Historic Santa Fe Foundation's mission is to preserve, protect and promote the historic properties and diverse cultural heritage of the Santa Fe area, and to educate the public about Santa Fe's history and the importance of preservation.
Staff, Board of Directors, and Volunteers
Staff
Melanie McWhorter, Executive Director
melanie@historicsantafe.org
Jacob Sisneros, Preservation Projects and Programs Manager
jacob@historicsantafe.org
Hanna Churchwell, Education Programs and Publications Manager
hanna@historicsantafe.org
Giulia Caporuscio, Development Associate and Research Historian
giulia@historicsantafe.org
Board of Directors
Executive Committee
Anne McDonald Culp, Chair
Anne McDonald Culp is a developmental child psychologist with graduate degrees from the University of Colorado and the University of Kansas. She recently retired as professor in the Department of Child, Family, and Community Sciences at the University of Central Florida. She has taught at three universities and conducted research on the development of infants and young children, early intervention, and mother child interactions. She continues to be active in the American Psychological Association in the divisions of Child and Family Advocacy Policy and Practice and Developmental Psychology.
Anne grew up in Denver Colorado in a 1920 craftsman home and has been visiting Santa Fe with her family since the late 1960’s. Once married, she and her husband, Rex, annually visited Santa Fe with their daughter, Kate. Anne has been a member of the Historic Santa Fe Foundation since 2012 when she and Rex bought an 1880 Territorial home in Santa Fe. This was their second historic 1800’s home, the first in Lawrence Kansas, which was an Italianate, built in 1870. She and Rex also lived in a Cottage-style 1920 home in Orlando, Florida. Anne has been president of the Old West Lawrence Historic Neighborhood Association in Lawrence, Kansas and a board member of the Lake Eola Historic Neighborhood Association in Orlando, Florida.
Greg Walke, Vice Chair
Greg Walke is a Santa Fe architect and a former board chairman and current member of the property committee of The Historic Santa Fe Foundation. His professional interests and volunteer activities have involved him in Santa Fe’s unique historic preservation, community planning, affordable housing, and art worlds. He has led tours for hundreds of Santa Fe visitors, including walking tours of downtown for the Museum of New Mexico, Canyon Road for the National Trust, children’s tours for the Foundation, and various historic home tours.
Harlan Flint, Treasurer
Harlan Flint is a partner in LongView Asset Management, LLC, a registered investment advisor in Santa Fe and leader in socially responsible investing. In 2018, together with his business partner, David Cantor, Harlan purchased Hovey House from the Historic Santa Fe Foundation and granted a preservation easement to the foundation to protect the building in perpetuity. They have overseen a year-long project to restore and upgrade Hovey House, which houses LongView’s new offices.
A native Santa Fean, Harlan also lived in Anchorage and San Francisco before graduating from Cornell University, where he studied architecture and history. Earlier in his career, Harlan worked for 25 years in New York, London, Hong Kong and Stockholm, pioneering the development of electronic trading systems in financial markets. He returned to New Mexico in 2007 with his wife, Nicole Rassmuson, and their children, Selma and Jasper. Harlan is a former board member of Santa Fe Conservation Trust and continues to serve on its Finance Committee.
Tony Sawtell, Secretary
Tony Sawtell was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. His maternal grandfather was a surgeon and amateur painter. When Santa Fe became known as an art colony, he and his family spent time in Santa Fe in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, staying at La Fonda, Ghost Ranch and Valley Ranch (now the Benedictine Monastery on the Pecos River) when they were dude ranches. His parents spent their honeymoon in Santa Fe and he grew up looking forward to the family’s frequent visits.
Tony attended Stanford University for his undergraduate program. Following graduation, he decided to attend law school and moved, with his new bride, to New Mexico. He graduated with honors from the University of New Mexico School of Law.
After passing the bar exam, he joined the Catron law firm, the oldest in the State (for which he claims no credit). He established his own general civil law practice, including banking, business organizations, real estate and a variety of commercial transactions. In 2003, he joined attorneys (Senator) Peter Wirth and (now Judge) Bryan Biedscheid to form Sawtell, Wirth & Biedscheid, P.C., where he practiced in the same areas until he retired in 2019.
He has served on the boards of several Santa Fe non-profit organizations, including twelve years as a board member of the United Way of Santa Fe County, and two terms as its president. He has performed pro bono or reduced-rate legal work for many other organizations and. was pro bono counsel to the board of directors of the Santa Fe Railyard Community Corporation from its inception in 1998 until he retired last year.
He is married to Sarah Ashby Sawtell, CPA, whose practice has been focused on nonprofit organizations, first at the firm of Daymon & Associates and then as Vice President for Finance and Administration at the Santa Fe Community Foundation. They have two children and one remarkable granddaughter. Both children are married and live in Gig Harbor, Washington.
Nicholas Wirth, Member at Large
Nicholas Wirth is a retired educator who spent the last two and a half decades teaching in the Santa Fe Public Schools, Desert Academy and Santa Fe Prep. His focus was in American and Middle Eastern history. He holds degrees from Colorado College, the College of Santa Fe, and is currently working on a degree through the Gilder Lehrman Institute. Throughout his tenure as a teacher, he collaborated with a number of national and local nonprofit organizations. Nicholas lives in a Meem house, is passionate about New Mexico history and historic preservation. He has three wonderful children.
Board Directors
Larry Good, Board Director
A founding principal and now retired Chairman of the award winning multi-disciplinary design firm GFF, Larry Good has focused on strategic issues of real estate feasibility and urban land use planning throughout his 45 year career. For a diverse clientele, Larry successfully led the firm’s efforts in campus planning, urban design, land use planning, zoning assistance and project site planning.
