Community Connects Consulting, LLC
Empowering Communities Through Creative and Trusted Support
Who are we?
Community Connects Consulting, LLC is a woman-owned, New Mexico-based consultancy that prioritizes supports and services to NM organizations, businesses, and governments while maintaining national relationships and clients as well. Trained as a community and regional planner at the University of New Mexico, Ms. Irvin-Vitela, the owner and president, has provided technical and procedural support to municipal, county, state, tribal, and federal governments, non-profit and private businesses, community based, statewide, and national organizations, grassroots initiatives, and front-line staff and executives. A commitment to equity is core to our organizational ethic at Community Connects Consulting. We believe that communities have wisdom, strengths, and expertise with the power to heal and strengthen our communities. Doing anti-oppression work is also a personal ethic that our entire team embraces. Our team is multi-generational, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and has a diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities.
Meet The Team
Lilly Irvin-Vitela, Masters in Community and Regional Planning, and President and CEO of Community Connects Consulting, CCC, has 30 years of experience in cross cultural community and organizational development, community engagement, facilitation, conflict resolution, training, and executive leadership coaching, public policy/democracy building, quality improvement, and people-centered evaluation and implementation.
Not only has Ms. Irvin-Vitela served as a non-profit and for-profit organizational executive in which she has been accountable for leading implementation of mission-driven efforts, Ms. Irvin-Vitela has coached front-line and executive staff to strengthen thinking and problem-solving related to complex issues and within complex relationships. Ms. Irvin-Vitela has worked across communities and within organizations to co-create and facilitate healthy power dynamics and foster strong relationships. Ms. Irvin-Vitela’s experience as a restorative justice practitioner and trainer has strengthened communication and inter and intrapersonal relationships within organizations and communities. She has over 30 years of mediation and circle keeping experience.
JoAnn Melchor, BS is the Vice-President of Ethical Resource Development and Partnership Building. She is from Santo Domingo Pueblo, New Mexico. She was the Vice President of Development at First Nations Development Institute and the former President and CEO of New Mexico Foundation. JoAnn has extensive experience working with youth, parents and communities throughout New Mexico, the U.S., and Latin America. JoAnn has held leadership roles in philanthropy and nonprofit management at organizations throughout New Mexico, including Southwest Youth Services, American Indian Graduate Center, New Mexico Center for Dispute Resolution, Futures for Children. and the Keres Children’s Learning Center (KCLC).
She currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Groundworks NM, and is a board member of Silver Bullet Productions and New Mexico Humanities Council. She has also served on the board of the New Mexico Community Foundation, New Mexico Wildlife federation, and Native American Training Institute, as well as on multiple taskforces and committees. Throughout her career, whether in professional or volunteer roles, Melchor continues to lead with a passion for community, people, and making the world a better place.
Harold Gates MSSW, CISW, HS-BCP is the Vice-President of Health Equity at Community Connects Consulting. Since 1989, Mr. Gates has served as a cultural diversity consultant, helping to develop programs for internal policies and improvement of delivery of services, including for the City of Baltimore, Antioch University in Ohio, Journey Mental Health Center of Dane County, the University of Iowa School of Social Work, the National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice, Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. He is also in demand nationally as a presenter at conferences and workshops on family and cultural topics. Recent talks have been for the National Association of Social Workers, the Wisconsin State Prevention Conference, and the Wisconsin Association of Family and Children’s Agencies. He has also been a guest speaker at Georgetown University, Madison College, and Edgewood College, among other educational institutions.
