Tony Fox, Vice President for Operations and Advancement of the LANL Foundation, speaks at the July 14 meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Los Alamos. Courtesy/Kiwanis
By BROOKE DAVIS
Kiwanis Club of Los Alamos
Tony Fox, Vice President for Operations and Advancement of the LANL Foundation, presented an overview of the organization and an update on its programs and activities at the July 14 meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Los Alamos. The LANL Foundation has been investing in education in Northern New Mexico since 1997.
It is a regional nonprofit that, through education, strives to enrich the lives and economic opportunities of residents of 18 Native American tribal nations and seven Northern New Mexico counties along the North Central Rio Grande corridor. Their mission is to inspire excellence in education and learning in Northern New Mexico through innovative programming, collaboration, and advocacy.
Fox described the foundation’s “cradle to college” focus for children pre-natal to college. Knowing that the first 3 years of a child’s life are the most important for brain development, they began with the Early Childhood Program which involves advocacy for home visits, establishing their Education Training Initiative for mindful and nourishing parenting, statewide advocacy for addressing early childhood development, assistance in increasing family participation in the eight Northern Indian Pueblo communities, assessing needs for the Grandparents/Kin Raising Children advisory council, and forming the Rio Arriba County Early Childhood Collaborative to better network and understand the services being offered to young children and their families.
The K-12 Program supports school Leaders and Districts, provides teachers with professional development, and works to recruit and retain educators. Through the Inquiry Science Education Consortium (ISEC), materials and training for STEM teaching are provided for students in grades K-6. ISEC serves 47 elementary schools across 8 school districts, including 570 teachers and approximately 11,000 students.
The Pathways Program was established in 2020 to create equitable opportunities in Northern New Mexico. The areas of focus are expanding opportunities for underrepresented youth, improving career technical education opportunities, building a work-based learning ecosystem, strengthening native American workforce development, and transforming New Mexico’s high schools.
The LANL Foundation is well known for the scholarships it provides for 4-year college bachelor’s degrees, associate’s degrees, or certification in any field or trade. Since 1999, LANL Foundation has partnered with the Los Alamos Employee’s Scholarship Fund to award more than 2,000 scholarships worth more than $10 million.