For Kelly Duran, Española’s economy can be compared to a long-standing love affair among city residents, businesses and government officials. And as executive director of the Española Valley Chamber of Commerce, it’s his job to avoid marital conflict.
“Look at marriages, relationships,” he said. “If you look at our social economics, one of the leading causes of divorce is financial hardships or the lack of being able to communicate finances to the spouse. It’s really no different in our economy in the Valley. A lot of times, there is not enough money to go around, and it causes poverty. It keeps everything kind of in flux.”
A Velarde native, Duran said his involvement with the Chamber is his way of giving back to the community that he treats as his home.
He first got involved with the Chamber in 2010, when Mayor Alice Lucero, who was the Chamber’s executive director at the time, nominated him to join its Board of Directors. At the time, he was general manager of U.S. Cable, an Española cable company that had various name changes and for which Duran had worked from 2007 until last year.
“After attending one board meeting, I saw the people at the table and I felt like it was good people,” he said. “So, I joined.”
Duran, 36, remained a member of the Board until 2011, when he became its vice president. In September 2011, he became the Board’s president following the resignation of former president Wendy Hoffman. He has been serving full-time as the Chamber’s executive director since January.
As executive director, Duran organizes events, such as job fairs and community resource events, which aim to boost the economy and the business environment of Española. He said the Chamber helped to bring at least 50 new jobs into the community through these events.
In the beginning of this year, he also initiated the Valley Entrepreneurial Network, which provides entrepreneurial resources to local small businesses. For example, the Chamber helped business owners with the opening of Blue Heron Brewery near Plaza de Española last month.
“We want to help entrepreneurs and starting small business with any resources they may need to help grow and sustain their business,” he said. “We keep everything afloat. We try to harvest new members for the cause.”
The Chamber serves as a tourist hub, Duran said. He said about 30 to 60 tourists visit the Chamber, housed in the Misión y Convento at the Plaza, everyday, and Chamber staff give them verbal tours of the city.
Chamber Treasurer Emery Maez has been working with Duran for the past four years. Maez said that when the executive director took the seat, he inherited the Chamber’s financial hardships from previous leadership.
In the aftermath of the 2008 recession, “things dried up,” Maez said. By November 2011, the Chamber was $20,000 in debt and had 62 member businesses, a sparce number. The Chamber had no staff, no business buy-ins and a bad reputation in the Valley.
Maez pitched to the city council a plan that would have awarded the Chamber some Lodgers Tax dollars, but that didn’t work out.
But Maez said that when Duran took over as executive director, the Chamber breathed newfound life.
“He’s a manager – he gets things done,” Maez said. “He’s persistent and work-oriented. If he has something that he wants to do, he’ll do it. He’s brought us a long way. He’s pulled the Board together. It’s a new beginning, so to speak. A lot of it, he did on his own. He’s very tenacious.”
At present, the Chamber operates on an $80,000 budget and eliminated its debt by reducing its monthly obligations by 40 percent. It has also tripled its business membership and continues to recruit volunteers through membership drives.
The Chamber strives to develop closer relations with the public to maintain its stability, Maez said. He said it has adapted to technology by establishing a website and an online newsletter to communicate more closely with members.
“Things are a lot better. Being a long-time board member, I see it as positive and the leadership has a lot to do with it,” Maez said. “We’re very stable now, we’re growing and we want to continue to grow.”
But Duran said his biggest accomplishment is the renewed reputation of the Chamber.
“To belong to the Chamber of Commerce today tells you, as a business, that you’ve succeeded – that you’ve come, that you’re here, that you’re doing business,” he said. “It’s almost elite. Organizations and businesses are saying now, ‘I’m proud to belong to the Chamber of Commerce.’”
Community Service
When it comes to helping the local economy, Duran proves to be an overachiever. When not working with the Chamber, he gets involved with various community service organizations.
For one, he has been sitting on United Way of Northern New Mexico’s Community Fund Grant Committee since 2013. There, he helps make decisions that provide grant money to nonprofits in the area.
He said while working with the Chamber’s Board of Directors, he was asked by United Way Board of Directors President Valerie Martinez to get involved with the Committee. He said yes because the position seemed to be an extension of his duties with the Chamber, he said.
“The reason I accepted, when you look at the total mission, they want to be a part of the greater community,” he said. “I want to be a part of that. It’s trying to complement other nonprofit efforts.”
Martinez, who has known Duran since 2012, said she recruited him on the committee after seeing his dedication with the Chamber and his managerial skills with U.S. Cable. She said it has been a pleasure working with Duran.
“He did really well,” she said. “He was very involved from the start. He worked many hours reviewing grants application.”
Duran dedicates about three weeks of involvement with the Committee every year, Martinez said. The Committee reviews grant applications from about 40 nonprofits every April, then conducts intensive interviews, for which Duran greatly contributes, she said.
