Cindy Padilla, Secretary of Aging and Long-Term Services Department

Secretary Designate Padilla was appointed by Governor Bill Richardson in November of 2007. Since January 2007, Padilla has served as Deputy Secretary of the Environment Department.

Previously Cindy Padilla worked as Division Director of Water and Waste Management since May 2005. Before that, she was Solid Waste Division Bureau Chief for NMED between 2002 and 2005.

Ms. Padilla has twenty years of experience in program management, solid waste, environmental education, public outreach, marketing, and grants management. Prior to NMED, Ms. Padilla was the Field Support Bureau Chief for the State Parks Division of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department managing the marketing, volunteer, concession and recreational trails programs.

As a fourth generation New Mexican, Ms. Padilla is proud of her family ancestry and speaks highly of her uncle who served as the Mayor of Grants in the early 1960’s, her great, great uncle who served as a state legislator around the time of statehood and her great, great grandfather, a teacher.

Cindy is a graduate of St. Michaels High School in Santa Fe and received a social science degree from St. Marys College in Kansas. Ms. Padilla has also done graduate work through the University of New Mexico College of Public Administration.