President - Lucinda Surber
Lucinda serves as President and Communications Coordinator. She grew up gardening in Northern California but has come to appreciate the winter here in Santa Fe when weeding is impossible! She loves starting her own vegetable seedlings and chooses something new to grow each year. Kohlrabi is the most recent addition to her vegetable garden. Her favorite native plants are those that attract pollinators like bees, butterflies, and her beloved hawk moths (Sphingidae). When she’s not gardening Lucinda volunteers for the Guild of the Santa Fe Opera and loves attending operas in our unique open-air opera theater.
Member at Large – Joan Marshall
I moved to Santa Fe 5 years ago from Texas and am still learning about the special growing conditions in the high-desert. My original focus was on vegetable gardening but that interest has shifted to learning about native plants and creating beneficial habitat for wildlife. Fellow Master Gardeners have been a wonderful resource along the way. They are a friendly group of gardening enthusiasts who share their ideas and best practices with one another and the public. I hope you will join us!
Membership Chair - Christine Foster
Christine Foster joined SFEMG in 2021 and is presently the Membership Director and a Co-Coordinator for Track it Forward. She and her husband Mike moved full time to Santa Fe in 2025 from Louisiana having traveled back and forth for several years and working as a master gardener in both areas of the country that are very different temperature, rainfall, and soil-wise. She is now learning the year-round growth habits of her flowering and vegetable gardens here in Santa Fe, growing her knowledge of natives, and encouraging the birds and bees to visit. Son Ren laughs at her bird habitat calling it an old person’s hobby. Christine responds with “it’s good for the environment!” Retired from corporate life in 2018, she currently spends time traveling with Watts of Love to distribute solar lights to communities around the world who have no access to electricity. Additional passions are helping the Santa Fe Watershed Association with their 5th grade education program, training for an endurance event called 29029 Everesting, and walking the dogs at the Santa Fe Animal Shelter – in other words, giving back to the world.
Vice President – Terry Zane
Member-at-Large – Sally Roberts
Project Coordinator – Sue Thibault
Sue and her husband Bob have made Santa Fe their home since 2018. After her 20 year stint as a county attorney in busy Denver, Colorado, Sue and Bob love the Santa Fe small town feel, the rich cultural experiences, and the beauty that surrounds them. Learning to garden in our new pinyon/juniper playground has been challenging and fun! Sue became a Master Gardener in 2022 and has become quite involved in this wonderful organization. She has served as a Board Member-at-Large, an organizer and member of the Members' Happening committee, and currently serves as the Project Coordinator.
Treasurer - Sandie Lemke
Sandie Lemke became an SFEMG Master Gardener in 2019. Sandie moved to Pecos from Houston Texas with her husband David in 2016. In over thirty years in Houston, Sandie spent her professional life working with new mothers and babies as a nurse and as the owner of a mother-and-baby retail store. Since her arrival to northern New Mexico, Sandie has been busy with various activities – volunteer and retail. Sandie worked as the barn manager for two years at the New Mexico Center for Therapeutic Riding and volunteered at the Upper Pecos Watershed Association as the office administrator, grant administrator, and fundraiser. In 2020, Sandie helped with the Garden Fair setup and checkout. Sandie and David live on the Pecos River at the edge of the Village. Outdoors is where she prefers passing her time: hiking, fly fishing, and spending time keeping the wild from taking over by expertly managing pocket gophers, tending flower and cactus gardens, composting, worm farming, and managing two, soon-to-be three, top bar bee hives.
Member-at-Large – Catherine Wygant
Catherine graduated from the SFEMG intern class of 2021 and became co-project leader for the new Yard Habitat Project, then in 2025, the Project Leader for The Habitat Project. In 2022, she began serving as a Member-at-Large on the board, and since 2023, has been on the Member Happenings Committee. Moving to Santa Fe in mid-2019 from New England, her new home, which had been empty for a year while on the market, had a wonderful garden that had clearly been neglected. Realizing past gardening experience in the north would not help her bring it back, she signed up for SFEMG. Growing up in Rochester, NY, she gardened with her mother, graduated from the RIT School for American Crafts in ceramics, and spent her sophomore year in Tokyo, Japan. She retired from her business selling porcelain dinnerware, found-object sculptures, earrings, and collage brooches. She also served for 40 years as a volunteer museum docent-educator for adults and schoolchildren, touring exhibitions of historic and contemporary art and objects.
Secretary - Kathleen (Kathy) Mathai
Kathy is a former executive management strategist who assisted both private and Fortune 100 organizations. For over ten years, she served on the Board of non-profit Maryland Federation of Art. Her gardening journey began in Maryland where she gardened with too much rain, poison ivy, and kudzu. After moving to Santa Fe full-time in 2019, she quickly realized she needed to learn more! She currently is ignoring her own garden and working to improve the SFEMG Demonstration Herb Garden as a project leader.
Intern Coordinator – Precious Cantu