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 Northern 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 and stone 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 also teaches in the Adobe Construction Program at the Santa Fe Community College.

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.

Robin Jones

Development Director

rjones@cstones.org

Robin joined Cornerstones as Executive Director in 2009, at the beginning  of our Save America’s Treasure grant for Santa Fe’s San Miguel Chapel – a challenging community driven operation. After five years, she left CCP to work with other not for profits in New Mexico, Missouri, and Hawaiʻi. She returns now to continue working with CCP staff, board, community members, and volunteers as Cornerstones begins its next 30 years – continuing our mission and expanding our programs and outreach.

She received her Ph.D. in American Literature from University of Colorado in Boulder and is a St. John’s College (Santa Fe) graduate.

Isaiah Romo

Preservation Technician

Isaiah was born and raised in La Union, New Mexico, a small desert-agricultural community along the US-Mexico/Texas-New Mexico border. He is dedicated to the preservation of cultural traditions and practices throughout the borderlands and greater southwest. Isaiah worked as a wildland firefighter, traveling throughout North America helping to suppress wildfire as part of a 20 person crew. He holds a B.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico

Mayté Mendoza

Preservation Technician

Mayté Mendoza is a Fronteriza, and belongs to a long line of borderlands people from Northern Mexico. She grew up in Anthony, NM, within the New Mexico/Texas/Chihuahua border region. After graduating from Hamilton College with a sociology degree, she began farming in New Mexico in 2020 and began working with adobe in January 2024. In addition to working with Cornerstones out of Santa Fe, she is the Crew Lead for Pat Taylor’s non-profit Querencia Mi Mesilla. Mayte is passionate about recuperating and growing knowledges and practices associated with the land and culture of her home. She looks forward to a long lifetime of keeping her hands in the mud.

Paloma Sánchez

Administrative Assistant

paloma@cstones.org

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. Ohkay 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.

Ernest Aragon

Project manager

Ernest Aragon was born August 11,1948 in Las Vegas, NM. Attended West Las Vegas Schools and Highlands University majoring in math and physics. Lived two years in San Francisco, California in early seventies. Married Polly Garcia and had two children, Valentina and Marcello. Returned to NM and pursued a job in Law Enforcement while attending Central Community College getting certifications in Carpentry, Electrical, Welding, Cabinet Making, Roof Framing, Construction Management and Drafting. Worked part time for a painting contractor. Became a Brick Mason Apprentice for three years and became a union Masonry Journeyman. In 1980 after 11 years left law enforcement to work for the City of Albuquerque as a Construction Supervisor. In 1994 returned to law enforcement for the City of Albuquerque for ten more years. Built two personal Adobe homes while a police officer. In 1998 married Dolores Garcia. In 2004 retired from Law Enforcement. Returning to work at the City of Albuquerque for the Zoo as construction worker to update construction experience to pursue Contractor License. In 2006 I left the Zoo and received my Contractor License, a GB98. Built several adobe homes for clients and also did some commercial work for the Native American Pueblos. Also worked part time at Norther NM College and Santa Fe Community College as an adobe construction instructor. In 2023 gave up GB98 license to work on a retirement adobe home at Storrie Lake in Las Vegas, NM. Also built an adobe home for my daughter, Valentina at Storrie Lake. In 2024 joined Cornerstones to work at Luna Community College as an adobe construction instructor.