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

Anne Kelly, Gallery and Shop Manager
anne@historicsantafe.org

Giulia Caporuscio, Education Manager and Historian
giulia@historicsantafe.org

Story Coleman, Community Liaison
story@historicsantafe.org

Board of Directors

Executive Committee

Larry Good, Board Chair
Larry Good is a lifelong Dallas resident with a passion for the city. After graduating Summa Cum Laude from The University of Texas in December of 1972, he returned to marry his high school sweetheart Barbara, build a career and raise his family in the city he loves. Among his greatest pleasures is seeing his three adult children thriving in careers related to architecture and watching the design firm he founded, GFF, have continued success in the years following his retirement. Larry enjoyed civic and industry activities which followed the same orientation toward planning and urban design in Dallas as did his life within GFF, with a particular focus on restoring the vibrancy of Downtown Dallas and its surrounding districts. He served as long-time board member and Chairman of Downtown Dallas, Inc., President of the Greater Dallas Planning Council, Chairman of the Dallas Urban Design Advisory Committee and sat on the Management Team for Parks for Downtown Dallas. He served on the Board of Directors of The Dallas Plan, Uptown Dallas, The McKinney Avenue Trolley, The Real Estate Council, Urban Land Institute, Episcopal School of Dallas and now Preservation Park Cities. Larry served as President of AIA/Dallas in 1986 and served on the National Board of Directors for AIA from 1990 to 1994. He was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in 1989 at the age of 38. He was 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. Larry has received four lifetime achievement awards, from the North Texas Commercial Association of Realtors (NTCAR), CoreNet Global, Dallas Business Journal and the Dallas Chapter of AIA. In retirement, Larry spends half the year at the home he designed for his family in Santa Fe, NM, where he serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Historic Santa Fe Foundation, and as a Board Director for The Santa Fe Botanical Garden. Larry led HSFF through the master plan process for renovations to their historic headquarters El Zaguan and chaired the capital campaign to fund the project. In 2020, he designed and authored a book for Preservation Park Cities titled A House for Texas, which ultimately helped save Dallas’s treasured Elbert Williams Residence from impending demolition. His most recent book, The Houses of the Park Cities, designed to inspire preservation of that community’s rich architectural legacy, was published in April, 2024.

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.

Tim Sweeney, Secretary
Tim Sweeney moved to Taos in 2022 after many years as a fascinated visitor from Denver. Tim’s career as a lawyer included advising Colorado and New Mexico land trusts (including Taos Land Trust) in a wide range of conservation easement transactions and stewardship matters. Tim has more than 30 years’ experience representing real estate investors, developers, lenders, shopping center tenants and landlords and global media companies in complex real estate and corporate transactions. As in-house attorney and corporate secretary at a publicly traded company, Tim advised a corporate board of directors in financial reporting, corporate governance, legal compliance and executive compensation. After retiring as a lawyer, Tim was appointed Secretary and member of the board of directors of Taos Land Trust. Tim also stays busy as a grateful steward of his home orchard and acequia, taking advantage of ski days and local hiking and cycling trips whenever time permits.

Michael Casey, Treasurer
Michael Casey Michael Casey is a banking industry executive with over 50 years of experience in community bank operations, management, executive leadership, finance, and strategic planning. Throughout his career, Mike has held senior management and board positions at several Dallas banks, culminating in the purchase of Grand Bank of Texas in 1987. Mike served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Grand Bank until 2019 when the bank was purchased by Bancorp South (now Cadence Bank). He served as Area Chairman for Bancorp South until 2022, at which time he joined the board of Oakwood Bank, Dallas, and has served as President and Chief Lending Officer. Mike has served on the board of Texas Bankers Association, Independent Bankers Association of Texas, American Bank of Texas, Harold’s Stores, and Lone Star Park Charitable Foundation. In post 9/11, Mike was selected to attend the FBI Citizens Academy. He is a former trustee for The Kessler School in Dallas and served as a trustee and Treasurer for Texas Can Academies and Texas Cars for Kids, a Texas statewide nonprofit organization serving approximately 5,000 underprivileged youth. He was awarded the Dallas Business Journal Outstanding Director Award for his work with Texas Can Academies. Currently Mike sits on the board of Visiting Nurses Association/Meal on Wheels of North Texas and is a member of the Methodist Hospital of Dallas Advisory Board. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. He and his wife, Becky, maintain residences in both Dallas and Santa Fe.

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

Jim Baker, Board Director
Jim Baker was born in Rogersville which is a small town in the northeast corner of Tennessee. It is the second oldest town in Tennessee and is where Davey Crockett’s parents are buried. The Baker side of his family is listed with a state historic register as a “First Family of Tennessee” which is a recognition given to families who can document that they are descended from someone who lived in Tennessee prior to it becoming a state in 1776.

At some point in the 40’s, his Father got a job working construction in Oak Ridge, TN which was part of the Manhattan Project and still a government town when they moved there in 1954. Jim went from a school where 1st grade through the 12th grade was in the same building to what was probably one of the best school systems in the country, and where the students were from families that had moved there from all over the U.S. Prior to moving to Oak Ridge, he had never heard a northern accent and had never been out of the state of Tennessee.

