Santa Fe Community College president Sheila Ortego is being honored as a top-performing CEO by New Mexico Business Weekly.---
Ortego is one of three winners in the "institutional" category, along with Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Winston Brooks and Mike May, principal of Amy Biehl High School in Albuquerque.
Ortego will be formally honored at a breakfast at Embassy Suites in Albuquerque next week. She became president in 2006 after working at the school for over 20 years in admissions and in administrative roles. She's also the author of a novel published in 2008, The Road from La Cueva , which won the 2008 New Mexico Book Award.
Ortego tells SFR she found out about the award when her secretary relayed a message from the NMBW about a month ago. She went down to Albuquerque to be photographed for the special NMBW issue introducing the honorees and had an unexpected networking opportunity. Ortego and other honorees were photographed in groups, giving her the chance to talk to leaders of a variety of different businesses—a valuable opportunity, since SFCC is "really workforce and community oriented," she says.
Rachel Sams, Associate Editor of NMBW, tells SFR that the honorees are each nominated by people in the community, then evaluated by a panel of NMBW Top CEOs alumni. The candidates are scored on vision, leadership and community involvement.
"They were very impressed by her record of achievement," Sams says.
Ortego says she'll be bringing some of her team to the breakfast next week in recognition of their shared role in moving the college forward.
"It's just really nice to have this attention for the college to support the good work we do, and make other organizations more aware of how important the role of the community college is," Ortego says.
