Los Lunas native Nancy Jo Gonzales hoping to connect with community

LOS LUNAS — Speaking to Los Lunas native Nancy Jo Gonzales is very much like taking a pleasant walk through the forest. It’s always interesting and you never know which path you’re going to go down.

It seems that her life has also had the same quality.

As the only one of five siblings who left the state for college, she went from studying journalism to managing restaurants to volunteering to work with the elderly after graduation.

That stint in volunteering is what led her to her current career in public administration and her current position as deputy administrator for the village of Los Lunas.

“I started volunteering to provide respite care for caregivers. So I’d go spend time, usually with an elderly family member,” she recalled.

“And I loved it. I realized I really loved spending time with older folks and just hearing their stories,” she said. “It made me feel like I was doing something important in the community. So then that was like, ‘OK, maybe I can find an actual career in this.’”

Her career shift towards public service also came when she was thinking of coming home. In September 2017, she began her first local government role as a senior services program director for Valencia County. During that time, she also pursued a master’s in public administration while working. That experience of simultaneous learning and practical application working for the county was invaluable, she said.

“I realized that if I really wanted to make a difference and provide the services that I wanted to provide, I had to be more on the administrative policy end,” she said. “Being on the service delivery end is not always easy…. but I was thinking, “OK, I’ve got to kind of make a change from the inside out.”

She shifted to working as a community development director, overseeing the county’s senior program. She saw that as a way to learn more about local government.

“At the time, I had also applied for and started my master’s program in public administration,” she remembered. “So, between a job opportunity there and also going to school and seeing just this other, all these other opportunities, that’s kind of why I just kept advancing.”

After five years with the county, she transitioned briefly to Presbyterian Health Services as a development manager before taking a position as public health director at the Pueblo of Isleta for 2 1/2 years.

“I really loved working in Isleta. I always knew Isleta was part of the community, part of the county, but never really got to work there,” she said. “I had friends from there growing up, but to work in the Pueblo was a totally different experience. One that I really, really value and cherish.”

She said the experience at the pueblo taught her to slow down, engage in critical conversations, and respect diverse cultural traditions, while also emphasizing the importance of family and personal life within a professional context.

“I think what (that job) helped me realize is that I cannot take for granted how important it is to know and confront your community,” Gonzales said. “That type of knowledge and respect that comes with that, you have to be respectful of it. In the same way that here in Los Lunas, I haven’t really thought about how that would affect it.

“I think I’m still figuring out how it’s going to affect it. I think that it’s really important to understand your role.”

Though she was happy working for the pueblo, when the chance to work for the village of Los Lunas arose, she said, “I couldn’t not apply for it.

“(The deputy administrator job) was working in my community, doing a job that made sense with my career path, and it’s kind of a job that was made for me.

“It just made total sense,” she concluded.

Now that she’s actually on the job, she said the move to the village was a great decision.

“I’m realizing that this is where I can apply my strengths, that because I do have that understanding of the community, of the history, of the values of the people,” she said. “As someone who lives here, I can make better decisions. I’m more accountable. My integrity has to be even higher because of my history and family here. I have to live with the decisions I make, and I get to make decisions that directly affect me and my family. It’s meaningful work.

Gonzales said getting to see progress that she’s heard and talked about since she was young has been interesting.

“Now, I get to be a part of it, and get to be a part of the village in a very different way.”

Gonzales said her goals as deputy administrator are to achieve greater government transparency (she is also the village’s public information officer) and community engagement. One of her main ideas, “the LLOOP for Economic Solutions,” video segment recently launched on social media and the village’s website.

“It is going to be a recurring video segment on our social media, on our websites, that goes inside big projects, our construction updates, even some more routine processes,” she said, “like how to file a code complaint, how to use our recycling system, when we have events at the library, things like that.”

Gonzales is still settling into the job, taking “a listening role” and listening to colleagues, the village council, and the community to get a sense of the priorities that each has.

“I truly believe that as public servants, we are here to serve the community,” she said. “It is their agenda I want to get done, so I will spend, I will always spend my time listening, and even things that are uncomfortable, and having critical conversations.”

She also recognizes that the village is at a crossroads, so her “five-year” plan is centered on that idea.

“The big tension right now in the village of Los Lunas is we are growing,” Gonzales said. “That is not stopping. Our infrastructure has not kept up. We are working on it now, and we will continue to grow in a good way but also, I want to preserve that rural, small-town feel that I know and love, and I grew up with. So how do we keep both?

She continued, "So (in my) five-year plan, we will always be doing what is best for the community, and we will never make everyone happy, but I think if we can at least create a dialogue between the community and the governing body, and elected officials, then we are bound to make better decisions that we can all live with.”