, Santa Fe Farmers’ Market
Jan Poppendieck
- Professor Emerita of Sociology at Hunter College, City University of New York
- Policy Director, New York City Food Policy Center at the Hunter College School of Public Health
- Author of Free For All: Fixing School Food in America, (University of California Press, 2010)
- 2011 James Beard Foundation leadership award winner
- www.janetpoppendieck.com
Michael Roach
- Entrepreneur Founder and former president of CleanAIR Systems
- Recipient of City of Santa Fe’s 2011 Innovative Entrepreneur Award
Susan Nelson-Blakely
- Food Marketing Consultant, retired
- Expertise in nutrition education and communications
Former Directors of the Board
Tony Gerlicz
2012 – 2018, Director
Jodi Vevoda
2012 – 2018, Secretary/Treasurer
Susan Nelson Blakely
2012 – 2018, Chair
Jennifer Fresquez
2011 – 2013, Secretary/Treasurer
2013 – 2017, Vice Chair
Cheryl Alters Jamison
2010 – 2011, Vice Chair
2011 – 2013, Chair
2014 – 2016, Director
Diana Gonzales-Pacheco
2010 – 2013, Vice Chair
Carla Lopez
2006 – 2009, Director
2010 – 2011, Chair
Marion Kalb
2006 – 2010, Chair
Blanche Harrison
2006 – 2010, Secretary/Treasurer