
Racial Healing and Renewal Program: BIPOC Cohort - Session Two
Additional Information
This session is part of the Racial Healing and Renewal Cohort, a four session cohort offers affinity space to explore various perspectives on race, engage in meaningful discussions, and learn from one another. Together, we aim to foster empathy, challenge biases, and build bridges towards a more inclusive society. Whether you are an advocate for racial justice, a curious learner, or simply interested in making a positive impact, our Racial Healing and Renewal Cohort welcomes individuals from all backgrounds in the nonprofit sector. Let's come together, listen, and grow as we embark on a journey towards racial healing and renewal.
Our 2025 cohort will engage in four virtual sessions. Members are expected to commit to attending all sessions and be open to consistent engagement and learning to establish a healing journey. These sessions are geared towards recovery and healing ourselves and our relationships in our lives. With the opportunity for support between sessions. Our discussions will cover a broad range of topics including:
- How we redefine safety in our lives
- How cancel culture is connected to whiteness, how it expresses in white bodies
- How call outs are weaponized
- Locating and recovering our interconnectedness
- What transformation and evolution looks like in the nonprofit space
- How our identities inform our recovery and relationships
- How grief practice supports forming relationship
- How we can interrupt white supremacy
Meet the people leading the conversation
Robert Blanquera Nelson
Robert Blanquera Nelson
Robert Blanquera Nelson is a Pilipino immigrant, working for racial justice in Albuquerque, NM. He has worked in the nonprofit sector for over 10 years. He has worked predominantly in homeless and housing services, having helped found Albuquerque’s first community housing-first initiative, Albuquerque Heading Home. He recently served as the Program Manager for Pivotal New Mexico, specializing in developing resources and investments for New Mexico. Currently, he serves as nonprofit consultant and anti-racism educator, having trained with the local Anti-Racism Training Institute of the Southwest (ARTI) and the Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB). He currently serves on the Housing and Neighborhood Economic Development Fund Committee with the City of Albuquerque and is the Co-Chair for Asian American Association of New Mexico, working to build a vibrant Asian Pacific Islander community throughout the state. Lastly, he is a community organizer for the Historic Neighborhoods Alliance in downtown Albuquerque. In his spare time, Robert is an avid swimmer and enjoys mobile video games, cooking, writing, reading, and playing guitar.
Meet the people leading the conversation
Robert Blanquera Nelson
Robert Blanquera Nelson
Robert Blanquera Nelson is a Pilipino immigrant, working for racial justice in Albuquerque, NM. He has worked in the nonprofit sector for over 10 years. He has worked predominantly in homeless and housing services, having helped found Albuquerque’s first community housing-first initiative, Albuquerque Heading Home. He recently served as the Program Manager for Pivotal New Mexico, specializing in developing resources and investments for New Mexico. Currently, he serves as nonprofit consultant and anti-racism educator, having trained with the local Anti-Racism Training Institute of the Southwest (ARTI) and the Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB). He currently serves on the Housing and Neighborhood Economic Development Fund Committee with the City of Albuquerque and is the Co-Chair for Asian American Association of New Mexico, working to build a vibrant Asian Pacific Islander community throughout the state. Lastly, he is a community organizer for the Historic Neighborhoods Alliance in downtown Albuquerque. In his spare time, Robert is an avid swimmer and enjoys mobile video games, cooking, writing, reading, and playing guitar.
Meet the people leading the conversation
HR Essentials: Hiring Right: A Process That Attracts the Right People
With Linda Strauss
A good hire is hard enough to find, and a bad one is costly. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates a bad hire costs an organization at least 30% of that employee's first-year earnings, and for a small nonprofit the damage to team dynamics and momentum can be even harder to recover from. This session covers writing job descriptions that actually reflect the role, posting and recruiting in ways that widen your candidate pool, reviewing a resume in no time flat, gauging whether a candidate will fit your culture, and conducting interviews that surface the right information (and stay on the right side of the law). You'll also learn the one interview question that will save you every time.
Funder Panel - Taos
With panelists CJ Grace, Taos Community Foundation; Linda Candelaria-Dodd, Con Alma Health Foundation; Erika Dávila, New Mexico Community Foundation; Mary Nell Wegner, Brindle Foundation; Mona Nozhackum, Taos Ski Valley; moderated by Tanner Martin, Taos Community Foundation
Join representatives from foundations and philanthropic organizations serving northern New Mexico for a conversation about today's funding landscape. Panelists will share their funding priorities, application processes, and perspectives on emerging community needs while offering participants the opportunity to ask questions and build a deeper understanding of how to cultivate strong, lasting funding relationships.
Leading Through Change, Conflict, or Crisis
With Marsie Silvestro & Sarah Silva
Nonprofit executive directors often navigate local politics, shifting organizational cultures, and public scrutiny — sometimes simultaneously. This session offers a supportive space for peer conversation and shared learning around leading through change, conflict, and crisis.