Partnership Board and Advisors

Joan M. Brown, President
Joan Brown is a Franciscan sister who works in Ecology Ministry through the Partnership. She is the co-founder of the sustainable strawbale community Tierra Madre. Kansas farm roots, living and working with the economically poor, the inspiration of St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi, Thomas Berry, and Master’s Degree in Cosmology, Religion and Philosophy from the California Institute of Integral Studies form her thought and work.

Wallace Ford, Board Member
Wally Ford is the former Director of the New Mexico Conference of Churches and a long-term New Mexico resident. He currently works in Alternatives (a Conflict Resolution Partnership) and is the co-director of RedWing Institute. The founder of Stewards of Creation Adult Leadership Training Program, he holds degrees in theology, English and counseling from institutions including Illiff School of Theology, Brite Divinity School, and Texas Christian University.

Charles E. Little, Board Member
Charles Little is a writer on American land, landscape, and the environment. Among his recent books are Discover America (Smithsonian), Sacred Lands of Indian America (Abrams), The Encyclopedia of Environmental Studies (Facts on File), and The Dying of the Trees (Viking-Penguin). Formerly head of natural resources policy research at the Library of Congress (Congressional Research Service) and president of The American Land Forum, a Washington, D.C., think-tank, he now lives in Placitas, New Mexico, and is an adjunct faculty member of the UNM Geography Department.

Pat Simmons, Board Member
Pat Simmons is a longtime human services non-profit program administrator who was the former Co-Director of the Center for Action and Contemplation. She is a freelance grantwriter, cojourner with the Rochester Franciscan community, and a grandmother with deep interest in Earth issues.

Marlene Perrotte, Treasurer
Marlene Perrotte, a Sister of Mercy, has spent numerous years working with indigenous people in Peru and with new immigrants on the border of Mexico and New Mexico. Currently she teaches at-risk youth and adults at TVI and honors “Pacha Mama” by engagement in peace, justice and environmental concerns.

Anne Avellone is Director of the Office of Social Justice, Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Currently working on Masters in Social Work, she holds a Master in Divinity from Loyola University in Chicago. She is a Stewards of Creation Adult Leadership graduate and a Companion of Green Mountain Monastery in Greensboro, Vermont, an Ecozoic monastery.

Mimi Young is a licensed counselor in New Mexico, shamanic practitioner and teacher. Working with Native people for many years opened her eyes to the sacredness of the Earth and the spiritual power of nature. Her current work focuses on teaching and using shamanic practices to move people to oneness with all Life to heal ourselves and the Earth.

Anita Amstutz is a pastor of Albuquerque Mennonite Church and also works with the Center for Action and Contemplation. She seeks to bring a vision for ecological sustainability into all arenas of her life, vocation and play.

Chuck O'Herron-Alex is gardener and gardening educator with the Center for Action and Contemplation. He is also president of Santa Fe Homegrown, a business that makes and sells micro-intensive gardens that allow people to grow some of their own food all year long.

Donna Detweiler, a member of Albuquerque Mennonite Church and graduate of the first Stewards of Creation training program in New Mexico, brings her consciousness and love of the earth to her work as an apartment manager for a nonprofit affordable housing organization. Donna chooses to bike as a means of transportation as much as possible.

M.J. Zimmerman teaches literature and history of thought with an emphasis on ecological postmodernism and cosmological thinking at the community college, Albuquerque TVI. She holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy, Religion and Cosmology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, California.

Alice Campion is Franciscan sister who is a potter, composer and musician through Kokopelli Services in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Leland Bowen is on the Earth Care Committee of Las Placitas Presbyterian Church. He is an electrical engineer with a long-standing interest in alternative energy and other environmental issues.

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