There’s no mistaking that voice.
Carrie Hamblen’s vibrant voice and commanding presence are unmistakable as she confidently expounds upon topics ranging from fiscal policy to environmental issues to relationship building across the aisle in the Roundhouse as the New Mexico State Senator for District 38 since 2021.
However, Las Cruces Aggies know that Hamblen has been active in making New Mexico a better place for more than 30 years. And since she became CEO and president of the Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce, she has been directly responsible for highlighting the millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs that public lands bring to the Las Cruces area.
After obtaining her bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Texas at El Paso, Hamblen moved to Las Cruces in 1992 to attend NMSU. She started putting her tremendous voice to good use — both literally and figuratively — while earning her master’s degree in communication studies, working as a student employee at KRWG-FM and serving as president of the Las Cruces chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and co-chair of the Southern New Mexico Pride board.
Upon graduation, she took a full-time position at KRWG-FM, first as host of Morning Edition and then as operations manager, making sure “that what goes out on the air is what is supposed to.” Her 15 years at KRWG-FM plus her community service on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community made her one of the most recognizable Aggies in town.
In 2012, Hamblen accepted the job of CEO/president of the still new (2010) Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce (LCGCC), which serves more than 200 member businesses and nonprofits. Her first order of business? “I reframed the narrative to emphasize the importance of supporting local businesses.” Before the LCGCC, “local businesses felt their voices weren’t heard,” Hamblen says, adding that the Green Chamber has good relationships with both the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce and the Las Cruces Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “Our roads are different, but our end goal is the same — to make sure the business community thrives.”
The foundation of the LCGCC is the triple bottom line framework, a business strategy also known as the “Triple Ps”: people, planet, and profit. In simple terms, the triple bottom line is that business success is not only predicated on profits, but also social involvement and environmental sustainability.
Hamblen recalls her frustration when a popular chain restaurant opened in Las Cruces. “The community went crazy. People wrote to Sound Off [the now-defunct anonymous comment section in the Las Cruces Sun-News] that we were a ‘real city’ now. That’s why green chambers are necessary — to level the playing field for locally owned businesses that are invested in the success not only of their business, but the community.”
She not only embraced the Triple Ps but turned the LCGCC into a nationally renowned green chamber leader, serving as a model for how other green chambers can connect the dots between the success of local economies and public lands.
Hamblen had become convinced of the economic arguments in favor of public lands when she became involved in the designation of the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in Taos County — and saw the same opportunity in Doña Ana County. Although there had already been some efforts to establish the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, not enough quantifiable evidence had been laid out as to why it was a good idea — beyond, of course, critical protection of the fragile desert environment and priceless cultural artifacts.
In 2013, she commissioned a nonpartisan economic impact study from BBC Research & Consulting to determine the effects the creation of the monument would have on our community. Their report indicated that the monument would generate $7.4 million annually. Thanks to Carrie’s efforts, support continued to build, and Senator Martin Heinrich and former Senator Tom Udall introduced the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Conservation Act in December 2013. In May 2014, President Barack Obama established the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument (OMDPNM) through an Antiquities Act presidential proclamation, protecting almost 500,000 acres of wildlife-filled land and more than 5,000 archeologically and culturally significant sites such as pictographs, petroglyphs, and Spanish settlement sites.
Hamblen was relaxing on a Sunday afternoon in May 2014 when she received a call from a 202-area code. It was the White House, with an invitation for Hamblen not only to come to Washington, D.C. for the signing of the proclamation establishing the OMDPNM, but to speak at the event about the connection between local economies and public lands and the impact of green chambers of commerce.
Two weeks later, Hamblen found herself in the company of President Obama, former New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici, then-Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell (who had visited Las Cruces to learn more about the monument prior to the designation decision), and representatives from the Bureau of Land Management, all talking about the things that make New Mexico great — chile, sunsets, and mountains.
The OMDPNM has proven to be a greater economic juggernaut than anyone could have imagined.
A second economic impact report commissioned in 2023 found that, from the time of the monument designation in 2014 to 2022, the cumulative economic impact of OMDPNM was more than $234 million, with $35 million in direct ($25.9 million) and secondary impacts ($9.1 million) generated in 2022 alone and a total of $12.9 million in increased tax revenue to the state, county, and local government. As of 2022, 305 jobs were supported by monument visitation, which has tripled from 183,800 in 2012 (prior to designation) to 612,781 in 2022. Even the value of grazing allotments on the monument has increased, from $2.568 million in 2012 to $3.254 million in 2022.
Not only did Hamblen work with local and state politicians to bring the monument to fruition, she rallied the support of the community and Visit Las Cruces, which now holds events such as Monuments to Main Street that celebrate our public lands. She worked with chamber members to teach them how their “thoughtful stewardship” of the monument was necessary: “If you want to make money from it, you’ve got to protect it.” Hamblen also helped local businesses find creative ways to engage with the monument that create opportunities for profit and started the Green Chamber’s OMDP Business Outreach Program, which includes an OMDP Marketing Toolkit to help local businesses find ways to associate with the monument.
Hamblen believes small businesses are looking for opportunities to be highlighted, and the monument provides a way for the chamber to uplift businesses that are thoughtful stewards of the land and our community. “Tourists want to leave with stories when they have visited a place — ‘I went to a local coffee shop and had a great cup of coffee, it was called the Monument Blend.’”
She notes several great examples of local businesses benefiting from their support for the monument, including Salud! de Mesilla, owned by NMSU alumni Christopher Schaljo-Hernandez ’12 and Russell Hernandez ’04, with its private dining OMDP! Room, and Amaro Winery, which released a special edition Monumental Wine Series that features the photographs of local artist Wayne Suggs on the labels.
Hamblen originally took the job as head of the LCGCC because of her work with local nonprofits. “I had been asking for donations for all these years, and this was an opportunity to help the people who had helped me for so long and so generously. I am grateful to be able to do it,” she says.
She concludes: “Public lands are good for communities, and Las Cruces is an example of a community that took ownership of its public lands and is seeing firsthand how the local economy benefits from thoughtfully stewarding them.”
For more information about Hamblen and the Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce, visit https://locallascruces.com.