NAIMI Leadership
NAIMI is under the leadership of Dr. Thomas Bowles (Executive Director), Lalita Rao (CTO), Amy Miller (Public Affairs Director), and Gopal Rao (Consultant). In addition, NAIMI has strong working relationships with nationally recognized leaders in economic and workforce development, clean energy, environment, and education.
Dr. Thomas Bowles,
NAIMI Executive Director
Thomas Bowles has had a distinguished scientific and senior management career at Los Alamos National Laboratory as well as having created programs that have stimulated economic growth.
Bowles’ research leading international collaborations revised our understanding of the Mass of the Universe.
Bowles served as LANL Chief Scientist and Chief Science Officer where he had oversight of a broad range of S&T. His responsibilities included directing $100M in annual discretionary research funds, technology transfer, and serving as LANL's principal science contact with external institutions.
Bowles served as Science Advisor to NM Governor Bill Richardson and worked closely with the national laboratories, universities, and industry to couple S&T advances into growing high-tech jobs. Bowles has been deeply involved in STEM education and workforce development efforts and serves on various national and international Boards.
Bowles has received numerous awards for his scientific and economic and workforce development efforts. Bowles earned his Ph.D. in physics at Princeton University.
Lalita Rao
Chief Technical Officer
Lalita is a recognized expert in technical workforce development, developing and implementing distance learning, and establishing educational standards and programs for all Intel wafer Fab operations. She is skilled in project management, Six Sigma, and management of large, geographically dispersed teams.
She held various technical and managerial positions during her 21-year tenure at Intel, including a recent position as Director of the College of Engineering to support the worldwide chip manufacturing operations. Lalita was the architect in creating and developing this unique College of Engineering program that enabled the development of skilled workforce capabilities across the factories. Lalita pioneered academia/Intel partnerships to enhance the capability of engineers and technicians to meet the stringent technology requirements for high-volume manufacturing. Lalita was also Senior Manager of Intel’s Fab/Sort Manufacturing (FSM) Centers of Excellence for Learning, Performance & Infrastructure Solutions and Technology Transfer Capability for process technology capability readiness and knowledge management.
After leaving Intel, Lalita brought her industry expertise to WESST organization as an Intel Encore Fellow. She established business processes and systems to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and grow client customer base. Lalita is currently (2023) serving as Director, Board Member at Large of the FBI Albuquerque Citizens Academy Alumni Association Board (FBIACAAA).
Lalita has a PhD in Organizational Learning and Instructional Technologies and MA in Instructional Technology from the University of New Mexico. She has several publications as well.
Amy Miller
NAIMI Public Affairs Director
Amy Miller has more than 20 years of experience in the business and nonprofit world in management level positions to provide organizations with services in strategic planning and project management, outreach strategies and government relations, communications planning and issues management.
Miller has significant experience working in the energy and environmental arenas. She facilitated the New Mexico Environment Department’s strategic planning session, developed a business energy efficiency challenge for the City of Albuquerque and is working to build the capacity of the New Mexico Environmental Public Health Network for the NM Association of Grantmakers.
Miller previously served as the External Affairs Director for The Nature Conservancy’s New Mexico Chapter. She previously worked at PNM for 14 years, most recently as the Director of Community and Local Government Engagement.
Miller is a graduate of Leadership New Mexico, Leadership Albuquerque and the University of Idaho Utility Executive Course. She currently chairs the Albuquerque Bernalillo Water Utility Authority Technical Customer Advisory Committee and the City of Albuquerque Energy Council.
Gopal Rao
Advanced Manufacturing and Business Development Consultant
Gopal Rao is currently a Technology and Manufacturing Engineering Consultant, advising industry and academia on advanced manufacturing. He has also been working very closely with the MUSEIC/FUMEC and US-Mexico teams to develop the Binational Intelligent Manufacturing Initiative.
Rao was previously SEMATECH’s Senior Director of Business Development for U.S. Operations and simultaneously held the position of Managing Director at Sematech, Taiwan to oversee Asia Paci c region. At Sematech, Rao was responsible for strategic membership growth and integrated marketing & technology initiatives.
Prior to joining SEMATECH, Rao served as Director of High-Volume Manufacturing Research at Intel, where he led a strategic portfolio of advanced manufacturing projects in partnership with universities. A 24-year veteran of Intel, Gopal progressed through a variety of assignments in senior engineering and management roles and is the recipient of the Intel Achievement Award for reducing cycle times for fab qualifications and accelerating product time to market.
Rao holds Masters degrees in Physics and Solid State Materials. He has authored two technical books, along with many other publications to his credit.
Danielle Adams
Chief Administrator
Born and raised in Las Cruces, Adams is currently based in Albuquerque, NM. She brings a diverse skill set as a copywriter, content creator, and grant writer with several years of event and project management experience to her role as chief administrator. As a writer, Adams understands the power and complexity of storytelling, bringing that perspective to NAIMI. She has previously been involved with both TEDxABQ and the NM Breastfeeding Taskforce, elevating their missions through engaging content and marketing campaigns.