After two years of fruitful involvement, Martinez said she would again recommend Duran for a seat in the Committee next year.
Duran is also dedicated to helping youth in the city. He gets involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern New Mexico, through which he helps implement enhanced peer mentorship throughout Española Public Schools. He said he had been asked by the Big Brothers Big Sisters board of directors to be part of their team, but he declined because he did not feel that he was the right man for the job.
Right now, Duran volunteers informally with Big Brothers Big Sisters. He also donated funding to the organization last year.
Duran thinks mentorship programs are important to enhance school graduation rates and to keep youth away from crime. He said according to the organization’s research, 46 percent of youth in the area are mostly influenced by their grandparents who are not fully aware of new technology and other generational differences.
More mentorship in the city will bridge that gap, he said.
“I tried to encourage more ‘bigs’ in the city, an adult mentor,” he said. “That would hopefully encourage youth to not get involved in criminal behavior or even for them to graduate. I fully support the Board members involved with the organization.”
And to further complement the Chamber’s economic efforts, Duran is involved with La Vision de Valle Coalition, which unites organizations that gather every month to discuss the impacts of drug use and abuse in the Valley. The Coalition is organized by Española-based nonprofit Hands Across Cultures.
Duran said he volunteers with these organizations to improve the city through youth development, which will prove to be an asset to its total economy.
A family man
Born in Los Alamos in 1967, Duran grew up in Velarde with his family. He was an only child.
His father, Rudy, worked at a car repair shop, while his mother, Sandra, was a kindergarten teacher in Española. His mother died in 2007 and his father, a retiree, now lives in their family’s hometown.
Duran ended up starting a family of his own in the Valley.
It was the week after Valentine’s Day. Duran ascended to Albuquerque’s Sandia Peak that afternoon with Trish Serrano. The two rode the tramway together and dined in High Finance Restaurant on the mountaintop. The sun was nearly setting, when Duran asked Serrano into the restaurant balcony where they took a picture. After a couple of shots, he read her a poem.
Then, with red and orange hues in the sky, Duran asked Serrano to marry him. She said yes.
“It was a perfect night,” said Trish Duran, who now carries her husband’s surname.
The two have been married for 14 years.
Kelly Duran met Trish Duran while he was in high school. Trish Duran was attending Coronado High School at the time, and the two met through a mutual friend.
They became high school sweethearts, still, without commitment. It wasn’t until 1996, when the two declared themselves as a formal couple.
Kelly Duran said he didn’t propose to his wife on Valentine’s Day because it was cliché.
“I don’t like Valentine’s Day,” he said. “Everyday, I think, is Valentine’s Day, especially if you love someone.”
Trish and Kelly Duran, who prides himself on being a family-oriented person, now have two children. Adriana, 11, is a budding athlete, and Kelly Duran coaches her basketball team. She also has an entrepreneurial spirit and makes bracelets for fun, he said.
Ezekiel, 6, is an “incredible, intelligent young man,” and Kelly Duran reads to him every night. His son is also a natural gamer, he said.
“He’s beating me on Mario Kart, and I’m trying very, very hard,” Kelly Duran said.
Trish Duran, who serves as a real estate loan officer at Del Norte Credit Union, said her husband is a dedicated and well loved father. She said they have an energetic and relaxing atmosphere in their household.
“The minute he walks in, our children run to give him a hug,” she said. “There’s a light air into the room when he walks in. It’s very comforting. We have a lot of fun.”
The Durans take time off every weekend to spend time with their family, she said. Their family goes on hikes to enjoy nature together, and on holidays, they visit their big extended family.
Despite a close family dynamic, the couple does not let hectic schedules affect their romance. Both movie fanatics, they try to go on date nights at least once a month.
“It’s nice when we can find a babysitter,” Trish Duran said.
Business
of saving lives
The night was quiet at Bagram Airfield in Kabul, Afghanistan. Kelly Duran, with other New Mexico National Guard’s air ambulance officers, were sleeping in their bunk beds. Out of nowhere, Duran heard a very loud screeching sound.
He was sure of two things – that the sound came from a fighter jet and that their lives were in danger.
“We knew it was an RPG, (rocket-propelled grenade)” Kelly Duran said. “That night was one of the coldest nights I can remember. We got rocketed. RPGs landed within feet of our tent.”
About 12 to 15 soldiers were killed or injured in the attack, Kelly Duran said. Luckily, that night ended with all of the air ambulance officers, deployed in 2003 to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom amid the United States’ war on terror, survived.
Duran’s experience in Afghanistan was not forgiving, he said. Although he was stationed at the Airfield, he also worked in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second largest city, and in the Forward Operating Base Salerno near the Pakistani border. He was in charge of maintaining helicopters.
Duran had an early fascination with aircraft as a child. Posters of helicopters and planes were plastered all over his childhood room’s walls, he said. Duran originally wanted to be a pilot. But as he witnessed Operation Dessert Storm on television, he discovered he wanted to be part of something bigger.
