008. Rhiannon Samuel. Do your little perfectly

Voice of a Lion

Rhiannon Samuel is an Albuquerque, New Mexico native, raised with a deep passion and pride for her community and its people. She is the Executive Director of Viante New Mexico, a new nonpartisan nonprofit who’s goal is to provide transparency for working New Mexicans to know who their elected officials are performing on their behalf. She was immediately drawn to the cause due to her discontentment with New Mexico’s repeatedly low standing on education, crime, and quality of life lists. She is a firm believer that in order for a democracy to work, one must be an educated voter – one who votes on principles and morals rather than by political party affiliation or name ID. Rhiannon graduated from University of New Mexico with a Degree in Communications and Religious Studies in 2014. Immediately after graduation she started her professional career with the City of Albuquerque where she served on Mayor Richard J. Berry Office’s executive team for several years as the Director of Communications. She was the first millennial director for the City of Albuquerque as well as the youngest director in the City’s recent history. She was awarded the Albuquerque Business First Forty Under 40 awards in 2019 at the age of 26. In her time outside of the office she is committed to bettering her community as a Parish Council Member at Albuquerque’s Our Lady of the Annunciation Parish, a Board Member of Albuquerque Involved, a Lovelace Women’s Hospitals Outreach Committee member, board member of the Albuquerque Community Foundation’s Future Fund, board member for the Saint Pius X High School Foundation, and a Professional Development Committee member for Young Professionals of Albuquerque. She was also a 2009 veteran volunteer for Amigos de las Americas. Rhiannon is a dedicated civil servant who is committed both personally and professionally to the betterment of her home – New Mexico. Viante New Mexico is a nonpartisan nonprofit that launched in 2018 to increase transparency around New Mexico's elected officials. As the founding Executive Director and sole full-time staff member, I have been tasked with making this vision a reality. My first task was to create a scoring methodology to examine which of our state senators and representatives are working across the political divide on common ground solutions to benefit all New Mexicans. Along with my board and community partners, I created a formula that has successfully eliminated partisanship. The formula is reflected in our scorecard that sheds light on how often legislators are actually present for important votes and how they perform on education, crime, and quality of life issues. I am looking forward to continuing the scorecard while also increasing access to unbiased, community driven information that will be useful to people in the November election.