EOLONM Board of Directors
Debbie Armstrong, JD
Board Chair
Debbie Armstrong served four terms as the State Representative for House District 17 (Bernalillo County) from 2015 – 2022. Among the bills she sponsored in the NM Legislature were the 2017 End-of-Life Options Acts (HB 171), the 2019 (HB 90) and the 2021 (HB 47) Elizabeth Whitefield End-of-Life Options Act. She successfully shepherded the 2021 legislation through the House and on to final approval in the Senate. Debbie serves as President of Delta Management Group, Inc. a small business specializing in association and non-profit management. In that capacity, she serves as Executive Director of the New Mexico Medical Insurance Pool, a legislatively created safety net program providing subsidized health insurance for people with high-risk medical conditions. Debbie has a B.S. in Physical Therapy from the University of Michigan and received her J.D. from the University of New Mexico Law School. On a personal note, Debbie has an adult daughter with childhood-onset metastatic thyroid cancer, an experience that has linked her to families across the state struggling with serious, life-threatening medical concerns. She hopes to bring not only her personal and professional experience with death and dying but also her long history of relationships with the medical community, state government and the legislature to her service with EOLONM.
MaryKay Brady
Treasurer / Secretary
MaryKay is retired from a thirty-year career in banking but maintains a very busy volunteer life. Active with several hospice organizations as an end-of-life doula and founder of Friends of Rockhound State Park, as well as a trained Master Gardener with NMSU, life is not dull in her world. A quest for learning led her to the New Mexico End of Life Options Coalition and she began a book club to discuss Barbara Coombs Lee’s book Finish Strong: Putting YOUR Priorities First at Life’s End. The book club led to the growth of the Las Cruces Action Team. With the authorization of the New Mexico aid in dying law, she hopes to share her caring and compassionate traits with all New Mexicans. To contact MaryKay, email jmranch@ymail.com
Elizabeth Armijo
Board Member
Elizabeth Armijo is a long-time health promotion advocate and community organizer in New Mexico. Her career and life passion have been rooted in promoting access to quality health care, women’s empowerment and racial justice. Elizabeth has worked in different capacities with Compassion & Choices since 2012. She started with growing a grassroots base of supporters in New Mexico and leading two legislative campaign initiatives. Her responsibilities were then expanded across multiple states, across the western region, and now nationally. She is a former member of the Albuquerque Public School’s Board of Education, is the past president of the New Mexico Heart Hospital Foundation board, and currently serves on the board of the NAACP, Albuquerque.
Sherry Burns
Board Member
Lance Chilton, MD
Board Member
Barak Wolff, MPH
Board Member
Barak is a mostly retired, long-time public health leader in NM working in Rural Primary Care, EMS and Trauma Systems, and as the Director of the Public Health Division in the NM Department of Health. Barak has served as an analyst for the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee for the last seventeen years when they are in session. For the last nine years, Barak has been deeply involved with end-of-life issues and is on the founding Board of Directors for the newly created non-profit, End of Life Options New Mexico. He is grateful for this opportunity to help improve our care systems and support New Mexicans in their end-of-life decisions, now including medical aid in dying. To contact Barak, email barakwolff@msn.com.
EOLONM Staff
Julia Bergen, M.Ed.
Executive Director
Julia is excited to be joining the EOLONM team to increase awareness and understanding about individuals’ options and choices regarding end of life – essential and practical steps leading to peace of mind for individuals, families and loved ones. With over twenty years of experience as a leader of regional New Mexico education/social justice organizations, Julia brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to EOLONM. A seasoned fundraiser, Julia has raised more than $20 million during the course of her career creating robust public/private revenue strategies designed to sustain the social change work about which she is passionate. A highly motivated and compassionate leader, she has built an impressive skill set that includes strategic planning, marketing and communications, program management, staff development, grant writing and fundraising. Julia holds a Masters in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Art History from SUNY’s Purchase College. To contact Julia, please email her at jbergen@endoflifeoptionsnm.org or at our website’s Contact page.
Elaine Clanon, CFNP
Warm Line Dispatcher
