Our Team
Rick Hendricks, Ph.D.
State Historian
Rick Hendricks was born in Waynesville, North Carolina, nestled between the Great Smokey and Blue Ridge Mountains. Rick received his B. A. in History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his Ph.D. in Ibero American Studies at the University of New Mexico. He also attended the Universidad de Sevilla in Spain. He is a former editor of the Vargas Project at the University of New Mexico, a long-term, historical editing project that transcribed, translated, and annotated the papers of New Mexico governor Diego de Vargas. Rick has been a historical consultant for Sandia, Santa Ana, and Picuris Pueblos in New Mexico and Ysleta del Sur in Texas. After the conclusion of the Vargas Project, he worked in the Archives and Special Collections Department at New Mexico State University Library. While there he took part in the project to microfilm the Archivos Históricos del Arzobispado de Durango and the Archivos Históricos de Sombrerete and edited the guides to those collections. At NMSU Rick also taught courses in colonial Latin America and Mexican history. He has written or collaborated on more than sixteen books and seventy articles on the Spanish colonial period in the American Southwest and Mexico. His writings have garnered awards from the Historical Society of New Mexico, the New Mexico Historical Review, the El Paso County Historical Society, the Border Regional Library Association, and the Doña Ana County Historical Society. His most recent book, New Mexico in 1801: The Priests Report, was published in June 2008 by Rio Grande books. He edited the Southern New Mexico Historical Review, a publication of the Doña Ana Historical Society, for a decade. Rick is a past president of the Historical Society of New Mexico and is a long-time member of the Advisory Council of the Center for Big Bend Studies at Sul Ross State University. He is currently completing biographies of Mesilla Valley pioneer agriculturalist Thomas Casad and Spanish-Mexican patriot Father Antonio Severo Borrajo. Rick’s leisure time is usually filled with soccer. He served on the High Noon Soccer League board for ten years, six as president. He coached for ten years and is a referee, referee instructor, and referee assignor. Rick’s wife, Lois Stanford, a cultural anthropologist, is an associate professor on the faculty at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. His son, William, is a high school senior and will soon be headed to Spain to experience the culture and play soccer for a year before beginning college where he eventually hopes to study medicine and become a trauma doctor. The family’s life is enriched by a loving rescue dog named Mischa, a Labrador-Australian Heeler mix.Bonnie Coleman Iapoce
Digital History Project Manager
Bonnie Coleman is a communications professional with experience in business communications, marketing, identity building and client retention. She has extensive experience building departments and start-up programs to integrate resources, and heighten visibility to internal and external clients. Before coming to the Office of the State Historian, Bonnie worked in the private sector as Director of Marketing/Director of Business Development for professional services firms with an emphasis on law.
She is an avid volunteer and backer of issues concerning women and children, and has actively supported the "rescue and recycling" of dogs. Bonnie has been owned by rescued Afghan Hounds since she was in college, and by rescued Beagles of New Mexico since she arrived in her adopted home state. She has operated a catering business for dogs and planned parties for special events in their lives. (Picture shows taste test hounds Stella Blue and Jerry Garcia.)
Bonnie lives in Santa Fe with her best friend and husband, Michael Iapoce, who is a writer and former stand-up comic.Dennis Peter Trujillo, Ph.D.
Assistant State Historian
Dennis Peter Trujillo was born in Montrose, Colorado, at the foot of the San Juan Mountains where he learned to fish, hike, and climb. His parents were both born in New Mexico, his mother in Bueyeros and his father in Chamita. Dennis received his B.A. in anthropology at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, his M.A. in museum studies/anthropology from the University of Denver, and his Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of New Mexico. Dennis has been awarded several fellowships and honors including the College Art Association (CAA) Professional Development Fellowship; Center for Regional Studies, University of New Mexico Research Fellowship; Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico, Clinton P. Anderson Fellowship; and American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship. Dennis has a keen academic interest in Southwest history and cultures, tourism, and ethno-aesthetics. His dissertation was entitled "The Commodification of Hispano Culture in New Mexico: Tourism, Mary Austin, and the Spanish Colonial Arts Society." He is an avid reader, music lover, hiker/camper, and traveler. Dennis lives in the Albuquerque Nob Hill area with his wife/partner, archivist Beth Silbergleit. Dr. Trujillo is presently Assistant State Historian and serves as a Board of Trustee member for the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, member of the the Editorial Board of the New Mexico Historical Review, Board member for the Historical Society of New Mexico, and as a member of the Rocky Mountain Online Archive Advisory Board. He is a past board member and Vice Chair of the New Humanities Council and volunteers for several local music and art organizations.