Leadership

Erik Bose is the Executive Director of Albuquerque Charter Academy. He has been working in education since 1993. Mr. Bose started as a high school Soccer Coach as he worked his way through college. He attended UNM and earned his BA in History/Education in 1996 and eventually became licensed as a Special Education teacher. His first teaching job was at Manzano High School from 1996-2000 where he taught Special Education classes and coached the varsity soccer team to a state championship. Mr. Bose then transferred and taught inclusion classes at McKinley Middle School from 2000-2004. While at MMS, he was accepted into the CEAIP program at UNM where he earned his Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership in 2004.

That same year, Mr. Bose was hired at SIATech Charter High School and worked his way up through the classroom, to assistant principal, to principal and now the Executive Director of Albuquerque Charter Academy.

He currently holds board positions for the NM Association of Secondary School Administrators, Gordon Bernell Charter High School, NM Coalition of Charter Schools and is the President for the NM Coalition of Educational Leaders. Mr. Bose is proud to make education his profession.

Caryl Thomas has been active in the New Mexico charter movement since 2004. In July of that year, she opened the doors of Cesar Chavez Community School, a charter high school in Albuquerque serving at-risk students. She served as the Director/Principal of the school until her retirement in June 2015.

Caryl joined the NMCCS board in 2010 as a school member and continues to serve as an at-large member since retirement. She brings many years of experience working at the local and state levels in support of the charter movement in New Mexico.

For more than 25 years, Doug has provided a wide range of political, strategic, marketing, branding and communications counsel to executives of Fortune 500 companies; foreign and US elected officials/agencies; small businesses, chambers of commerce and educational institutions; along with a broad collection of non-profit and community-focused organizations. With clients ranging from major utilities and energy producers to trade associations, hospitals, ag tech companies, charter schools, and university defense and security research institutes, Turner leads teams that focus on governmental affairs, stakeholder and consumer engagement, public relations, and corporate and institutional messaging, branding and creative campaigns.

In addition to his current work, Doug is a nationally-known political and strategic consultant and has worked on ballot initiatives and political campaigns throughout the United States, Asia and Europe. Doug was a key political strategist for Governor Gary Johnson’s (R-NM) successful gubernatorial campaigns in 1994 and 1998. He has advised the Democratic Party of Japan on messaging and election strategy, provided press and media guidance during Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, and served as a deputy political director for Steve Forbes’ 2000 bid for President. In 2010 Turner provided U.S. strategic communications guidance to the Office of the Prime Minister of Japan immediately following the Fukushima nuclear disaster and helped guide the licensure of URENCO USA’s uranium enrichment facility in the Southwestern U.S.  He has served as Chairman of the New Mexico Judicial Standards Commission, the Albuquerque Development Commission and the New Mexico Business Roundtable. He has also served on the boards of the Foundation for Open Government and the Rio Grande Foundation.

His clients include NATO, the American Petroleum Institute, Borana Nature Conservancy, PNM Resources, DuPont, Excel Energy, Chevron, Trademark East Africa, SunCal Companies, BYD and others. Doug is a former Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow and CFR Term Member and has written widely on politics and policy. His articles have appeared in Time Magazine, the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, the Far Eastern Economic Review, the Carnegie Council’s Policy Innovations and Japan’s Daily Yomiuri.

Turner received his B.A. from the American University School of International Studies in Washington, D.C. and his M.A. in International Relations from the Centre Europeen de Recherches Internationales et Strategiques.

John Gallegos is the Vice President of the New Mexico chapter of NAIOP, the commercial real estate development association. Prior to joining NAIOP in 2003, he was the project manager and safety coordinator for National roofing, sand founded and ran a chemical coatings business in Albuquerque for 12 years.

Mr. Gallegos has served on the board of Public Charter Schools of New Mexico since 2010, and previously served on the board of Public Academy for Performing Arts (PAPA), a public charter school in Albuquerque.

Ben Maes has served on the Board of Public Charter Schools of New Mexico since 2016.  He provides the board with the perspective of a charter school governing board member, as he has served as the President of the Governing Council of Christine Duncan Heritage Academy since 2014.

Mr. Maes’ specialty is finance.  He spent over 30 years in consumer and business financial and credit management and has served as the President of the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church finance council.  Mr. Maes is an active member of the Albuquerque business community, having served on the New Mexico Hispanic Heritage Committee, Hispano Chamber of Commerce and was the past board director of the Albuquerque West Chamber of Commerce.