So, he enlisted in the National Guard in 1994 during his junior year at Española Valley High School. He finished high school the next year, but he did not even have the chance to hold a graduation party. Two days after getting his diploma, he packed his bags and went straight to training camp in Virginia.
He came back to New Mexico in December 1996 and worked full-time with the National Guard as an aircraft electrician for 11 years.
“I think that was one of the best decisions that I made,” Kelly Duran said. “We essentially pick up the wounded, bring them back and save lives. That’s our business – saving lives.”
He went on to work on black hawks, CH-47 Chinooks and AH-64 Apaches. He was called to help in national tragedies, such as Hurricane Katrina and the Cerro Grande Fire. He has also gone to Germany and Guatemala. Now, as platoon sergeant, he is in charge of 30 other National Guard enlisted personnel, he said.
The best part of serving with the National Guard is the camaraderie, Duran said.
“Essentially, anyone wearing that uniform, you’re essentially willing to die for,” he said. “It’s a sense of belonging.”
Col. John Fishburn has known Duran for 20 years. Duran first met Fishburn when Duran enlisted in the National Guard. The two went on to work together in Santa Fe, and were deployed together to Afghanistan.
Fishburn said Duran is “probably one of the best.”
“We’ve worked together a long time,” Fishburn said. “He is the best aircraft electrician that I’ve ever known. He’s just been a great asset to have and a good leader for younger soldiers. I just appreciate what he’s done. He’s just a good man.”
Duran celebrated 18 years of service with the National Guard on May 19. He has no regrets, he said.
“We came home,” Duran said. “I’m very grateful to have the life that I have. I won’t take it back.”
Family separation
But Duran’s service with the National Guard has proven tough for his family.
As a young father, he had to leave his daughter, who was six months old at the time, when he was called to serve in Afghanistan.
“If I can take anything back, (it would be) that part of her life,” he said. “We have the greatest relationship now. But I wasn’t there to see her first steps, her first words. I basically saw her on a computer screen. It took me about a year when I came back to be able to reconnect with my daughter, as close as I was with her before I left. In turn, that makes me a better father.”
Being the wife of a National Guard officer has its disadvantages, Trish Duran said. Whenever her husband gets called to duty, that takes away time he could spend with their family, she said.
And although her husband has been serving with the National Guard for almost two decades, Trish Duran still worries for him. She said the fear of deployment makes her skip a heartbeat constantly.
But for her, Kelly Duran is a great, honorable man.
“I think of him, honestly, as a hero because to be able to put himself (out) like that and to put others ahead of himself, it’s a great, great virtue to even teach our kids,” she said. “It’s when you do things for the greater good of others that really shows your character. I love him for it.”
Continued growth
Kelly Duran said he aims to continue to increase the Chamber’s budget to about $90,000 in the following years. He sees advanced planning as a key factor to achieve this goal, especially with the Chamber’s budget increasing while the city’s budget, earlier this year, was in a $1.5 million shortfall.
But the Chamber’s goal is not just a more efficient flow of money into the city, but also an enhanced social economy, which encompasses smoother operations in all aspects of the community, he said.
He said the Chamber should work to improve education in the city to produce a better workforce. This can be done through the various community services organizations focused on serving the youth that he is involved with.
Quality and more affordable housing will attract more people and businesses into the city, Duran said, which will help Española’s deteriorating economy.
“Currently, I don’t think we have true market-based housing,” he said. “Our real estate’s a little bit high. The options that people have here are not track housing that you have in Bernalillo or other metropolitan areas. What you find here is basically custom homes. If we can create, hopefully, something in the middle, I think that would entice everybody to look at Rio Arriba as a place to live.”
Duran will continue to work with United Way to help nonprofits in the city. And he might even join its Board of Directors. He will attend a Board meeting July 23, then decide whether the opportunity is a right fit.
Martinez said Duran’s in-depth knowledge of Española will be helpful for United Way’s Board. She said she is optimistic that Duran would accept her offer.
“He has some pretty unique traits,” she said. “He’s very motivated. He has credible information to share. He asks very penetrating and important questions. I think it’s important for us to have board members from Española Valley and Kelly brings a good understanding of local businesses and nonprofits.”
Although Kelly Duran is hesitant to get involved full-time with the National Guard again, he will continue to work with the Guard in minor ways in the future. In two years, he will celebrate 20 years of service, and he said he will always be there for his country whenever needed.
Trish Duran, who has always adored her husband’s hard work and diligence, said she is optimistic that Kelly Duran will undoubtedly achieve all of his goals.
“I really look up to him,” she said. “He’s very passionate in what he does and everything he puts his mind into, it’s because he has true vision. He sees things that most of us don’t. He sees it in a positive way and knows that there is a better way. That’s why he is so devoted to the Chamber and to the Valley.”