“The Commission focuses on creating healthy environments that promote positive behaviors.  We want young people to flourish – to be safe, connected, and inspired; engaged in learning about things that interest them and in developing skills that lead to future work possibilities.” 

Lynn has worked as staff for the Commission since its inception twenty years ago.  She helped start the Children and Youth Commission in 1989.  She works with community non-profits, programs in the public schools, appointed commission members, other grantmakers, and local elected officials to support the healthy development of young people, from birth through age twenty-one, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

 

Lynn is responsible for managing city grants awarded to local children and youth programs.  For fiscal year 2008-09, the city awarded $1,473,000 to 35 organizations.  This year the Commission had to reduce the amount of awards and number of grantees, but nevertheless has awarded one million dollars to 29 organizations. Over 50 programs are supported by these grants in the areas of early childhood development, healthy lifestyles, environmental education, youth leadership and work skills development, and supplementary programs for students in the public schools.  In addition, Lynn was responsible for directing the writing of the Children and Youth Strategic Plans, adopted unanimously by the City Council in 1999 and 2005. 

 

She is on the board of the Santa Fe County Maternal and Child Health Planning Council and is currently a member of the executive committee. Also on the board of the New Mexico Association of Grantmakers, Lynn brings a unique community perspective to the larger membership, especially in terms of social justice issues.  She is co-chair of the Children and Youth Affinity Group. 

 

Seeing that the special concerns of boys are addressed is a particular interest of Lynn’s. To this end, she serves on the editorial board of Santa Fe Boys newsletter.  Her dissertation research was a study of compliance and non-compliance in four year-old Santa Fe boys.

 

Lynn holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of New Mexico. Lynn’s education in anthropology was good preparation for this job.  She studied how children are raised in different cultures, human development, how to observe children in different settings, and Urban Anthropology.

 

She has also worked as an assistant professor at the College of Santa Fe teaching anthropology; as a parent educator, leading workshops on boys’ behavior for parents and teachers of young children; and as a consultant on organizational development for public school teachers and on career counseling with young adults.

 

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Lynn attended high school in Livorno, Italy, and has been living in Santa Fe, New Mexico since 1968.

 

She is the mother of two children who were born and raised in Santa Fe, Meredith and Jonathan Phillips, and has four grandchildren, Avery and Kielan Liu, who live in Los Angeles; and Evan and Nora Phillips, who live in Lakewood, Colorado.  

 

She enjoys playing the fiddle in the Santa Fe Community Megaband for Contra dances at Odd Fellows Hall, working in her xeriscaped garden, making beaded jewelry and writing poetry.