Mr. Good has been a member of the prestigious AIA College of Fellows since 1989, served on the National Board of Directors for AIA from 1990 to 1994, and has won the AIA Dallas President’s Medal and Young Architect of the Year awards. Larry carried the AICP certified planner credential for more than a decade. He is the recipient of the 2008 Kessler Award, the highest honor given by the Greater Dallas Planning Council and the 2011 Chairman’s Award from Downtown Dallas, Inc. In 2016, Larry received the Michael McAuley Lifetime Achievement Award from the North Texas Commercial Association of Realtors (NTCAR) and in 2018, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from CoreNet. Civic and industry activities include serving as Chairman of Downtown Dallas, Inc., President of the Greater Dallas Planning Council, Chairman of the Dallas Urban Design Advisory Committee and Chairman of the two Downtown Dallas TIF District Boards. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Episcopal School of Dallas and the Management Team for Parks for Downtown Dallas and has past Board service for The Dallas Plan, The Real Estate Council, Urban Land Institute and as a member of Leadership Dallas. He co-authored the AIA Guidebook to Dallas Architecture and Dallasights. Larry graduated Summa Cum Laude from The University of Texas.
In retirement, Larry spends half the year at the home he designed for his family in Santa Fe, NM. His volunteer activities there include chairing the El Zaguan Master Plan Committee for the Historic Santa Fe Foundation, serving on the Board of Directors for the Santa Fe Botanic Garden and informally advising the School for Advanced Research on their architect selection process and review of the school’s new campus master plan. In 2014, Good joined the investor team which purchased the historic La Fonda on the Plaza.
Timothy D. Maxwell, Ph.D., Board Director
Tim Maxwell was an archaeologist with the Museum of New Mexico for almost 30 years and is Director Emeritus of the museum’s Office of Archaeological Studies. As an archaeologist he worked across New Mexico and worked for eight field seasons in Mexico. In the mid-1980s, he served on city’s Historic Design Review Board and co-authored Santa Fe’s archaeological protection ordinance, the first such municipal ordinance in the U.S. Later involvement in historic preservation included serving as president of the Old Santa Fe Association and, along with other preservationists, received the John L. Chaffee Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. As an archaeologist he worked across the state and for 10 field seasons in northern Mexico, receiving a Fulbright Fellowship for research in that country. He currently serves on the board of the Santa Fe Archaeological Society.
Honorary Director
Randy Bell, President, Old Santa Fe Association
Volunteers and Individual Partnerships
Santa Fe Extension Master Gardeners, Garden Volunteers
Office volunteers: Jerry Allen, Jenifer Kirtland, Debra Trammell, and David Roe
William Mee, Agua Fria Village Association
Committees
Executive Committee - Determine board meeting agenda; entertain proposals from Board Directors
Anne McDonald Culp, Chair
Greg Walke, Vice Chair
Tony Sawtell, Secretary
Harlan Flint, Treasurer
Nick Wirth, Member-at-Large
Melanie McWhorter, HSFF Executive Director, ex officio
Finance Committee - Annual Budget, bank correspondence, 1099
Harlan Flint, Board Director, Chair
Tony Sawtell, Board Director
Melanie McWhorter, HSFF Executive Director, ex officio
Nominating Committee -Generate slate of officers; generate new board directors, review board membership expertise
Anne McDonald Culp, Chair
All Board Directors are on this committee.
Education, Research, and Archives Committee - Education: Youth education, child workbooks, salon talks, preservation workshops. Research: HSFF Register of Historic Places (with Property Comm); El Zaguán Interpretation Gallery, Mac Watson Fellow, Old Santa Fe Today (with Development Committee). Archives: Organization and determination of location of archives.
Anne McDonald Culp, Board Director, Chair
Nick Wirth, Board Director
Tim Maxwell, Board Director
Mac Watson, Volunteer
Audra Bellmore, Volunteer
Michael Reid, Volunteer
Hannah Hausmann, Volunteer
Lisa Nordstrom, Volunteer
Melanie McWhorter, Executive Director, ex officio
Hanna Churchwell, HSFF Education and Communications Coordinator
Giulia Caporuscio, HSFF Development Associate and Research Historian
Jacob Sisneros, HSFF Preservation Projects and Programs Manager, as needed.
Development Committee - Fundraising, El Zaguán Capital Campaign, Memberships, Stewards – membership and four events a year, Events, Old Santa Fe Today (also under ERA)
Larry Good, Board Director, Chair
Jenifer Kirtland, Volunteer
Anthony Penner, Volunteer
Melanie McWhorter, Executive HSFF Director, ex officio
Property Committee - El Zaguán Master Plan Renovations, Endangered Properties, John Gaw Meem Preservation Trades Internship, Preservation Easements, and HSFF Register of Historic Properties (also under ERA)
Greg Walke, Board Director, Chair
Larry Good, Board Director
Graciela Tomé, volunteer
Mac Watson, volunteer
Melanie McWhorter, Executive Director, ex officio
Jacob Sisneros, HSFF Preservation Projects and Programs Manager
El Zaguan Property Maintenance Partners - Winter 2021
Lambert Landscaping
Santa Fe Extension Master Gardeners
MGM Roofing
Sunwest Construction Specialties
Drain Surgeon
CaitCo Drainworks
Southwest Plastering
Cassidy’s Landscaping
Lightfoot Inc.
Silvia Arroyo