Help keep the next step within reach.
Trusted organizational mentors contribute perspective, practical guidance, and community insight to Cornerstone’s president and alumni-led directors. Their commitment to young people strengthens our work. Organizational governance remains with the Board of Directors.
Organizational Consultant & Mentor
A Bernalillo native raised with humble New Mexican beginnings, Coach turned his experience as an All-American basketball player into a career teaching, coaching, and developing young leaders. He spent 22 years at Clarendon College, coaching women’s and men’s basketball and serving as an athletic director, before returning to his alma mater, Western New Mexico University in Silver City, as men’s head basketball coach. His perspective reaches beyond competition: preparation, accountability, teamwork, and showing up for someone can shape a life long after the final game.
His community experience includes state, county, and local public-service work, nonprofit involvement alongside veterans, and service with the Boys & Girls Club. He has helped gain access to facilities for youth programs in rural communities throughout Grant County, New Mexico. Now retired from team coaching, he continues traveling nationally for basketball camps and motivational speaking engagements.
Coach mentors Cornerstone’s president and brings decades of experience working with youth, communities, and nonprofit organizations. He offers grounded advice, encouragement, and a long view of leadership—helping an alumni-led organization pair its passion for young people with thoughtful, consistent action.
Organizational Consultant & Mentor
Originally from Roswell, New Mexico, Angela Romero knows what it means to build a new direction from a difficult beginning. She entered the Air Force in avionics, developing technical expertise in a traditionally male-dominated field, and later joined the Air National Guard and earned her commission. Her experience spans communications, intelligence, recruiting and retention, executive support to the Adjutant General, and service as New Mexico Air National Guard Director of Staff.
Before her later military leadership assignments, Romero worked with New Mexico Youth ChalleNGe as a cadre member, case manager, and recruiter. Years later, she returned to this mission as Program Director for the New Mexico Job ChalleNGe Academy’s Cycle 1 startup, helping establish its first residential cycle. She also contributed to the launch of the Governor’s ChalleNGe program. That experience connects direct work with young people to the discipline of building and leading programs.
At Cornerstone, Romero mentors the president and board directors, sharing perspective on leadership, youth development, accountability, and turning a strong intention into an organized plan. With her children also serving in the Air National Guard, service is both a professional and family commitment. Her contribution to Cornerstone is personal mentorship; it does not represent agency endorsement or official government oversight.
Our mentors help emerging leaders turn a passion for youth into thoughtful action. They do not replace the board’s responsibility for organizational decisions.