Board Spotlight: Helen Maestas, Board Chair
Helen Maestas, NIF Board Chair
Helen grew up in California and moved to New Mexico in 1996 to attend the University of New Mexico where she double majored in Political Science and Communication. While in college, she made a call in response to an internship posting to work alongside then New Mexico State Senator Dede Feldman. That one phone call and opportunity were the start of what has become a 20 year career in public service working for New Mexico on the staff's of U.S. Congressman Tom Udall, U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Martin Heinrich, and Bernalillo County Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins. In 2017, she joined the staff of Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and continues to serve as his Deputy Director for Constituent Services/Boards & Commissions. Helen is married to Christopher D. Maestas, and is also known as "Carmen's Mom".
Not long before leaving California, Helen attended her first Flamenco performance at a tiny theater in Pacific Grove, CA. The performance was full of life and energy and unlike anything she'd seen before; she knew right then that Flamenco had to be a part of her life. Once she arrived at UNM, she was thrilled to discover that she could study Flamenco and began taking classes with Ms. Eva. However, it didn't take long for her to realize that she's better at supporting than performing. Still, she vowed that if she ever had a child, they would become a Flamenco dancer! And so it was. Helen's daughter, Carmen started dancing ten years ago at age 3 in the Conservatory's Baby Flamenco class and danced until earlier this year deciding to focus more seriously on violin.
Helen and her family are proud to support the National Institute of Flamenco and believe strongly in its mission to share the art of flamenco through artistic excellence in performance and teaching. As a "Flamenco mom" and aficionado, Helen has witnessed first hand the incredible power of a high quality Flamenco education and credits Carmen's self-confidence and discipline as an artist, dancer, and musician to the training she was provided by her teachers at NIF's Conservatory of Flamenco Arts.
She is especially proud of NIF's quick (but by no means easy) pivot as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic from an in-person to virtual presentation of the Institutes annual Festival Flamenco and the role that NIF has played during and since the virtual Festival in convening Flamenco organizations and leading artists from around the world in conversation on the need to build a better safety net for working artists.
