Trinette Robichaux-Cichock

Executive Director

TRobichaux@cstones.org

Before joining Cornerstones, Trinette was the Director of Strategic Initiatives at St. Michael’s High School, where she worked to establish a full-time director of the San Miguel Chapel. Previously she was the principal of Tse’ Yi Gai High School on the Navajo Nation in Pueblo Pintado, New Mexico. At Tse’ Yi Gai, Trinette led the campaign to restore the school’s hogan. Once restored, the hogan became the center of Navajo language and culture classes and a gathering place for community usages such as Sings and other events. Before moving to New Mexico, Trinette was the President of Cassata Catholic High School in Fort Worth, Texas. At Cassata, she oversaw all development activities and increased the visibility and financial strength of the school. Trinette received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Texas at Arlington. She then pursued her Ph.D. in History at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is currently working on a certificate in Sustainable Preservation at Cornell University. She has lived and taught in Odesa, Ukraine; Ecser, Hungary; Montreal, Canada; and Paris, France. Although a Cajun by birth, Trinette considers New Mexico home. She and her husband, Mark, enjoy adding green chile to their gumbo and walking their four dogs together.

JAKE BARROW

PROGRAM Director

Jbarrow@cstones.org

Jake joined Cornerstones as Program Director in 2009 after retiring from a thirty-year historic preservation career from the National Park Service. The majority of those years were spent in the southwest focusing on earthen, stone and timber architecture where he served as project manager and architectural conservator. He began his career as a carpentry contractor in 1970 and started working in historic preservation in 1978 in the National Capital Region of the NPS. He first volunteered for Cornerstones in 1987 shortly after moving to Santa Fe. He was named Executive Director in April of 2016. In December of 2020 he returned to his former position of Program Director

He earned a B.F.A from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and his post graduate studies include architectural conservation certificates from the ARC course and Stone course at the International Center for the Study of Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) in Rome and Venice, Italy. He is the 1996 recipient of the Appleman-Judd Award for Cultural Resource Stewardship in the NPS. He received the 2002 New Mexico Heritage Preservation Award and in 2015 he received the New Mexico Lifetime Achievement Heritage Preservation Award.

Issac Logsdon

Assistant Program director

Issac@cstones.org

Issac is the Assistant Program Director for Cornerstones. With deep family roots throughout New Mexico, learning traditional building skills has been a way to reconnect with the land-based traditions that have skipped a generation in his family. Issac has worked on adobe preservation projects at Pecos National Historical Park, Fort Bowie National Historic Site, Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Joshua Tree National Park, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Death Valley National Park, various projects on BLM land, and in our community here in Northern New Mexico. He is also involved in a community garden along the Santa Fe River, just a couple of blocks from where his great-grandmother’s garden once flourished.

Kateri Lopez

Restoration Technician

Kateri@cstones.org

Kateri Lopez grew up in the heart of the south valley in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she spent much of her childhood raising cows, growing vegetables, and digging ditches. Her introduction to Cornerstones was as an intern working on the Rael Ranch Acequia Restoration Project. While working on this project, her love for this region, its communities, and surrounding cultural heritage was reignited. Kateri is currently working as a Restoration Technician and has reconnected with building materials and methods that her family has used for generations. She has expressed that working to preserve intergenerational cultural knowledge is one thing that inspires her in her work with Cornerstones, whose mission it is to assist communities with their historic preservation projects with an emphasis on hand-on, intergenerational learning. Kateri believes that cultivating friendships through a desire to preserve a traditional craft is an experience that is truly singular. She is grateful to those who have shared their knowledge and history with her and is looking forward to learning more about historic preservation as she continues her work with Cornerstones.

Aastha Singh

Intern Architect

Coming from the land of spices and vibrant cultural heritage, Aastha moved from New Delhi, India to New Mexico in 2017 to attend the Master of Architecture program at the University of New Mexico. The spicy green chile, breath-taking sunsets, and floating hot air balloons bespeckling the horizon, enchanted her imagination. The high desert landscape dotted with beautiful, yet humble adobe structures reminded her of similar architecture she had seen back home.

