CLE Staff

Ron Solimon (Laguna Pueblo)

Director

Ron Solimon is former Executive Director of the Albuquerque-based Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (IPCC). Ron earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree majoring in Marketing from New Mexico State University and a Juris Doctor from the University of New Mexico School of Law.
 
He has and continues to serve on several national, regional and local boards, including the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association, the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development, the Laguna Development Corporation and the Tourism Association of New Mexico.
 
During his career Ron has received many honors and recognition, including the 2008 Junior Achievement of New Mexico’s New Mexico Business Hall of Fame as a “Business Laureate” and the 1998 U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Person of the Year for the State of New Mexico. In 2009, New Mexico Secretary of State Mary Herrera paid tribute to Ron “For His Devotion and Endless Dedication to the Native American Electorate, Native American Voting Rights, and the Native American Election Information Program.”

Luke Reed

USDA Land Grants Manager

Luke Reed has a broad agricultural background. Growing up in Oklahoma, he was exposed to farming and ranching at an early age, and became very active in the local Future Farmers of America chapter.  Luke has a special interest in the history of agriculture, particularly Indigenous agriculture. Professor Reed earned a B.S. in Agriculture Education from Oklahoma State University.

Before coming to IAIA, he served as the Agriscience Program Coordinator and Instructor for Santa Fe Indian School for seven years. This experience provides Luke with a unique perspective on the agriculture issues in Pueblo communities, as well as other Indigenous cultures. He also has served on various state and national agriculture-related boards.

Ramus Suina (Cochiti Pueblo)

Tribal Outreach Specialist
Former Governor-Cochiti Pueblo

Ramus Suina is former Governor of Cochiti Pueblo, and served for six years on the Board of Directors for the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center (IPCC). Before becoming the Tribal Relations Specialist for the Center for Lifelong Education (CLE), he held the position of IAIA’s Enrollment Management/Admissions Director for 16 years and managed the Financial Aid, Student Recruitment and the Registrar’s Office.

Mr. Suina is an alumnus of IAIA with a BA degree in Psychology and Counseling.

Ramus is also a life-time educator, tribal advocate, and lobbyist, as well as a member of many national Native American organizations.  For the state of New Mexico, he served as the Executive Director for the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA).  He has also served as IPCC’s Museum Director, and has been a member of the State, Regional and National Museum Associations. Additionally, he served on the Al Indian Pueblo Council’s (AIPC) Acquisition Committee.

Jacquelyn A. Gutierrez (Santa Clara Pueblo)

Office Coordinator

Jacquelyn A. Gutierrez comes to IAIA with 15 years of environmental experience and will continue to work with communities to provide outreach in various agriculture and environmental projects.  She has assisted with educational outreach to Native communities, and has planed and coordinated a five-day technical and cultural summer camp, which would allows students hands-on training in the areas of water, air, soils/sustainable agriculture, ecology, forest restoration, benthic macro-invertebrate surveys, and emergency response.  She has also been responsible for researching grants, instructors, recruitment and logistical planning.  

Jacquelyn has also worked with the Indigenous Communities Mapping Initiative with Santa Clara Pueblo and was responsible for the cultural environmental impacts of the Pueblo’s past, present, and future operations through a cultural database. She has also monitored plan compliance with knowledgeable strategies for tribal cultural and historic preservation laws, section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, Executive order on Protection of Sacred Sites, and Archaeological Resources Protection Act.

She comes from a family who has been involved in Native traditional dry farming and has kept and maintained the methods from one generation to the next.