From The Optic

The Las Vegas New Mexico Community Foundation has contracted with their long-time board member and former chairman to work as executive director of the Foundation.

 As executive director Baca Will work on major Foundation objectives including long-term wildfire disaster recovery; development of a housing/land trust; management of the recently established Anchorum Community Health Fund; and fundraising.

Baca is a native of Las Vegas and has been involved in downtown revitalization and historic preservation for over 40 years. He served as state Main Street director and state historic preservation officer during a nearly twenty-year career with state government.

Among the highlights of his career are the enactment of New Mexico’s Arts and Cultural Districts state statute in 2006, and the implementation of the New Mexico’s Historic Theater Imitative in 2012-15.

Elmo built the Indigo Theater cinema in 2015 in his historic Baca Building in the Bridge Street Historic District of Las Vegas, which continues to present first-run movie entertainment for the greater Las Vegas community.

Baca’s work related to the long-term recovery from the Hermit’s Peak and Calf Canyon Wildfire will include ongoing collaborative relationships with FEMA, related federal and state agencies, local municipalities, community nonprofit organizations, and others. 

The housing and land trust is envisioned as a critical project for community and regional sustainability and long-term growth of the Foundation’s service area of Mora and San Miguel Counties. The trust will enable the Foundation to stimulate the private sector housing industry, leverage private and public sector funding, support workforce and affordable housing supply, and attract new residents.

Baca’s work helping manage the $750,000 fund recently established at the Foundation by the Anchorum Health Foundation, will focus funds on projects that will power an ambitious effort to make Northern New Mexico healthier.  That goal involves bolstering efforts to address social factors that influence people’s health, like access to food or housing or education.

He will also work on fundraising efforts such as enhancing the Foundation’s grant-writing capacity; negotiating with federal, state and local government agencies to leverage public funds; and attract major donations and bequests to the Foundation.

“We are thrilled to have Elmo in this new role at the Foundation as we move our programs to a new level,” said Board Chair Carla Romero.