Thornburg Foundation · Early Childhood & K-12 Education
As Senior Policy Officer at the Thornburg Foundation, Michael led the creation of the New Mexico Early Childhood Funders Group (now the New Mexico Early Childhood Funders Alliance), pooling philanthropic resources to advocate for home visiting and fund development of an early childhood business plan. That plan helped drive the creation of both the Early Childhood Education and Care Department and the Early Childhood Trust Fund — a permanent endowment that has since grown to roughly $10 billion and now underwrites the state's universal child care program. The coalition also brought legislators on site visits to home-visiting programs and child care sites to make the case for investment firsthand, helping spark the Legislative Early Childhood Caucus along the way. This work later earned Michael the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce's Excellence in Education award.
When COVID-19 hit, Michael helped the early childhood funders' coalition move quickly, launching an emergency response grants program to support New Mexico's youngest children and the child care providers serving them through the crisis.
Michael also created a parallel K-12 funders group to coordinate philanthropic investment in principal residencies, superintendent licensure pathways, and an independent study of teacher professional development effectiveness.
His Thornburg grantmaking also launched several K-12 talent-pipeline partnerships that continue today, including CNM's fast-track teacher preparation pathway, the Golden Apple Scholars program, and Instituto del Puente's career and technical education policy work at Future Focused Education.
This approach — concentrating resources, showing up in community, and committing to long-term, flexible funding rather than short project grants — was later profiled by Exponent Philanthropy as a model of catalytic, equity-centered leadership in philanthropy.