Juan Abeyta
Director
CSC Founding Board Member & Board Member Emeritus
Juan Abeyta and Arturo Sandoval have worked together since their days organizing the Chicano Student Movement at the University of New Mexico, beginning in 1968. After years of community organizing in underserved communities, Juan and Arturo decided that formalizing their work made sense, enough so that together they founded the Southwest Culture Center in 1991. Since its inception, Juan has been a strong supporter of the Center.
He has more than 40 years of experience developing, coordinating and evaluating educational and social justice programs for underrepresented communities. He currently serves as coordinator of La Red del Río Abajo, a social justice collaboration of 13 community service organizations that have established a collective impact initiative in Albuquerque's South Valley. He recently assisted in establishing the Ready New Mexico campaign, a coalition of organizations dedicated to the full integration of immigrants in New Mexico by guaranteeing low-income immigrants access to social and legal services to obtain citizenship and administrative assistance, fostering leadership development in the immigrant community, and promoting economic and civic engagement.
In the early 1980s he helped establish the first online educational network, CAPNET, among rural New Mexico schools. He has served as a consultant to federal and state agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, Sandia National Laboratories, the State of New Mexico, the WK Kellogg and McCune Charitable Foundations, as well as universities across the country.