Mr. Gates is former Associate Director of Cultural Competence for the Wisconsin Initiative to Promote Healthy Lifestyles (WIPHL), a statewide project funded by SAMHSA, the Department of Health Services and UW School of Medicine. He has served as Vice President of the Association of Multiethnic Americans, a Los Angeles-based national umbrella advocacy group for interracial and transracially adoptive families (his own family is blended racially). He is currently a Member-at-Large for the Council for Standards in Human Service Education (CSHSE) which accredits Human Services programs nationally. He has served on the Census Bureau National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations. He is a retired faculty member in the Human Services Program at Madison College where he served for more than 25 years, Mr. Gates earned the MATC Foundation Distinguished Teacher Award for excellence in the classroom. He holds an MSSW in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MA in Chinese Studies from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, as well as an undergraduate degree in Asian Studies from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Ron Martinez Looking Elk is a Facilitator, Strategic Planner, and Trainer with Community Connects Consulting. He is also a traditional potter from Isleta and Taos Pueblos in New Mexico. He is a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts and is an international award winning artist. His expertise includes 25 years of community and leadership development, specializing in the area of building sustainable economic development in Indigenous communities globally. Ron has worked and trained with Indigenous artist, leaders and organizers from many countries including, New Zealand, Japan, Greece, South Korea, Africa, Bolivia, Peru and with tribes throughout the U.S. Mr. Martinez Looking Elk is affiliated with national and international networks where he worked or participated as a Fellow. A few of these institutions include Americans for Indian Opportunity in Albuquerque, NM, School of Advanced Research in Santa Fe, NM, the Leadership Institute in Santa Fe, NM, East-West Center in Honolulu, HI, Academy for Educational Development, Washington, D.C., Ford Foundation in New York, NY and the Aspen Institute, Aspen, CO.
Ron is a trained facilitator and is currently a lead trainer at the First Peoples Fund where he was also a Board Member. He also operates his own business named Creative Community Consulting. He works with high school students creating leadership development with organizations like the Brave Girls at the Santa Fe Indian School, the Native American Community Academy, and the Summer Policy Academy and is the Director of an arts-based program called the Pueblo Arts Academy. He also represents over 300 Pueblo artists through his Pueblo Arts Program at the Isleta Resort and Casino.
Jeanette Martinez, LMSW is a Circle keeper and a licensed mental health provider. Born, raised, and educated in New Mexico, Martinez has a strong understanding of the unique needs of New Mexico’s families and communities. Jeanette has been a restorative justice practitioner since 2001 working with children, youth, families, and professionals in education, health and human services, and the criminal legal system. Martinez has served populations that have been significantly impacted by childhood, family, and community trauma. Her person-centered approach is accessible, relatable, and healing.
She has held over 600 Circles with youth, families, and community members on complex and sensitive issues. She has conducted family, juvenile justice, and organizational mediations. She has also conducted hundreds of workplace mediations for the University of New Mexico and facilitated multiple health and education related community dialogues.
She has designed, implemented, and evaluated programs serving over 6 counties across New Mexico. She has trained across New Mexico and the country to help individuals and teams approach difficult matters and address the complex needs of the communities they are responsible for serving. She is also part of a national and international community of restorative justice practitioners and has made contributions to summits, journals, and collaborations that have leveraged her hard-earned experience and wisdom.
Charisse Daniels-Johnson is the Communication and Outreach Director at Community Connects Consulting. She is also a community equity professional, facilitator, mixed media artist, herbalist, somatic healer, community organizer, and mother of 9. Charisse has extensive experience supporting organizational development efforts, fostering meaningful community engagement and dialogue, and uplifting the transformative narrative of collective healing through her cultivation of leaders with lived expertise. Her personal philosophy centers her belief in our greatest human strengths: which she believes are our ability to imagine, ability to learn, and ability to regenerate. Charisse has provided leadership on leadership development, systems re-design, and program design and implementation. She is skilled in qualitative participatory research methods and has worked closely with Irvin-Vitela on systems and organizational development projects.
Simon Alexsandr is the Research Director and a Facilitator at Community Connects Consulting. He was born in New Mexico and earned a BA at New York University in music and physics. He is also a musician, researcher/evaluator, trainer, and facilitator. His combination of analytical skills, creativity, and people skills have strengthened the complex and dynamic work in communities and organizations across New Mexico and nationally that he has worked with. His professional life has included student leadership development, composing musical scores for award-winning films, computer programming, and facilitation of small and large community and organizational groups, as well as multiple evaluation and research projects. His embodied knowledge of teamwork, the rhythm of a group, and balanced interactions comes from decades of musical collaboration and performance combined with community collaboration.Community Connects Consulting, LLC was founded by a group of individuals who saw a need for quality community support services. Over the years, we have grown and expanded our services to meet the needs of our community.