The mission of Chaco Culture Conservancy is to inspire people to support, connect with, and learn about Aztec Ruins National Monument and Chaco Culture National Historical Park through philanthropy and volunteer activities – thus ensuring the preservation of the Chacoan architectural landscapes, natural resources, and cultural heritage for present and future generations.
The Chaco Culture Conservancy supports park projects that fall into 3 broad areas.
Preservation is hard work on an ever-changing landscape full of cultural and natural heritage. Ongoing projects at both parks ensure that preservation remains at the forefront of our mission.
Maintaining trails is an important part of public land management. The Conservancy works to ensure that trails stay safe, accessible, and educational throughout these parks.
The Conservancy is passionate about promoting access to our public lands. We believe that bringing people into these parks will educate and inspire the next generation of stewards.
It’s all about teamwork here at the Conservancy. Our board of directors and staff work collaboratively with the National Park Service to ensure that your donations are doing the most where they’re needed the most.
Mary Beth grew up in Dayton, Ohio and after college, moved to the Detroit, Michigan area to work in the auto industry.
Mary Beth’s love of the Southwest and Four Corners area began in the 80s on what would become almost annual trips to the area to explore the area’s wonders.
These trips sparked a passion for the region’s public lands, archeology, and indigenous cultures that has never left her over the succeeding years.
Mary Beth relocated to Santa Fe from Birmingham, Michigan in mid-2020 and is happy to now call New Mexico home.
Mary Beth currently is the lead Principal in the New Mexico practice of Kuderik and Associates CPAs providing financial advisory services to a diverse group of small businesses, non-profits, trusts, estates, and individuals.
Prior to relocating to New Mexico, Mary Beth was Chief Strategy and Financial Officer at the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust, the largest private purchaser of retiree health care in the United States.
In that role, Mary Beth oversaw all aspects of strategy, finance, internal audit, information technology, investment operations, and risk management. Prior to the Trust, she held several finance and employee benefit management roles at General Motors.
Mary Beth holds a Master of Health Care Delivery Science from the Tuck School of Business and Geisel School of Medicine of Dartmouth College and a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from the University of Dayton. She is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Management Accountant.
Whenever she can, Mary Beth heads outdoors to be in our magnificent public lands, camping, hiking, flyfishing, and visiting cultural sites.
Steve was raised in Southern California and Central Ohio. For most of his life, he has lived in the western U.S., including 15 years in Utah and the last decade in Oregon.
The son of a field geologist, Steve always has had an affinity for the field sciences, including archaeology, atmospheric science, hydrology, and ecology. From his earlier base in Salt Lake City, he explored much of the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin.
Steve first came to Chaco Canyon and Aztec Ruins on a memorable trip with his son in 2011. He has returned multiple times since and feels strongly about preserving these incredible, UNESCO-recognized cultural sites and contributing to the broader awareness of their importance and meaning. He has visited other archaeological sites throughout Mexico, South America, and southwest Asia.
Prior to his retirement in 2025, Steve spent over 30 years working around advanced Internet technologies and higher education IT. In this capacity, he worked for three higher ed non-profit organizations, including the one that he served for seven years as the founding executive director – Link Oregon. His academic research background is in experimental astrophysics and included work on experiments in a gold mine in the Black Hills of South Dakota and in the west desert of Utah.
Since 1962, John has camped, hiked, star gazed, and biked at Chaco Canyon during all seasons, winter being his favorite. Beware of rain!
As a local, John appreciates that Aztec Ruins National Monument is a fun place to take his family throughout the year for special events. The mystery and beauty of Aztec Ruins National Monument and Chaco Culture National Historical Park are wonderful experiences and he would like to help maintain them as best as he can for others to enjoy.
Jennifer hails originally from Wisconsin, but her love affair with New Mexico goes back to college when she spent a summer in Taos, and until recently, she resided in Corrales, NM.
Jennifer has been a public servant for nearly 25 years, in the US Forest Service and National Park Service. She currently serves as the Chief of Administration and Youth Programs for Yellowstone National Park, ensuring efficient business processes allow the park to run smoothly, and engaging the next generation of public lands advocates in immersive park experiences. Throughout her career, Jennifer has focused on improving partnerships and business practices. Highlights include roles as the Partnerships Program Manager for the Southwestern Region of the US Forest Service; almost eight years as the primary liaison to the Yosemite Conservancy, Yosemite National Park’s friends group and cooperating association; and co-leading the development of the National Park Service Business Plan Initiative.
Jennifer holds a Master of Environmental Management Degree from Duke University in Resource Economics and Policy, and in college, she triple majored in Biology, Spanish, and Latin American Studies, with a minor in history.
While Jennifer no longer lives in New Mexico, she remains deeply connected to the magic of the Southwest and its cultural legacy, especially Chaco and Aztec, and the Chaco Culture Conservancy.