Wayne Sherwood earned a Bachelor of Science in General Science/Secondary Education at Western New Mexico University in 1994, Master of Science Teaching at NM Tech in 2002 and a Masters Educational Leadership at Western NM University in 2012.

Wayne has been the Director of Aldo Leopold Charter School since the fall of 2016.  Aldo Leopold Charter School (ALCS) is an outdoor experiential education charter school, located in Silver City at the gateway of the Gila National Forest.  The Gila National Forest consists of the first wilderness in the United States and a wilderness area named after the conservationist, naturalist, and teacher, Aldo Leopold.  These areas are the learning lab and classrooms for our students in grades 6 – 12.  Before this position as Director at ALCS, Wayne taught high school and middle school science.  This job allows Wayne to help students learn and develop mentally and physically using the outdoors as the teaching medium. He has always incorporated hands-on activities to reach a variety of learning styles in his classroom. Wayne has worked as a Science Olympiad coach and and a MESA advisor (Math Engineering Science Achievement, a pre-college program designed to help underrepresented students prepare for college) and he was also a high school track coach.

Wayne feels privileged to be the leader of such a remarkable public-school program, and to be a member of Public Charter Schools of New Mexico.  He is thankful for this opportunity to be on the PCSNM board.

Jackie Rodriguez is a native multi-generational New Mexican born and raised in Northern New Mexico.  She attended the University of New Mexico and Highlands University where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Education, Master of Arts in Curriculum & Instruction and her Educational Leadership license.

Jackie has been in the educational field for over 23 years serving as a teacher, bilingual teacher, literacy coordinator, instructional coach, bilingual programs coordinator, math interventionist, assistant principal and charter school director.  Jackie is the director of Sandoval Academy of Bilingual Education in Rio Rancho and has been the school leader for four years.  Sandoval Academy of Bilingual Education is the only Kindergarten – 8th grade bilingual charter school serving the community of Rio Rancho and surrounding areas.

Jackie is married to Michael, another long-tern education and charter school advocate and leader, and has two children, Miquela and Andrew.  Jackie is fluent in both English and Spanish.  She is a proud advocate of bilingual education, school choice and educational opportunities for all students.

As a 19th generation New Mexican, Jake has deep familial roots in New Mexico’s history, culture and traditions.  He is a graduate of St. Pius X High School in Albuquerque and went on to graduate from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces with a Business degree with an emphasis in Risk Management.

Following graduation in 2013, Jake accepted a position with Philadelphia Insurance Companies in Denver, Colorado where he witnessed firsthand the success that charter schools had on the community.  In 2018, Jake accepted a position with HUB International Insurance which brought him back home to Albuquerque to pursue his career as an insurance professional.

Upon moving back, he felt a very strong desire to get involved as an advocate for school choice and is very proud to be a member of the PCSNM Board.

Theresa Archuleta is a native New Mexican married to Dr. Diego Gallegos with 3 children and a grandchild all of whom have had experience with public, private and public charter school education.  She has been an educator for the past 29 years and is currently Co-Director of Tierra Adentro Charter School.  She also holds the position of chair for the Board of Directors for the National Institute of Flamenco.  She was an administrator and teacher with Albuquerque Public Schools for over 23 years.  During that time, she was a recipient of the “National Distinguished Principal” award and honored by the National Association of Elementary School Principals in Washington, D.C. for her exemplary achievements.

Michele Hunt is currently the Director of the Anansi Charter School located in Taos, New Mexico.  Michele began her career in education in 1987 with a background and credentials in early childhood development, K-8 education, and educational leadership.  Michele spent the first half of her career teaching kindergarten, first and second grades. She co-developed the Anansi Charter School which opened in 2001 and has served as the director since 2003.  Michele has experience in building, creating and funding the physical campus for the Anansi Charter School. She has led the school to become an Ashoka Network Changemaker School and a 2018 National Blue Ribbon School for Closing the Achievement Gap. Michele is a champion and pioneer in New Mexico for bringing emotional intelligence and social emotional curriculum to school culture and curriculum since 2004.  As a result, she has been a trainer and presenter to the concept of EQ/SEL in schools for the NM State Charter Conference, International Ashoka Conference, National Association for the Education of Young Children, and for local charter schools throughout the state of New Mexico.  She remains a passionate educator and advocate of school choice.