Alice co-founded Creative Startups in 2007 with Tom Aageson. At that time, the creative economy was a whisper of a movement. Today, nations around the world have formalized creative economy development strategies and are investing billions of dollars into initiatives. Alice contributed to this tidal wave of growth through building the world’s first accelerator for creative entrepreneurs and growing that New Mexico-based pilot into a global juggernaut serving over 700 creative companies across five continents. To date, these companies have raised over $300 million in venture financing, created over 4,000 new jobs, and annually generate $150 million in revenues. Most importantly, over 80% of the graduating entrepreneurs are women and people of color. Nearly 100 are Native American-led businesses.
In 2018, Alice and Tom co-authored Creative Economy Entrepreneurs: From Startup to Success which is used widely in university classrooms. Alice has created dozens of entrepreneurship workbooks and courses designed for creative entrepreneurs and is a leading authority on the development of regional creative economy ecosystems. She holds an MBA and a PhD. In 2024 Alice joined Nashville-based venture capital firm Relevance Ventures as a General Partner. Relevance is the nation’s preeminent Native American-led growth equity firm and invests strategically to build equity and access to preventative health solutions. She leads seed and impact investing with the firm.
Brianna Figueroa, Ph.D., is an artist, scholar, and entrepreneur. She earned her doctorate in Performance as Public Practice from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Figueroa is passionate about creating meaningful and sustainable livelihoods for creatives and advocating for a thriving creative economy that empowers artists and innovators.
Her perspective is shaped by her experience as a performer and as a professor of dance at the University of New Mexico, where she mentored emerging artists. She has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing creatives in today’s economic landscape and champions entrepreneurship as a pathway to autonomy and economic security.
In 2021, she left the tenure track to explore entrepreneurial opportunities firsthand, co-founding a confectionery company in Albuquerque, NM. She now serves as the Director of Strategic Initiatives for Creative Startups. Dr. Figueroa lives in Albuquerque, where she enjoys hiking and gardening in New Mexico’s enchanted landscape
Ginny Sterpka is a designer, organic gardener and entrepreneur. Focusing on fabrics, natural landscapes and graphic communication, she previously ran her own garden/landscape design business and has worked as a point-of-purchase display designer making pop-up fabric displays, costume designer for theaters and as a dressmaker. Becoming interested in cradle to cradle design, socially conscious business and growing local economies took her back to school for Community and Regional Planning at the University of New Mexico where she received a BA in Environmental Planning. She is a C2C Fellow at the Bard Center for Environmental Policy in NYC, a network for future leaders in sustainable business and policy.
Vatsal Shah is the Chief Financial Officer at Creative Startups. He brings five years of experience in the field of finance, accounting, auditing, and business management. In India, he had his own public practice, “Vatsal M. Shah & Associates” and he represented the University of New Mexico and the CFA Society of New Mexico in CFA Institute’s Global Equity Research Challenge. He holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration with a major in Finance from the University of New Mexico, and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and Accounting, and is also a Chartered Accountant from India.
Emily is a writer, communicator and educator living in Western Massachusetts. They specialize in designing and managing digital media plans for creative organizations, centering their approach on the narrative behind the brand. Emily is the author of two books, the first of which was awarded a Poetry Society of America fellowship. Their writing has also been featured by the Academy of American Poets, Bustle, and Columbia Journal, among others. They hold a BS in Audio Engineering from Belmont University and a MFA from the Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In addition to serving as Creative Startup’s Director of Marketing, Emily crafts letterpress-printed books and organizes accessible writing workshops.
Tom Aageson is the co-founder of Creative Startups. He is an author, entrepreneur, consultant and works with grassroots entrepreneurs. He trains, mentors, invest, and networks entrepreneurs with mentors and investors. He is the co-founder of the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market, the largest such market globally. He has done entrepreneur international enterprise development in Latin America, Caribbean, Ghana, southern Africa and Central Asia. He has been honored in Santa Fe with “Tom Aageson Day” twice by the mayor and selected one of ten top NM Arts Power Brokers. Tom holds a MBA from Columbia University and a BFT from Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management. He serves boards of for-profit and non-profit boards. He co-authored “Creative Economy Entrepreneurs: Startup to Success”.
