Secretary Panel

This is a 1.75 hour session.

State update from Cabinet Secretaries from CYFD, ALTSD, NMCD & HSD. Each secretary will give an a brief departmental update for issues that are significant to social work. They will also discuss how social workers contribute to the work that is done in each of the departments a/o the populations that they serve.

Presented by:

Katrina Hotrum-Lopez is the Cabinet Secretary for the State of New Mexico's Aging and Long-Term Services Department. When COVID-19 first hit New Mexico, she mobilized her team to stand up critical services like the food box packaging and distribution site that served more than half a million meals to tens of thousands of low income, homebound seniors and disabled adults across the state. Hotrum-Lopez also facilitated, through partnerships, the purchase and distribution of 340 Tablets that were sent to every nursing home in New Mexico, in order to keep residents connected with their loved one, and to allow monitoring within the facilities by State Officials. In collaboration with the Department of Health, Hotrum-Lopez created one of the first COVID-only nursing homes in the nation to help contain the spread of COVID-19 throughout the most vulnerable population, our seniors. Countless other initiatives have been created under her leadership to improve the ways in which the department serves New Mexico's seniors and disabled adults. As an impassioned leader she continues to spur her department towards innovations like on-demand services, unprecedented partnerships, and community collaborations to better support our state's aging population. Prior to being appointed to her post by Governor Michelle Lujan-Grisham in late 2019, she served as the Director of the Behavioral Health Services Department at Bernalillo County from 2016 to 2019 and previously served as the Director of the County’s substance abuse programs. From 2007 to 2010, Hotrum-Lopez was Deputy Cabinet Secretary of the State Department of Health, one of several roles she held there.

Brian Blalock -Cabinet Secretary, Children, Youth and Families

Alisha Tafoya Lucero - Cabinet Secretary, NM Corrections Department

David Scrase - Cabinet Secretary, Human Services Department

Tracie Collins - Cabinet Secretary, Department of Health

1.75 CEU's

NASW Member- $35
Non-Member- $50