Former PBS host Gene Grant appointed to lead NM Office of African American Affairsby Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
October 23, 2025
A well-known face from public television this week stepped into a new role leading the New Mexico Office of African American Affairs.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Gene Grant’s appointment as the office’s executive director on Wednesday. He previously spent nearly two decades as host of “New Mexico in Focus” on the local PBS affiliate. After leaving the show in 2023, he then served as the chief program and policy officer at nonprofit Animal Protection New Mexico for just over two years. Grant, a Santa Fe resident, also serves on the boards of the ACLU of New Mexico, the Vortex Theatre and Duke City Shootout.
“For almost 20 years, Gene Grant has been one of New Mexico’s most trusted voices — asking tough questions, bringing people together and making sure every New Mexican has a seat at the table,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “He understands the power of representation, and he’s spent his career making sure African American voices and stories are front and center in our state.”
Grant’s hiring marks the third appointment since William Scott Carreathers resigned as the office’s head in June 2020. Lujan Grisham then appointed New Mexico Black Leadership Council Board President Amy Whitfield to the role. After Whitfield became the governor’s housing and homelessness advisor, Charles Reado, a former social worker for the state’s child welfare department, stepped in as the office’s acting executive director. Reado will now serve as the department’s deputy director, Grant confirmed.
The state’s Sunshine Portal reports the executive director position has an annual salary of more than $98,0000 per year.
In an interview with Source, Grant said his first priorities will be expanding the office’s footprint; offering more information virtually; and providing listening sessions. His first day was officially Oct. 22, he said.
“I’m thankful for the governor’s confidence, and there’s a lot of work to do, and I’m ready to do it,” Grant said. “There’s issues informing the African American community that are happening out of national politics, as well as local politics that need attention in all corners of our state.”
Grant named three top issues he plans to address: physical health; mental health awareness; and education, but promised to incorporate feedback from across the state to drill down into further priorities. He said his time in public media fostered his “eye for the statewide view.”
“I’m not just an Albuquerque-specific or Santa Fe-specific person,” he said. We’re going to be getting on the road: to Hobbs, Roswell, Las Cruces, all the different counties where there are African American populations. I’ll be talking with legislators that serve in those areas.”
Grant said he also hopes to transform Albuquerque’s African American Performing Arts Center into a resource for the surrounding neighborhood in the city’s International District.
“We hope to use it for different things beyond just exhibition, beyond just stage performances,” Grant said.
He said the pressure the federal government is exerting on agencies and universities to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion inspires him to work to prove the state agency’s value to all New Mexicans.
“It’s a state agency, all taxpayers pay for it and, while we have a single focus, certainly, it is good for the rest of the state,” he said. “If we have things moving forward in the African American community, everybody wins.”
The national environment is creating a sense of urgency to protect the state office’s mission.
“It’s tough times right now, there’s no question about it,” he continued. “But it’s time to be brave, it’s a time to be forward-leaning, it’s time to look towards the future, and make sure that African Americans here have equally a shot to as many of the great things that are going on in New Mexico as everybody else.”
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