Lauren Tresp is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Southwest Contemporary, an independent contemporary art publication dedicated to the American Southwest she has helmed since 2019. She is passionate about fostering empathy and critical thinking through arts journalism and cultural criticism, connecting national and international audiences to contemporary art of the Southwest, and creating opportunities and resources that help propel creative work forward. Lauren has prior experience consulting artists and arts organizations and in arts administration. She has a master of arts in humanities from the University of Chicago, where she studied Medieval and Renaissance art history, and a bachelor of arts in art history and history from UCLA. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Born and raised in Sacramento. As an urban planner, he has always felt a deep connection between public spaces and the experiences that food and beverage provide to help amplify a better sense of place. A self-proclaimed Chicano Urbanist, he is still doing some research on the subject matter, but he insists he is only a few tacos and cold chelas away from figuring it all out.
Emily Silva, M. Arch. is the founder and designer behind Studio Chora, a design and fabrication studio based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Trained as an architect, her work explores post-Deleuzian philosophy as a framework for understanding gender and political issues, emphasizing difference as a means to reconceive feminism as acts rather than identities.
Silva handcrafts one-of-a-kind light sculptures and functional furnishings.
Candice is a corporate and securities attorney specializing in entity formation, corporate governance, contracts, capital raising, asset transfers, and corporate restructuring. She is a native of Northern California. Candice graduated magna cum laude from Santa Clara University School of Law, where she was Senior Articles Editor for the Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, San Diego.
Candice was the founder of The Owens Law Firm, P.C., a dedicated corporate and business law practice in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Prior to opening her own firm, Candice was an attorney and partner at Sommer, Udall, Sutin, Hardwick & Hyatt, P.A. in Santa Fe. In California, she worked at Cooley LLP (Palo Alto) in the corporate securities group. In between law careers, Candice owned a boutique in downtown Santa Fe called “Miss Maybe”. Before co-founding Blackgarden Law, she was a partner at Leverage Legal Group, a multi-office virtual law firm. Candice lives in Albuquerque with her husband and two daughters.
“The detail, depth and raised surfaces of my large-scale metal sculptures and bas-reliefs are formed in explosions. Since 1985 I have pioneered a technique for shaping metal for which I have coined the term – Detonography. I set off sheets of plastic explosives over a sandwich of carved images and a metal plate. The blast forces the metal to assume the image and the resultant bas-relief. Permanently installed indoors and outside in public spaces I have completed 45 commissions since 1986. I have received an NEA grant and been written up in the Smithsonian Magazine, the New York Times, Sculpture Magazine and fifty or so other publications. I have appeared for interviews on Nightline, the Today Show, and National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” I have also been featured on television in England, Australia, Russia and China. From the Serengeti Visitor Center in Tanzania – where I created a mural sized relief linking a herd of wildebeests to intricate chthonic realities – to the Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona, to a Clock of Dreams for New Mexico State in Las Cruces, I have produced many different sculptural forms on many subjects.
I recently finished a 10-week course offered by the Albuquerque arts board on new technologies. It emphasized coding and we created projects that could be incorporated into public works using, lights sound and moving parts.”
Dr. Rashap is Internet of Things educator at Central New Mexico Community College where is focused on workforce development for advanced manufacturing, smart cities, and immersive entertainment. He recently retired from nearly a quarter of a century at Intel Corporation where he was the General Manager of Corporate Services for the Americas Region. Prior to Intel, Brian received his B.S.E., M.S.E. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He worked at the NASA Langley Research Center on control of large unmanned space structures, as well as autonomous space-based robotics. His expertise includes Structured Problem Solving, Lean Manufacturing, Strategic Planning, Organizational Development, Business Process Design, and creating Diverse and Inclusive work environments. Brian is an active Angel Investor, and serves, or has served, on the boards of numerous non-profit and for-profit organizations.
