Executive Director
Diana Dorn Jones
Diana Dorn-Jones was born and raised in Albuquerque New Mexico. She is a community organizer and economic development professional with over 35 years’ experience in community development and corporate banking. Her key interests include affordable housing and advocacy on behalf of low-wealth neighborhoods. She has served as Chief Operating Officer for the City of Albuquerque.
Diana is the Executive Director for United South Broadway Corporation, one of Albuquerque’s oldest non-profit Community Development Corporations (CDCs), which currently provides statewide foreclosure counseling and civil legal services to homeowners facing loss of their homes in the New Mexico courts.
Diana is a founding member of the Project Change Fair Lending Center and the Anti-Racism Institute of the Southwest. She has organized community groups to implement the Community Reinvestment Act, bringing millions of dollars into the state for low-income housing and small business development. She was instrumental in passage of the New Mexico Home Loan Protection Act. She is an alumna of the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change and founder of a new K-5 Charter School in South Broadway, one of Albuquerque’s federally- designated Pocket of Poverty neighborhoods where she was born, raised and continues to reside.
Diana has won numerous awards for her work, and while she appreciates and values all that she has been recognized for, she is particularly proud of the city-wide League of Neighborhoods “Neighborhood Leadership Award,” the Albuquerque Human Rights “Bridge Award,” and the YWCA “Woman of Vision Award,” because these were in recognition of her role in promoting cross-cultural collaboration in the Albuquerque community, working in a spirit of inter-group cooperation and across racial, ethnic and cultural lines.
Program Manager
Debbie Norman
Debbie manages communications and marketing, including community initiatives, social media, grant-writing, national partnerships, and the Anti-Racism Training Institute of the Southwest (ARTI), a project of USBC. She has more than 40 years of experience in marketing, advertising, and community outreach, and holds an A.B. degree in English from the University of California, Davis; an M.S. degree in Mass Communications from San Jose State University, and an M.B.A. from Saint Mary’s College.
HUD Certified Counseling Team
Elaine Candelaria, Senior Housing Counselor – Foreclosure Prevention
Elaine coordinates foreclosure counseling for homeowners facing mortgage delinquency or foreclosure. She has more than 20 years of experience in residential mortgage counseling, including underwriting files; pre-qualifying homebuyers; counseling for reverse mortgages, and foreclosure intervention. Elaine is bilingual in English and Spanish.
Lisa Nichols, Housing Counselor - Case Assessment and Financial Education
Lisa administers USBC housing counseling client intake and case assessment and provides financial counseling to homeowners.
Lisa most recently has been a service coordinator and eviction prevention adviser for local housing providers and was a HUD-certified housing counselor for five years prior, including at USBC.
Lisa created and hosts the Real Book Jam for the New Mexico Jazz Workshop and holds a Masters degree in Music Education.
Legal Team
Eric Sutton, Managing Attorney, USBC Fair Lending Center
Eric brings nearly 15 years of experience in foreclosure litigation to the Fair Lending Center, as well as varied experience in related consumer protection, real estate, probate, and personal injury issues. He began his career working for Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, including a term as Supervising Attorney for the Cook County Foreclosure Mediation Program, which provided free attorney representation for as many as 1500 foreclosure defendants at the height of the banking crisis. Eric is a graduate of the Chicago Bar Association’s Justice Entrepreneurs Project, where he started a solo-practitioner firm focused on providing affordable legal services to low- and medium-income clients. Since relocating to New Mexico in 2017, he has continued to work on foreclosure and consumer protection issues, and regularly volunteers at pro bono clinics in local communities. He possesses a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, and a LL.M. in International Economic Law from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In his free time, Eric enjoys hiking in the Sandias, or can be found in the pottery studio.
Sandi Gilley, Staff Attorney, USBC Fair Lending Center
Sandi is a graduate of the University of New Mexico Law School and has been practicing law for 35 years. She has been working in Legal Services for approximately 20 years providing free legal advice to New Mexico's low-income residents in multiple areas of law, including foreclosure, real estate contract, consumer, bankruptcy, landlord/tenant, employment and unemployment compensation law. She taught Poverty Law in Practice for 10+ years at UNM Law School. Sandi also is well known for her 100 mile bicycle fundraising rides.
Savanna Duran, Staff Attorney, USBC Fair Lending Center
Savanna Duran was born and raised in New Mexico. She received a double major in English and Spanish at UNM and attended UNM School of Law. While attending law school, she participated in the Southwest Indian Law Clinic and also participated in a research project on predatory lending. After passing the bar, she worked as a contract review attorney with the New Mexico Center on Law Poverty to identify issues with SNAP and Medicaid eligibility determinations. She also worked with Indian housing law and policies at Stetson Law Offices before joining United South Broadway Corporation.
In her spare time, she enjoys reading, playing board games, spending time with family, and visiting local book shops.
