Greg Saunders is Chief Operating Officer for CHESS. He brings over 20 years of senior leadership experience in operations, information technology, and project management to CHESS. In this role, he oversees CHESS projects in a collaborative, high-performing work environment and forges partnerships with leaders and teams at member colleges. He is the Senior Program Manager over implementations and directs and manages all program-related activities, ensuring alignment of processes to the CHESS vision among the members. In addition, he provides operational planning and establishes procedures to help grow the CHESS nonprofit organization.

Prior to CHESS, Greg acted as an independent advisor for various clients interested in software implementation, programs, policies, and procurement in the government sector. He also serves as a part-time instructor at Central New Mexico Community College teaching college-level courses in the business and computer fields.

Greg was the Judiciary Chief Information Officer for the New Mexico Supreme Court through the Administrative Offices of the Courts. He managed a statewide technical program and was directly involved with strategic policy.

Previously, Greg served as Chief Information Officer for the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, overseeing four major programs including tax revenue collection, oil and gas royalties, motor vehicle department, and property taxes. He was also Chief Information Officer and Deputy Executive Director of the New Mexico Gaming Control Board. He was instrumental in setting up the IT infrastructure, creating new policy and rules, implementing and electronic monitoring system for slot machines, creating a licensing process, and assisting licensees with setup, operations, and compliance.

Greg obtained both his Master of Arts in Organizational Management and his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.

Mindy Watson is the Strategic Change officer for the Collaborative for Higher Education Shared Services, Inc. (CHESS). As the SCO, she provides strategy and change leadership to create a people-centric approach in support of the CHESS Mission, Vision, and Values.

Prior to joining CHESS, Mindy served as the Director of Assessment, Academic Program Review, and Special Projects at Santa Fe Community College in Santa Fe, NM. In that role, she oversaw assessment and academic program review for the College as well as assisting with HLC accreditation duties, serving as interim Grants Director, and teaching as an adjunct instructor, among other duties. Also, during her time at SFCC, Mindy served as the Change Management Workstream Lead for the CHESS Workday Wave 1 Enterprise Resource Planning Project implementation.

Previously, Mindy served as the Executive Director of Planning and Sponsored Projects at Clovis Community College, in Clovis, NM where she oversaw the office of Institutional Research, developed and launched integrated institutional planning, provided compliance and oversight of all federal grants, and developed state and federal grant proposals.

Mindy holds an Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration, Community College concentration from Texas Tech University; a master’s in Audiology from the University of Iowa, and a bachelor’s degree in Communication Disorders from West Texas A&M University.

Adrienne Griego has been a higher education payroll professional for more than 15 years. As the CHESS Payroll Director, she will oversee the functions and alignment of processes for the Payroll Department and member colleges. In addition, she will lead the colleges in their payroll implementation and deployment of the Workday ERP.

Prior to CHESS, Adrienne served as the Payroll Director at CNM. In this role, she provided leadership and direction for all aspects of payroll processing, ensuring compliance of college policies; federal, state, and local regulations; and Collective Bargaining Agreements. She oversaw the development of internal quality assurance procedures and process improvements.

Before joining CNM, Adrienne held payroll and accounting positions at the University of New Mexico. She worked in public accounting as an auditor, focusing on governmental, higher education, and nonprofit entities.

Adrienne earned an MBA from Grand Canyon University and a BBA with a concentration in Accounting from The University of New Mexico. She is a Certified Payroll Professional and obtained a Global Payroll Management Certification.

Trish Heaton is the Talent Training & Development Officer for CHESS. She brings over 16 years in higher education, and over 12 years focused on training, learning, and development. As Training Officer, Trish will manage training for the Workday Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation and Student Information System. She also will develop programs to support functions outside of these projects. Before joining CHESS, Trish was the Director of Learning and Development at CNM, the Co-Coordinator for the Workday Training Team, and a member of the Human Resources Workstream and Change Management Team. Previously, she has held roles in human resources, organizational development and training at UNM.

Prior to her work in higher education, Trish spent 16 years in the hospitality sector working for Marriott International including roles in all areas of hotel management. During her career, she has successfully led implementation of system and training rollouts, establishing new departments, enterprise-wide training implementations, and launching an Employee Learning Management System.

She has an associate degree from CNM and a Bachelor of Business Management from UNM.

Michael Chavez-Kerr has been in the higher education landscape for 20 years. As the Workday Support Manager, he will oversee the functions and administration of support of the Workday platform in partnership with CHESS member colleges.

Prior to CHESS, Michael served as the Director of the Finance and Operations Business Analyst Team at CNM. In this role, he provided leadership and direction for all aspects of support for CNM’s Finance and Operations and Human Resources divisions. This included support of the existing Enterprise Resource Planning system, third-party applications, and various automations and workflows.

Before joining CNM, Michael held positions at University of New Mexico and University of Colorado. He also has worked in the private sector for Verizon in the technical and sales areas.

Michael earned an associate degree from New Mexico State University, a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico, and will complete a master’s degree from Webster University in 2023.

Mike Russell brings over 20 years of leadership experience in IT Service Management in healthcare, food and beverage, technology, and higher education. At CHESS, he is responsible for implementing and managing the help desk, partnering with the member colleges to provide an effective and efficient service management ecosystem.

Previously, Mike was a consultant with CampusWorks fulfilling senior management and IT service management roles for higher education clients.

Mike also served as the Senior Help Desk Manger at Jack in the Box Restaurants, supporting technical operations for over 2,500 restaurants nationwide and implemented service desks in Manila, Philippines and Queretaro, Mexico.

Prior to Jack in the Box, he spent 25 years in healthcare IT in technical and managerial roles.