Coalition For Pets

Elaine relocated to Las Cruces from Edison, New Jersey in 2005. Her undergrad degree is in English from the University of Chicago, and she has a JD cum laude from Pace Law School in White Plains, NY.

Currently, she works for the NMSU Foundation in regional advancement, reconnecting successful alumni with State, working primarily in Colorado, California, and the Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex. She is also a freelance editor and writer (serving as vice president for the Las Cruces Press Women), and a voiceover actor hopeful, recently doing a PSA for the NM Department of Health. 

A third generation New Mexican, Billy G. Garrett was elected in 2010 to fill the District One seat on the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners. District One extends from the historic neighborhoods and downtown area of Las Cruces west to Picacho Hills and Mesilla, and south along Highways 28 and 478 to the northern boundary of Anthony.  As a Commissioner, Garrett has pushed for measures that support development of sustainable communities, led efforts toward use of a strategic plan to guide county government, and pursued solutions to problems raised by his constituents. He also serves on a number of public boards and committees, including: the South Central Solid Waste Authority, the Animal Services Center of the Mesilla Valley, and the Policy Committee of the Metropolitan Planning Authority.

Garrett grew up in Las Cruces and graduated from Las Cruces High School.  He holds a Bachelor of Architecture and a graduate degree in Anthropology from Arizona State University. He is co-chair of the Coalition for Pets and People, and a member of the board of directors of the Friends of the Taylor Family Monument. He has been actively involved in community efforts to recognize and address “Quality of Life” issues—as a co-chair for the 2012 & 2013 J. Paul Taylor Symposium and more recently in organization of the Ocotillo Institute for Social Justice.

In 1983 Garrett began a 26-year career as an architect and manager with the National Park Service. Over the course of his career he worked at Grand Canyon National Park, on Civil War battlefields and in the nation’s capital.