Staff

Sarah Noss
Executive Director

Sarah Noss is a native of Santa Fe and brings decades of experience in both organizational advancement and program development to the Santa Fe Conservation Trust.  After graduating from Stanford University, she returned to Santa Fe, where she worked for many years in advertising as vice president of Creative Images.  After a brief stint in Paris, she came back to the States and ended up in Chicago for almost a decade where she worked in advertising and promotions in the publishing industry.  She returned to Santa Fe in the early 90s and worked for a variety of nonprofits as a writer, consultant, fundraiser and grant writer.  She worked for four years at St. Vincent Hospital Foundation and was responsible for raising the money for the Healing Garden at the Cancer Treatment Center and for creating and funding the Doula Program of childbirth assistants.  She helped to fund the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner unit at the hospital and worked on the capital campaign for the renovation of the OB/GYN unit.  After the hospital, Sarah was the development director at Cornerstones Community Partnerships, an historic preservation nonprofit, and from there became the executive director of the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute, where she served from 2005 to 2013.  During her tenure, the $5 million Farmers’ Market Building in the Railyard was conceived, funded and completed.  She also initiated the Institute’s programs to support the farmers of northern New Mexico and getting fresh food to as many people in the community as possible.  Prior to becoming the executive director at the Santa Fe Conservation Trust in 2016, Sarah worked as a nonprofit consultant, helping Kitchen Angels conceive and implement its $1.3 million capital campaign to purchase and expand its facility.

Melissa Houser
Land Program Manager

Melissa Houser is an avid outdoorswoman, researcher, conservationist, environmentalist, and vegan chef. Melissa is grateful to assist the Santa Fe Conservation Trust in preserving and connecting her local stomping grounds of northern New Mexico.  In addition to the conservation and stewardship experience gained working for SFCT since 2009, Melissa has experience in the areas of financial administration, office management, database system administration, customer service and marketing.  With a Master of Philosophy from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and a Bachelor of Arts from Pitzer College Melissa obtained solid training in research, writing, proofreading and analysis.  Melissa’s background in theatre and sales give her exceptional communication, organizational and computer skills. 

McAllister Scott Yeomans
Operations Manager

A native Santa Fean, McAllister grew up in Galisteo where he learned to love the land; he went on to graduate from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, where he learned to love old books. Previous to his employment at SFCT, he spent nine years involved in printing, editing, research and graphic design.  McAllister looks forward to working in land conservation and occasionally being allowed to play in the dirt.

Tim Rogers
Trails Program Manager

As SFCT’s Trails Program Manager since the start of 2014, Tim Rogers organizes volunteers to help maintain and build local trails, plans new trails and other improvements for bicyclists and pedestrians in our area in collaboration with various public and private partners, takes hundreds of local students out to public trails and open space each year through the Passport to Trails program, supports SFCT’s “Vamonos/Santa Fe Walks” series of 30 annual community walks, and coordinates the multi-faceted Safe Routes to School program promoting walking and biking to school in Santa Fe.  

Tim is well-known in the Santa Fe area for his “Community Cruise” bicycle rides and for creating the first edition of the Santa Fe Metropolitan Bicycle Master Plan, which was adopted by the City and County in 2012.  He has Master’s Degrees in Community and Regional Planning as well as Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico.  Prior to joining SFCT, Tim brought over twenty years of experience working in the public sector and as a consultant to the New Mexico Departments of Transportation and Health, the Santa Fe Metropolitan Planning Organization, UNM’s Prevention Research Center, and community partners around the state to plan for and promote walking and bicycling as “active transportation.”  Tim currently serves on the City Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee’s “Technical Review Subcommittee.”

In 2019, Tim helped organize a NM Rail History Celebration in Santa Fe, including presenting on rails-to-trails and rail trail opportunities throughout the state, in Historic Rails and Trails, an expansion on Santa Fe-focused material Tim had presented in 2015, Rail Trails as Creative Heritage Trails.  In 2016, Tim was honored for his long record of local advocacy work with the “Gail Ryba Bicycling Advocate of the Year Award.”  In 2015, Tim received national recognition for his statewide work to promote physically-active transportation in the form of the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors‘ “Cullen Award.”  