Adams has organized successful events with hundreds of attendees, speakers, and sponsors, and brings the same detail-oriented, outcome-driven focus to supporting NAIMI's clean energy economy objectives in NM. In 2018, she founded Arrow & Ink Communications, offering her expertise to entrepreneurs, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations. In both professional and personal endeavors, she is deeply invested in contributing to and uplifting the people, places, and projects that make New Mexico wonderful.
NAIMI Board of Directors
NAIMI's Board of Directors consists of Mark Gomez, Fred Mondragon, and Tony Redondo.
Mark Gomez
NAIMI Board of Directors
Mark Gomez joined Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in October 2017 and serves as a Cyber Counterintelligence Officer, providing cybersecurity subject matter expertise to LANL and the Department of Energy. While at LANL, Mark has also led a network security team that conducted security event response operations and managed network security monitoring instrumentation.
Before his tenure at LANL, Mark spent almost 21 years working on cyber and counterintelligence matters as a Special Agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Prior to the FBI, Mark served for 6 years as a communications/intelligence officer in the United States Marine Corps, rising to the rank of Captain.
A native of Tampa, Florida, Mark was educated at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is married and has 3 children.
Fred Mondragon
NAIMI Board of Directors
Fred Mondragon has over forty years of experience in the public and private sectors, including over 15 years in hospital and public administration and 25 years with the private sector. Mondragon served as CEO of the University of New Mexico Hospital, as Regional Administrator of the Presbyterian hospital system, and as Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Albuquerque. Mondragon also worked for two national system integration companies, TRW and Northrop Grumman, as Director of Economic Development for the City of Albuquerque, as Cabinet Secretary for Economic Development under Governor Bill Richardson, and as interim Executive Director of Spaceport America.
Mondragon served in the New Mexico Legislature for three terms and was a member of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee. He was also the Science Advisor to the Governor of New Mexico and served as Founding Chairman of the Governor’s Science and Technology Commission, which established the Centers of Technical Excellence at New Mexico's three research universities. Currently Mondragon serves as Honorary Consul for Spain, teaches Entrepreneurship at the UNM Anderson School and serves on several non-profit boards.
Mondragon holds a BS degree in Biology and English Literature from the University of New Mexico and a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) from The George Washington University.
In 2024, Mondragon was inducted into the Order of Isabel la Católica (Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic) by the King of Spain for his clean energy work.
Antonio Redondo, PhD
NAIMI Board of Directors
Antonio Redondo received a B.Sc. in Physics from Utah State University in 1971 and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1972 and 1977, respectively. After finishing his Ph.D., he became a physics professor at the University of the Andes, in Venezuela. In late 1980, he returned to Caltech, where he was a research associate, investigating semiconductor surfaces and interfaces. He came to Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Technical Staff Member in the Electronics and Electrochemical Materials and Devices Group in 1983 where he worked as a theoretical scientist with experimentalists studying electrochemical fuel cells, conducting polymers and semiconductor devices. He has led a team of scientists at Los Alamos to design a catalytic converter for a new generation of green automobiles. This project involved collaborations with three other national laboratories and the research organizations at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. In March 1997, Redondo received a Medal for Technical Accomplishment from Vice President Al Gore for his contributions to this project. The work in catalysis continued with several projects involving the petroleum and chemical industry. He researched catalysts for the conversion of crude oil to gasoline as well as for the efficient production of plastics and raw materials from natural gas. He joined the Theoretical Division in 1994 as Group Leader of the Theoretical Chemistry and Molecular Physics Group. There, he continued to carry out theoretical studies of catalysts, materials properties and aging.
After 2000, Dr. Redondo started to work on theoretical biology problems, particularly cell signaling and immunology. In 2005, he became the Group Leader of the Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Group, also in the Theoretical Division. In June 2006, he was appointed to lead the Theoretical Division. During his tenure as the head of the Theoretical Division he continued to do research in materials and fluid dynamics, starting a 20-year collaboration with Procter and Gamble studying the properties of colloidal systems such as fabric enhancers (Downy) and shampoo (Head and Shoulders). In 2015, he decided to go back to full-time research and was appointed Senior Scientist in the Theory, Simulation and Computation Directorate. At this time, he started a collaboration with Mars, Inc. to model the coating of M&Ms and Skittles with the purpose of understanding how to reduce the time and increase the efficiency of the coating process. Redondo has been Adjunct Professor in the Computational Science Research Center at San Diego State University, the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of California at Davis and in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the World Technology Network. His recent interests in research have focused on modeling soft matter and fluid systems. In February 2018, he was appointed head of the Richard P. Feynman Center for Innovation, the organization at Los Alamos National Laboratory in charge of technology transfer and regional development. In May 2020 he became Science Advisor to the Governor of New Mexico, still remaining an employee of Los Alamos National Laboratory. He retired in January 2022 and is currently a Guest Scientist at Los Alamos, collaborating with scientists on crystal growth and fundamental quantum mechanics