She was introduced to mud architecture for the first time in the deep forests of Sasan Gir (home to the Asiatic Lion). As part of a study on behalf of her Architecture school, she lived with the local Siddi tribe members, gained appreciation for their lifestyle, social structure, customs, and mud construction techniques-which were in perfect harmony with nature. This study trip left a long-lasting effect on her design ideology and understanding of sustainability. Upon attending the Earth and Bamboo workshop in Auroville, Pondicherry, and the Earth Conference in Santa Fe, she realized her love for the humble material and the value of vernacular architecture. She joined Cornerstones Community Partnerships in December 2020, eager to learn more about the heritage, traditions, and construction techniques of the radiant Southwest!

Apart from being inquisitive about new cultures and experiences, Aastha is an avid traveler and amateur photographer. She enjoys challenging hikes, riding her scooter, and making watercolor sketches in her spare time. You will often find her building her own furniture, tending to her many plants, and experimenting with different cuisines.

Eric Calvert

PROJECT MANAGER

John Eric Calvert (Eric) is from Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. He was first introduced to adobe when he was 12 years old by his uncle, who enlisted him to help repair his dilapidated summer farm home outside of the pueblo. Eric developed a passion for all aspects of adobe work and today is an accomplished adobero, specializing in mud and lime plastering, as well as adobe stabilization and carpentry.  He joined Avanyu General Construction in the 21-adobe home preservation project at Ohkay Owingeh pueblo in 2010 and continues to work with them on several preservation projects, including the restoration of the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo. Okay Owingeh has embarked on a multi-year project to rehabilitate the historic core of the pueblo. Eric joined Pat Taylor Inc. in 2011 to work on the restoration of the San Francisco Presidio, Meyers Spring Ranch, Fort Garland, the Armijo Restoration Project and the Marfa Silla Project in Texas.  He is currently a part time Project Manager with Cornerstones, restoring one of the historic homes on Plaza Del Cerro in Chimayo, leading a viga repair workshop at Wupatki National Monument and repairing adobe walls on a Death Valley National Park building.

KURT GARDELLA

PROJECT MANAGER

Kurt Gardella specializes in online and field-based adobe construction education with a focus on adobe brick production, wall construction and natural plaster. He holds a Certificate in Adobe Construction from Northern New Mexico College and is also certified as a Specialist for Building with Earth (Registration #01-208-0810) by the Dachverband Lehm (German Association for Building with Earth) and the Handwerkskammer Ulm (Ulm Chamber of Trades and Crafts). He currently teaches for Adobe in Action, Santa Fe Community College and Adobe is not Software.

DON SENA

PROJECT MANAGER

Don Sena is a graduate of Santa Fe High School and studied Geology and Physics at New Mexico Highlands University and New Mexico State University. He began volunteering with Cornerstones in 2011 at San Miguel Chapel where he learned techniques of adobe restoration. As a project manager, Don does site inspections, work estimates, and supervises interns and volunteers. Prior to working at Cornerstones, he worked at New Mexico Department of Transportation for twenty-six years, was a supervisor on an oil rig for four years, and was an underground miner at a uranium mine for four years.

Randy Skeirik

Project manager

With nearly 35 years of experience in the field of historic preservation, Randy Skeirik is a licensed architect with a master’s degree in architecture and a Certificate in Historic Preservation from the University of Virginia. He has dedicated his career to the preservation of historic structures throughout the United States  Randy has extensive experience in the interpretation and application of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties through his work with two State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs) and nonprofit preservation organizations  For the last fifteen years of his career he served as an Historical Architect with the Vanishing Treasures Program of the National Park Service where he gained considerable experience with traditional earthen architecture. Randy is currently leading the Lake Valley (near Hillsboro, NM) Preservation projects. Training workshops include restoring a miner’s adobe home, roofing, bat remediation and window and door restoration. In a very rural and isolated area, Randy has been working safely by himself with intermittent help from the BLM site volunteer. Lake Valley was a particularly important silver mining town in the late 19th century that went bust overnight and is now an interpreted and often visited ghost town managed by the Bureau of Lands Management.