Volunteers
Annie Sahlin
Annie was drawn to New Mexico in her early 20's by the lure of a family homestead on the Old Santa Fe Trail. A passion for photography led to an immersion in New Mexican culture and history through her work with the Smithsonian American History Museum's exhibit called American Encounters. In shows and magazine articles she continued to record New Mexico with subjects such as Santa Fe silversmiths and her village of Cañada de los Alamos. More recently Annie has traveled to Turkey and begun a film project on Turkish women. Remaining true to her community, she also continues to record its past with film and oral histories when not indulging other artistic interests such as printmaking. Doris Meyer, Ph.D.
Doris Meyer is Roman S. and Tatiana Weller Professor Emeritus of Hispanic Studies (Connecticut College) and also taught for many years at Brooklyn College (CUNY). Since retiring to New Mexico in 1998, she has also been Research Associate at the University of New Mexico’s Latin American and Iberian Institute and at the Southwest Hispanic Research Institute. She holds a B.A. from Harvard and a Ph.D. from U. of Virginia. Her publications include numerous books and articles on Latin American literature, particularly contemporary women writers. Her most recent publication, This America of Ours: The Letters of Gabriela Mistral and Victoria Ocampo, co-edited and translated with Elizabeth Horan (U. of Texas, 2003), will be published in Spanish in Fall 2007. She has also written about New Mexico in the territorial period, including her book, Speaking for Themselves: Neomexicano Cultural Identity and the Spanish-Language Press, 1880-1920 (UNM Press, 1996). Of Hispanic decent on her mother’s side, she is married to Richard Hertz and lives in Santa Fe.
Jack Loeffler
Jack Loeffler, a bioregional folklorist, musician, writer and radio producer has been recognized by Governor Bill Richardson with "The Governor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts." Jack is only one of seven people to receive this honor in 2008. During the 1950s and early 1960s, Loeffler was a jazz trumpeter who performed throughout the United States. He has written numerous books, including "Adventures with Ed: Portrait of Abbey," in which he recounts his experiences with writer and pioneering environmentalist Edward Abbey. Loeffler moved to New Mexico in 1962 and has spent the last 40 years devoted to preserving and sharing the arts and stories of the people of his adopted state. He has interviewed and recorded writers, visual artists, traditional indigenous people, musicians, and ordinary people who live in every region of the state. As a master artist in ethnomusicology, and through his artistic recordings, he has exposed the world to traditional Hispano and Native American music and culture. "Loeffler is a national treasure who is revered in his field from the Folklore Center at the Library of Congress to small villages in rural New Mexico," said nominator Sue Sturtevant. "While very few people deserve the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, Jack Loeffler is one who does!"
José Sánchez, Ph.D.
José Sánchez, a native of Santa Fe, brings a wealth of history – both personal and scholarly – to the Office of the State Historian. His family roots in New Mexico are deep, although José himself took a 44-year hiatus after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico. José is Emeritus Professor of History from Saint Louis University where he received both his Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts. His academic positions at Saint Louis began as a Social Science Research Council Fellow, progressed to Instructor, Professor, Chair of the History Department and Professor of History before retiring back to the land of his birth. His publications reflect his interest in religion, modern European history, with a strong focus on Spain. He has written a number of books and articles on topics as varied as the Spanish Civil War and the controversy over Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust. Currently, he is working on a number of articles on his family’s role in New Mexico history. José Sánchez and his wife Carol live in Santa Fe.
Michael Miller
Michael Miller is the author/contributor of eleven books on New Mexico and the Southwest. He also writes for regional and national publications on a variety of topics. He served as Director of the New Mexico Records Center and Archives and Director of the Center for Southwest Research at UNM.
In 1998, he retired as the first Director of Research and Literary Arts at the National Hispanic Cultural Center of New Mexico. He lives in La Puebla, New Mexico on his family's farm.