Los Alamos County Council Chair Denise Derkacs

LWVLA News:

The next “Lunch with a Leader”, an event for the entire community hosted by the League of Women Voters of Los Alamos (LWVLA), is noon Thursday, Jan. 19, via zoom.

The leader is Los Alamos County Council Chair Denise Derkacs. She was elected to Council two years ago and has served as vice chair this past year. Prior to her election, she served for more than two years as a volunteer on the Community Development Advisory Board.

Derkacs retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory after 20 years of employment. She worked as a chief of staff to senior management most of her career, having started as a technical writer and editor. She previously worked on newspapers in Texas, Iowa and Hawaii.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Rutgers University in New Jersey and a Master’s degree in Organizational Communication from the University of New Mexico.

Derkacs was born and raised in New Jersey, but has lived in 10 states and came to New Mexico 40 years ago as a trailing spouse with three pre-school age sons. Derkacs and her husband Dennis now have seven grandchildren. They travel as time permits and have toured 25 countries on five continents. 

At the Jan. 19 meeting, Derkacs will discuss how Council could be more transparent in its decision making, feedback from the public, how Council could establish a procedure for environmental review early in the planning stages of a proposed project, as well as other topics.

To attend the meeting via zoom, register here.