Joanne Smogor
Events & Development Officer

Over the past 13 years living in Santa Fe, Joanne has worked as a consultant with over 20 nonprofit organizations in the areas of fundraising, event planning, strategic planning, program development, marketing, and volunteer management. For seven of those years, her work was devoted to the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute. Prior to making the move to New Mexico, she lived in New Hampshire for 16 years, first as owner of a health promotion/wellness business and after, as an administrator for 22 schools in the Manchester school district – the largest district in the state – coordinating a federal prevention program focused upon youth behaviors. Building upon the community involvement that took place in this federally funded initiative, she founded and became Executive Director of a nonprofit organization that formed a coalition of over 100 organizations and businesses to implement strategies for the positive development of youth. When recruited to work for the Student Conservation Association (SCA) as the Northeast Regional Director, she traveled between New England, New York, and New Jersey to oversee SCA’s initiatives in the eight-state region.

Joanne has always been a “teacher” of one kind or another — her first professional role was high school teaching and after her graduate degree taught for the University of Illinois. She now spends some of her time teaching meditation and spiritual development through Buddhism and many other traditions.

Ariel Patashnik
Land Protection Project Manager

Ariel is thrilled to be working with SFCT to conserve the special places and beautiful landscapes of northern New Mexico. She grew up in San Diego and came to love wide open spaces on family road trips around the West. After college and grad school on the east coast, Ariel was lucky to land in Santa Fe working on conservation easement stewardship for the New Mexico Land Conservancy. She then returned to California for a time, doing land protection work for Sonoma Land Trust, before being drawn back to the Land of Enchantment. Ariel is inspired by the connection of people to place and by the potential for conservation to bring people together. In her free time she loves running, hiking, and being yanked here and there by her aging New Mexico Brown Dog. (He is happy to be home.)

Brian Jensen
Organizational  Advancement Officer

Brian comes to the Santa Fe Conservation Trust after almost a decade advancing the mission at NDI New Mexico, where he served in leadership roles including Chief of Staff, Board Liaison, and Development Strategist. He is very excited to be working with the SFCT aligning his personal interests in the outdoors and nature with a mission to keep northern New Mexico’s living lands and people flourishing together and igniting people’s own passions for nature.

Brian holds degrees in finance and photography from the University of Idaho and Santa Fe Community College. He has had a diverse career that has included serving as an English tutor for professionals in Prague and as an Investor Relations Analyst for Thornburg Mortgage in Santa Fe. Throughout, he has come to all his professional endeavors with curiosity and a desire to build new relationships and networks.

Originally from southern Idaho, Brian has resided in Santa Fe since 2008 and considers it his home. A large influence on his life has been the Rocky Mountains and their diverse landscapes, wildlife, and cultural vibrancy. Brian holds passions for playing outside in all four seasons, geography and maps, and photography. He is service-oriented and holds enthusiasm for positive social change in his community. He loves all the trails in Santa Fe and would have a hard to time choosing a favorite. Brian is married to Jessica and they live with two senior beagles, Burčák and Bogus.

Melanie Solis Alvarez
Stewardship Associate

Melanie was born and raised in Santa Fe, and loved being outdoors since a young age. She loved learning geography and collecting rocks, and having fun camping days with family playing in the Nambe River. She lived in Portland, Oregon for four years while working towards her Bachelors in Environmental Science from the University of Portland. Afterwards, she came back home to New Mexico, missing the chile and sunsets and is excited to be working with SFCT.

Antoinette Armijo-Rougemont
Accounting Associate

I am a proud multi-generational Santa Fean, born and raised on beautiful Upper Canyon Road where my brothers and I were fortunate to explore our big back yard and live close to several family members. I worked at the National Park Service beginning in high school for seven years in several positions, including Interpretive Park Ranger at Pecos National Historical Park. I then moved on to work at First District Court, Santa Fe County (Santa Fe County Attorney’s Office and the Juvenile Detention Center as Compliance Manager), and the City of Santa Fe (Municipal Court Accountant, Tourism Fiscal Administrator, and BDD Finance Manager), from where I’ve recently retired. I hold an A.A. in Southwest Studies, a B.S. in Business Administration, and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. I am married and our three daughters are all grown, the youngest is completing her ME degree from NMSU. My husband and I enjoy traveling, camping, spending time with family, our friends, our pets, and watching our grandkids grow. I love the outdoors, and I especially have an affinity for animals and take every opportunity to advocate for them and support many organizations, including PETA, World Wildlife Fund, National Wildlife Federation, rescues and sanctuaries, and local shelters. I like to do artwork such as painting and other crafts. I also serve on the Santa Fe Fiesta Council, and participate in Big Brothers Big Sisters as a big sister. I am happy to be a part of this organization and I fully support its mission of preservation for future generations and our beautiful wildlife. I truly believe that it’s our moral obligation to preserve our planet for future generations of all living beings, and it starts with education and igniting a flame in others to have that same passion and sense of responsibility.