He went to undergraduate and graduate school at the University of Tennessee and since graduating has been involved in a variety of positions with companies both in the U.S. and internationally for the past 55 years. Jim has been a co-managing partner of a private equity firm based in Chattanooga, Tennessee for the past 32 years. He has two adult sons who live in Chattanooga. His older son has a degree in chemical engineering and an MBA and his younger has an MD degree and an MBA. Jim has five grandchildren with the youngest graduating from high school this year and the oldest graduated from college two years ago. Victoria Addison, who owns Addison Rowe Fine Art in Santa Fe, is a long-term partner and they spend most of our free time hiking and traveling.

Timothy D. Maxwell, Ph.D, Board Director
A career archaeologist, he has been active in historic preservation since the early 1980s when he served on the Historic Design Review Board and co-authored Santa Fe’s archaeological protection ordinance. He is Director Emeritus of the Museum of New Mexico’s Office of Archaeological Studies and was a member of the state’s Cultural Properties Review Committee. Various boards on which he was a member since the early 2000s include the Old Santa Fe Association, the Santa Fe Archaeological Society, and the Friends of Archaeology. He and his wife, Ann, play music and enjoy camping.

Lisa Nordstrum, Board Director
Lisa Nordstrum currently teaches seventh grade New Mexico history at Santa Fe Preparatory School, as well as an Upper School elective course she created, “Southwestern Women: Conviction, Culture and Change”. She graduated from Colorado College with a major in Southwest Studies and a minor in Women's Studies, earned her NM K-12 teaching certification at the University of New Mexico, and has completed many graduate level courses in a variety of Southwestern topics. A native Santa Fean from a family of educators, Lisa has taught and tutored in local public and private schools for 25 years. Lisa worked in the museum world as well: as a field researcher in northern New Mexico with the School for Advanced Research; as an educator at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture; and in the development of educational programs for the New Mexico History Museum. Through funding from the New Mexico State Legislature, Lisa developed and authored a K-12 NM State Standards aligned curriculum for the New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program. This ongoing educational endeavor to educate students throughout the state about significant female historical figures recently received an additional three years of funding from the state. One of Lisa’s primary goals as an educator is to create meaningful learning experiences for students to discover the significance of multiple perspectives and narratives in the telling of a comprehensive story of New Mexico, while developing a personal sense of stewardship and preservation.

Becca Snyder, Board Director
Becca Snyder, born and raised in Ohio, was drawn to the Southwest by its sunshine, landscape, and rich culture. In 2012, during a co-op placement in graduate school, Becca moved to Santa Fe to work with Barbara Felix Architecture + Design on the guestroom renovation of La Fonda on the Plaza. She was captivated by the stories, research, and creativity involved in renovating that iconic and historic building. Becca moved to Santa Fe in 2017 after finishing graduate school, earning her architect license, and gaining professional experience practicing architecture in Ohio. Barbara Felix welcomed her in as a partner in the coming years and changed the company name to Woven Architecture, a firm known for experiential design, cultural resonance, curiosity, and genuine tradition. In addition to work with La Fonda, Becca has experience providing building conditions assessments, preservation plans, and architectural design work for a myriad of clients including the Santa Fe Train Depot, Indian Arts Research Center at the School for Advanced Research, Yonan An Cultural Complex at the Pueblo of Isleta, Main Library Branch and City Hall for the City of Santa Fe, the New Mexico History Museum, and at our very own El Zaguán.

Honorary Director
Randy Bell, President, Old Santa Fe Association

Volunteers

Santa Fe Extension Master Gardeners, Garden Volunteers
Office volunteers: Pam Austin, Shelley Robinson, David Roe, Irene Sadler, and Debra Trammell
Property volunteers: Tom Collet, John Gregory, and Willie Lambert
Docents: Jan Collett and Jenifer Kirtland

Committees

Executive Committee - Determine board meeting agenda; entertain proposals from Board Directors
Larry Good, Chair
Greg Walke, Vice Chair
Tim Sweeney, Secretary
Michael Casey, 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
Jim Baker, Board Director
Melanie McWhorter, HSFF Executive Director, ex officio

Nominating Committee -Generate slate of officers; generate new board directors, review board membership expertise
Larry Good, 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.
Nick Wirth, Board Director, Chair
Lisa Nordstrum, Board Director
Tim Maxwell, Board Director
Anne McDonald Culp, Volunteer
Mac Watson, Volunteer
Audra Bellmore, Volunteer
Michael Reid, Volunteer
Hannah Hausman, Volunteer
Melanie McWhorter, Executive Director, ex officio
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
Becca Snyder, Board Director
Graciela Tomé, volunteer
Mac Watson, volunteer
Melanie McWhorter, Executive Director, ex officio
Jacob Sisneros, HSFF Preservation Projects and Programs Manager