Bart grew up on a ranch in western South Dakota. He had many interests growing up from drawing and painting, to building, to exploring the ranch on his horse. He earned his BFA in photography from the University of South Dakota in 1989. Upon completion, he worked as a Curator of Exhibitions for the W.H. Over State Museum in Vermillion, SD. Bart continued his education at the University of Nebraska culminating in a MA in Museum Studies. He would spend the next 25 years as first Curator then Director of the Farmington Museum System in Farmington, NM.
He has had a life-long interest in archaeology, geology, paleontology and natural science. Bart met his future wife Ingrid the month after moving to Farmington in 1998. Since then, they have explored the southwest hiking to many destinations.
Bart has experience in all facets of museum work. He spent seven years as a Museum Assessment Program (MAP) reviewer for the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). He has served on many boards including the Totah Festival Board that organizes a Native Arts Festival in Farmington every year. He was also the President of the Citizens Advisory Board for the New Mexico State University Agricultural Science Center in Farmington. Bart and his wife have two kids, Cy and Emma, and are currently working to start a vineyard and winery outside of Aztec, NM on what is known as “Ruins Road.”
Dr. Shelly Valdez is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna Tribe, located in central New Mexico, and of Hispanic descent.
Shelly’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education, a Master of Arts in Bilingual Education, and a Ph.D. in Multicultural Teacher Education focusing on research in the area of Science Education.
Shelly has worked in the area of education for 33+ years and currently owns and manages an educational consulting business, Native Pathways, (NaPs), located in central New Mexico.
An important component of NaPs is in the area of worldviews in science education, primarily focusing on indigenous science. Shelly’s interest and passion for indigenous science have influenced her approaches in the field of education, evaluation, and partnerships she works with.
Why Indigenous Science in education? Shelly grew up in a rich environment filled with learning from a cultural worldview and the outdoors.
Her father, the late Robert C. Valdez, was her mentor and her true teacher, in that he was able to take her school book learning to a deeper level. It was her father that helped her understand the connection of school learning to her own worldview, giving her a culturally rich community-based education.
This environment and the gifts of knowledge her father shared with her influenced her decision to pursue the field of education, and advocacy in cultural relevancy in education.
Shelly’s vision for the future is to continue to be an active participant and an advocate for influencing Worldviews in the evaluation and educational opportunities for indigenous people.
Olivia is originally from Missouri and didn’t grow up visiting national parks. In fact, Chaco Culture National Historical Park was the very first national park she set foot in. That visit came to shape her career and love for the southwest and the National Park Service.
After her first visit to New Mexico in 2018, Olivia graduated with her BS in Anthropology from Missouri State University. She then graduated with an MA in Applied Anthropology from University of Nebraska – Lincoln in 2021. While earning her degree, Olivia wrote a thesis titled Women and the Mealing Room: Presenting a Comparative Analysis of Female Spaces Across the Chacoan Landscape. In her research, Olivia traveled to Chaco Culture NHP, Aztec Ruins, and Salmon Pueblo to understand more about the roles of Ancestral Pueblo women across time and space.
Throughout her career, Olivia has worked as a lecturer, a NAGPRA coordinator, a researcher, and an executive director. In all of these roles, she has kept Chaco Culture and Aztec Ruins close to her heart. Now, Olivia is a stay-at-home-parent and is thrilled to serve these parks as a board member for the CCC.
Jim was raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, received a BS in Mathematics from Michigan State University and an MS in Structural Engineering from The University of Pittsburgh, after which he spent 40 years as a structural engineer. He is married with two children.
He loves hiking, camping, and music and has spent his vacations since 2000 exploring the country by tent, attending music festivals, visiting historic sites, and visiting Native American places of interest throughout the US.
Jim finds the history of the Pueblo communities, as they moved and learned lessons, particularly fascinating. His structural engineering background draws him to the details of the buildings at Chaco and Aztec and he is amazed at the ingenuity and creativity of the people who built these.
He also has had a lifetime interest in astronomy and while serving as an interpretive guide at Chaco he was able to assist in the astronomy presentations and explain the features of the buildings to visitors.
Jon Ghahate is of the Pueblos of Laguna and Zuni, which are in New Mexico, of the Turkey and Badger Clans.
Jon is currently a staff educator at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, located in Cortez, Colorado. Crow Canyon is an educational and research institute whose mission is to recover, interpret, and preserve artifacts and evidence of Ancestral Puebloan civilizations and their predecessors of the US Southwest Four Corners region.
He previously served as the Museum Cultural Educator at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was responsible for creating presentations to ‘promote and perpetuate’ the histories, legacies, and cultures of the current 19 Pueblo communities of New Mexico.
His professional career is diverse, having been: a health care practitioner, public high school science and math educator and athletic coach, journalist, and public speaker on Indigenous cultures and civilizations of the Western Hemisphere.
Jon is a Vietnam Era Veteran and a lifelong resident of New Mexico, where he resides in the homelands of his Pueblo ancestors.
Jon provides guided tours to Chaco Culture National Historical Park for the National Park Service and independent tour organizations. He has assisted in film documentaries on the Chacoan Culture for NASA, PBS/NOVA episodes, and other educational video productions.
He is a parent, partner, a pet owner, and has volunteered for numerous non-profit community and social organizations.
