Shawn McQueen-Ruggeiro, IFAM Executive Director
The International Folk Art Market begins a new chapter in its 10th Anniversary year with a new Executive Director, Shawn McQueen-Ruggeiro.
Shawn joins us in Santa Fe from San Diego, California where, for the past eight years, she has worked with Project Concern International (PCI), a leading health and development organization. Her passion for art and her experience working in the developing world led her here, to the International Folk Art Market.
While at PCI, Shawn launched “Women Empowered”, a savings-based empowerment program designed to help the most vulnerable women in the world. She also led the organization’s re-branding effort and its 50th Anniversary celebration. She recruited an impressive list of collaborators and influential supporters for PCI including: famed Peruvian economist Fernando de Soto; Kenneth Kaunda, the first democratically elected president of Zambia; Kenyan activist Wahu Kaara; musician and activist Bonnie Raitt; Zimbabwean international recording star Oliver Mtukudzi; and Mohammed Yunus.
Shawn finds inspiration in the incredible people she has met while working in the developing world – like William Kamkwamba. William created a windmill made out of found objects on his farm in Malawi and wrote the book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Her proudest accomplishments have been the life-long friendships she has forged with beneficiaries like Tobias Tembo – a former street child from Zambia and now a graduate of the University of Zambia – and Pintuk Jha, the first graduate from PCI’s shelter home, who is now a student at a technical college in Delhi, India.
Shawn was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California and is an alumna of the University of California – Santa Barbara where she earned a bachelor of arts in history with a Latin American emphasis and a certificate in Global Peace and Security. She also holds a certificate in fundraising from UCLA. She began her career with the American Red Cross as a field representative in South Central Los Angeles and served as the public information officer and shelter manager during the civil unrest following the Rodney King beatings. From there she went on to a fundraising positions with White Memorial Medical Center, the Hugh O’Brian Youth Foundation and the Ocean Institute.
A self-described sufferer of “wanderlust”, Shawn continues to travel with her young family. In fact, she’s been known to empty her suitcases to make room for folk art and other treasures found during her travels. Her husband and two daughters will be following her here to New Mexico on her next big adventure. We hope you’ll join us in welcoming them to Santa Fe!