Sandy Zane is the owner of the Zane Bennett Contemporary Art and form & concept galleries in Santa Fe, NM. Ms. Zane is an accomplished artist and has exhibited her prints and paintings in exhibitions in New York, Texas and New Mexico. She has served on the Foundation Boards of the New Mexico State University and Santa Fe Community College as well as on the boards of several non-profit arts organizations. She also serves as Chairman of the Board for Bravo Mic Communications, a network of five radio stations in Las Cruces, NM. Ms. Zane earned a BA in Arts Administration from Bard College, New York. She and her husband live in Santa Fe.
Currently, Steve is the Founder of Eldora Chocolate, a Craft Bean to Bar retail fine chocolate business. In 2018, he retired from Prickett and Associates, a Merrill Lynch team headquartered in Albuquerque that provided financial advice and guidance to institutions and high net worth clients throughout the United States for 32 years.
Roman is a dynamic, innovative, and accomplished international executive adept at building and leading diverse teams and supervising both domestic and global operations. He is an exceptionally effective communicator and collaborator who builds trust, cultivates relationships, and forges long-lasting partnerships. As a catalyst, he connects with, mentors, and inspires people to ignite their human potential and has a solid track record of initiative and achievement as well as a good sense of humor and great taste in music.
Lee Francis IV (Laguna Pueblo) is an educator, activist, poet, and comic creator with over fifteen years of experience teaching and conducting workshops with minority populations, especially in and around Indigenous and Native American communities in North America. His primary focus has always been on positive youth development and student success. He is an award-winning poet and performer, being published in numerous journals and appearing on stages around the U.S. He is the CEO & Publisher at Native Realities Press.
Bob is the Founder and CEO of Ideas And People. Borden’s incessant ingenuity and passion for entrepreneurship have fueled his nearly three decades of significant accomplishment as a design and marketing executive. Borden brings a meticulous eye for quality design and immense versatility to his work with international clients such as MoMA, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales, Nambé, Luigi Bormioli, Royal Selangor, and Elite Model Management. He is widely recognized for his cross-sector competence and his ability to analyze—and redefine—markets, businesses, and brands.
Trevor is an entrepreneur, investor and mentor to small businesses owners. He currently serves as Chief Commercial Officer of the non-alcoholic beverage retailer The Zero Proof, which he co-founded with his life long friend from New Mexico. He also is a co-owenr of Sage Valley Pottery. Over two decades he has held product and marketing leadership roles at Intuit and WPP, founded 3 companies (one acquired by Mailchimp), invested in over a dozen startups and served on the board of the Santa Fe-based non-profit accelerator Creative Startups. He has been roaming the ditches of Corrales for four decades and now splits time between Atlanta and New Mexico with his wife and two sons.
Miriam was born and raised in New Mexico and is a member of the Navajo Nation with additional family roots in the Hopi Tribe. In addition to her experience in architectural design, Miriam has traveled the region working on a range of commercial, institutional and tribal interior design projects.
Since joining Atkin Olshin Schade Architects, Miriam has worked on several comprehensive plans and assessment projects for the Kewa Pueblo Historic Building Inventory, Pueblo de Cochiti Plaza Revitalization Plan, Picuris Pueblo Master Plan and Zuni GIS Housing Needs Assessment. She recently managed two comprehensive housing assessment projects using a mobile survey app she developed for the Zuni Housing Authority and for the Pueblo of Laguna. Miriam is a graduate of the University of New Mexico and has a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Planning and Design.
Denise has 20+ years of technical project and leadership experience. She is a lean six sigma black belt. Denise built her career with Disney Parks and intel. She has won awards such as: New Mexico’s 40 under 40 nominee; Intel International Engineering and Science fair Honoree; IMPACT! Award finalist.
