THE BEAT IN THE BOOTHEEL

By Shandiin Nez (she/they)

CDTC Southern New Mexico Policy Fellow

Ya’at’eeh! I’m Shandiin Nez, the Southern New Mexico Policy Fellow with CDTC. I started in January of 2023. I am excited to get to work on amplifying the trail, land protections, community-led conservation, and Indigenous voices. I grew up in the washes, up the sandstone mesas, and among the pinon junipers that rose before giving way to ponderosa pine and, higher up, spruce and aspen of the Chuska Mountains in New Mexico. I have been working on building and maintaining trails since the summer of 2013, with a break to do some landscaping, and finally onto working with the Ancestral Lands Conservation Corps as a staff member managing programs in Gallup, New Mexico. Working with Indigenous young adults inspired me to have a broader impact and to continue to be a role model for people who share my identity.

As the Southern NM Policy Fellow, I will be focusing on the trail and landscape protections within the Bootheel region and potentially extending myself up to central New Mexico as well. There have been a lot of awesome facts I’ve been discovering about the area in my short time with CDTC.