Gwen Perea Warniment Named President and CEO of the LANL Foundation
The LANL Foundation selected Dr. Gwen Perea Warniment to serve as the organization’s next President and Chief Executive Officer following an extensive national search to...
The LANL Foundation selected Dr. Gwen Perea Warniment to serve as the organization’s next President and Chief Executive Officer following an extensive national search to identify the Foundation’s next leader. Established by a congressional act and appropriation in 1997, the LANL Foundation was created to further educational opportunities for K-12 students in the seven counties surrounding Los Alamos National Laboratory. It has since expanded its work into early childhood education as well as college and career readiness and placement via supplemental grant funding. The Foundation has also given over $12 million in scholarships to more than 2,500 students over the past 26 years.
Dr. Perea Warniment returns to the LANL Foundation after serving as Director of the influential Legislative Education Study Committee, the staff organization responsible for advising public education policy statewide. Previously, she served as Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment at the New Mexico Public Education Department where she directed a budget of more than $100 million, oversaw the statewide literacy initiative, student assessment system, college and career readiness initiatives, and development of strategies to build the educator workforce.
From 2013 to 2019, Perea Warniment served as a program director for the LANL Foundation, establishing and directing programs that have expanded and endured, including the ISEC program, scholarships for educators to gain National Board Certifications, and establishing the Foundation’s Teacher Leader Cadre, which was expanded to a fellowship this year.
An accomplished lifelong professional, born-and-raised New Mexican, and advocate of education at all levels, she brings over two decades of experience in education, ranging from teaching at the K-12 and university level to statewide policy and administration.
“I am deeply honored to step into the role of President and CEO for the LANL Foundation. It is an immense privilege to be entrusted with leading the LANL Foundation into its next chapter. The Foundation’s legacy of investing in education and learning across Northern New Mexico is both humbling and inspiring. I am eager to collaborate with the extraordinary team and committed Board to build upon their success, continuing to champion innovative solutions and uplift communities, while also recognizing the profundity of talent and wisdom that already exists in our communities,” Perea Warniment said.
Perea Warniment holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and Bilingual STEM Education from New Mexico State University, a Master’s Degree in Education and Reading from New Mexico Highlands University, and Bachelor’s Degrees in English and Spanish from the University of New Mexico.
WittKieffer’s Suzanne Teer, Ashley Buderus, and Eleanor Vogelsang led this search.
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