100% TEAM

Our goal is to ensure that every child, student, and family in New Mexico has access to ten vital services so they can not just survive, but thrive.

The 100% New Mexico initiative, a program of NMSU’s Anna, Age Eight Institute, provides each county with a collaborative process for transforming our underresourced communities into fully-resourced environments, creating local access to services. We are making a system-wide change in each county, creating a seamless system of family services where ten service sectors are working in alignment with local networks of organizations empowered by technology.

We offer county leaders and stakeholders a comprehensive problem-solving process that includes brainstorming, learning, mobilizing, capacity-building, and innovating, all supported by cutting-edge technology. Our 100% New Mexico initiative guides collaborative efforts to increase access to ten vital services, starting with assessing barriers, planning proven strategies, building infrastructure, and evaluating progress.

THE INSTITUTE

We’re on a mission.

The Anna, Age Eight Institute was established in 2019 with funding from the New Mexico state legislature. We are part of the Department of Extension Family and Consumer Sciences at NMSU’s College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences. Our mission is to ensure that children, students, and families in the state are able to thrive and succeed, free from the impact of trauma. To achieve this goal, we rely on a collaborative and data-driven approach. We work closely with counties to build capacity and strengthen local services and systems related to health, safety, education, job readiness, and resilience. Our work is informed by decades of research on social determinants of health and guided by the social-ecological model, which is widely used in public health initiatives to address change on the individual, family, community and societal (policy) levels. The 100% New Mexico initiative, designed as the local collective impact strategy to transform the adverse social determinants of health into positive ones, is unprecedented in scope. It’s designed to engage stakeholders on every level of government across 33 counties.

Two girls holding hands and walking away on a hillside path

Meet the team

Anna, Age Eight/NMSU Team Members

Dr. Katherine Ortega Courtney – Co-Director

Katherine Ortega Courtney, PhD. is a changemaker, psychologist, author, and life coach. Her work in child welfare advocacy has instilled change in data-driven trauma prevention in states across the country. She has worked in policy and research and has led community initiatives through her work at the Santa Fe Community Foundation and the New Mexico Early Childhood Development Partnership. As a psychologist and life coach, she coaches individuals and organizations on interrupting the cycles of trauma, addressing the burnout rate in government jobs and child welfare, and providing the tools and skills to achieve the work-life balance that will trickle down to better outcomes in prevention. Her doctorate work at Texas Christian University was in experimental psychology focused on substance abuse treatment and prevention. She is also the co-author, with Dominic Cappello, of Anna, Age Eight: The data-driven prevention of childhood trauma and maltreatment, which served as a catalyst for the development of the Anna, Age Eight Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she serves as co-director. Dr. Ortega Courtney and Dominic Cappello wrote the follow-up book 100% Community to guide local leadership in every county in their work designing trauma-free and truly family-friendly cities and towns. Email: koc@nmsu.edu

Dominic Cappello – Co-Director

Cappello is a New York Times bestselling author and TEDx Conference curator with decades of experience advocating for health, safety and education. He has a Master of Arts in Liberal studies with an emphasis on Language and Communication from Regis University. He worked for the New Mexico Department of Health Epidemiology and Response Division and the New Mexico Child Protective Services Research, Assessment and Data Bureau, where he co-developed the Data Leader for Child Welfare program, which he implemented in New York City, Connecticut and New Mexico. Cappello is the creator of the Ten Talks book series on family safety that gained a national audience when he discussed his work on the Oprah Winfrey Show. He is also the co-author of Anna, Age Eight: The data-driven prevention of childhood trauma and maltreatment, which served as a catalyst for the development of the Anna, Age Eight Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he serves as co-director. Cappello and Dr. Ortega Courtney wrote the follow-up book 100% Community to guide local leadership in every county in their work designing trauma-free and truly family-friendly cities and towns. Email: cappello@nmsu.edu

Gregory Sherrow – IT Director

Gregory began as an educator, but his early career sharply veered off into the world of information technology and web-based enterprises, giving Gregory decades of experience in creating educational, nonprofit, and commercial technology solutions. He has architected learning management systems for the Data Leaders for Child Welfare program in New Mexico, Connecticut, and New York City; he developed the technology prototypes for the Safety+Success learning management systems focused on family safety and health piloted in South Carolina and New Mexico; and his learning management system clients have included state departments of health, state departments of education and offices of attorneys general. Over the last decade and a half, he has become an author and resource for remote work management strategies and a proponent of using technology to positively empower agencies and communities while strengthening national, state, and local systems of public health, safety, and education. Email: gsherrow@nmsu.edu

Marangellie Trujillo – Associate Director

Marangellie has over 15 years of experience in initiating and developing collaborative partnerships with communities, organizations, and institutions; and in leading, planning and implementing statewide health-related and educational programs. Recently, she led and advanced the community schools strategy in New Mexico, directed the ECHO for Community Schools Program, facilitated statewide performance management systems, and conducted research and evaluation. Marangellie’s academic background is in science (Bachelor of Science in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Universidad Metropolitana in Puerto Rico; Master’s in Biotechnology with a concentration in Biodefense from The Johns Hopkins University in Maryland), communicable and infectious diseases, public health, and education, among others. Marangellie values the strength of New Mexico’s diverse communities, the multilingualism, resilience, creativity, culture, and compassion for one another. She strives to create a culture of shared governance, where we can rethink school-community relationships, and can re-define the core values of parents as first teachers. Marangellie firmly believes in community schools as an equitable strategy that will transform education and positively change the social determinants of health for the children of New Mexico. She is committed in making this vision a reality. Email: maratru@nmsu.edu

OUR TEAM AND NEW MEXICO NEED YOUR HELP

The trauma children and families endure today is very real, impacting their capacity to succeed in school, work, and community life. Our small team supports all counties participating in the 100% New Mexico Initiative. How do we do it? It’s all down to people like you. The initiative is a grass-roots movement. Becoming a part of your county’s local team will not just improve your community, it will help children, students, and families all across New Mexico thrive. Join one of our self-paced online courses to get started today.

ENROLL TO GET STARTED

Our transformational 100% New Mexico initiative is guided by web-based, self-paced courses provided free to all New Mexicans. If you are outside of New Mexico and are interested in learning more about the initiative or taking our courses, please contact us for more information. Whatever your familiarity with the 100% New Mexico initiative or your interest in participating, we have a course that is the perfect fit for you. Explore our courses while connecting to other local champions.