The Board of the McCune Charitable Foundation is proud to announce that Carla Romero has accepted the position of Executive Director effective August 1, 2021. Carla served in the role of Administrative Director since January 2012 and most recently as the Interim Executive Director upon the departure of Ms. Wendy Lewis.

The Board made this selection based on Carla’s many talents and skills, proven collaborative leadership approach and close to 30 years of experience in the non-profit sector. As a first- generation college graduate, she holds an undergraduate degree from University of New Mexico and Masters of Public Administration from University of Texas El Paso.

Carla can trace her roots back several generations in New Mexico and has a deep understanding of the culture, people and traditions of her cherished state. Her passion to create more access to opportunities and remove barriers, especially for students of color, was fueled by her first job in student development at UNM’s NASA Training Project and deepened in her role as Director of the Academic Center for Engineers and Scientists at UTEP (a center run by students for students).

She came to the Foundation from the Computing Research Association where she served as Director of Programs, working toward increasing the number of women and people of color in the field of computing research. In these roles, she also became familiar with the administration of grants and budgets, but more importantly the value of working with dedicated people to better the conditions for all, but especially those that have previously been excluded.