Paige Diem, Staff Attorney, USBC Fair Lending Center
Paige Diem graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Law and was admitted to the practice of law in New Mexico in 2020. As a student, Ms. Diem found her passion for housing issues while completing the Southwest Indian Law Clinic program at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Ms. Diem worked on a project involving the Westside Emergency Housing Center in Albuquerque, giving brief legal advice to shelter residents under supervision. At that time, Ms. Diem also attended meetings for the Westside Emergency Housing Center which brought together health care providers, shelter directors, EMTs, representatives from shelters, and lawyers to work to resolve Albuquerque’s unhoused people’s access to care and housing issues. That experience opened her eyes to the complexities of homelessness and showed her an entire community passionate about finding solutions. Ms. Diem is excited to join the USBC team to defend against foreclosures as a staff attorney.
Samantha Parker, Managing Paralegal, USBC Fair Lending Center
Sam graduated from UNM with a bachelor's degree in Criminology in 2014, and for the next two years worked as a paralegal in a local law firm. She joined USBC's Fair Lending Center foreclosure defense team in 2017, and in 2021 was promoted to managing paralegal. Sam is an artist and enjoys painting when she's not in the office.
Nieajua D. Gonzalez, Paralegal, USBC Fair Lending Center
Nieajua joined the USBC in the summer of 2022 as a paralegal. She is a first-generation college graduate with a B.A. in Criminology and Political Science, minor in Psychology. Prior to USBC, Nieajua worked on local community service engagement projects within the community. Nieajua plans to obtain her Juris Doctorate with the intention of becoming an attorney. She prides herself on being a New Mexican native and her passion to advocate for those in her community. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, working out, and spending time with her family.
Kimberly Castillo, Paralegal, USBC
Kimberly grew up in the South Broadway neighborhood of Albuquerque, where she has close family ties. After graduation from Albuquerque High School she joined USBC for the first time as an intake coordinator in the Housing Counseling department. She then was hired by Bank of Albuquerque, beginning a 10-year career in banking. Prior to joining USBC for a second time Kimberly was promoted to Assistant Branch Manager for BMO Bank. Kimberly’s favorite pastime is spending time with her family.
Anti Racism Training Institute of the South West (ARTI) Team
Mikki Anaya, Logistics Coordinator, ARTI
Mikki is a life-long resident of Santa Fe County, NM. Having worked in the non-profit sector for a number of years, Mikki has honed her skills in Logistics Coordination/Event Production, Organizational Capacity Building, Network Building and Coordination, Proposal Writing, Communications and Policy-Change work at the state and federal levels.
Mikki currently serves as the Logistics Coordinator for the Anti-Racism Training Institute of the Southwest (ARTI). In the past she has had the privilege of working as the Network Weaver for the Equal Voice New Mexico Network, the Coordinator for the Southwest Rural Policy Network, one of seven regional networks which comprised the Rural People, Rural Policy Initiative, and was Director of the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market and Executive Director of the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute.
Being passionate about volunteer service in her hometown community of Santa Fé, Mikki has assisted Feeding Santa Fe with various projects, is a past-President of the Board of Directors of the Guadalupe Historic Foundation, and was a Mayoral Appointee to the City of Santa Fe’s Community Development Commission. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of La Union Protectiva Sucursal Femenina. Mikki’s hobbies include the cultivation of traditional healing herbs and tending to the forest land where she makes her home.
Public Ally
Charles LaVell Scott, MBA, MArch.
Charles has been funded through the AmeriCorps Public Ally program administered by the UNM Community Engagement Center to work with USBC on a project to increase residential stability in the South Broadway neighborhood of Albuquerque. The project entails mapping the built assets of the neighborhood, such as parks, transportation corridors, water lines, and tree cover; and identifying opportunities for residents to generate additional income, such as through existing auxiliary dwelling units (ADUs).
Charles grew up in Central Illinois in the Land of Lincoln, where he developed a passion for advocating for Justice. Though he is a proud American he considers himself a citizen of the world. He recognizes that we are all a part of the bigger spectrum here on Earth, no matter what part of the world we call home. He believes at the core of it all, Earth is all of our home.
Charles has always been passionate for and fascinated by design and the built environment. After preliminary empirical investigation of the industry he noticed many racial injustices and saw the need to take action. In 2020 in the thick of the pandemic Charles decided to pursue a Masters in Architecture with hopes to obtain the skills required to usher in change in the architecture & urban planning industries.
As an architect Charles aspires to create architecture that gives more than it takes: An architecture that supports and facilitates the preservation of Earth’s biodiversity; an architecture that is holistic, equitable, fair, and sustainable. Charles considers architecture a divine tool that can be utilized to solve many of humanity’s challenges.
In his free time Charles enjoys making music, writing novels, and abstract painting. If he is not engaged with work, school or one of these passions you will find him somewhere in nature, preferably by a body of water. He enjoys the simple things in life and believes a need-based society would solve most of humanity’s environmental issues. He considers himself a minimalist and strongly believes in leading by example. Most of all Charles LaVell Scott takes pride in empowering lives.