Trustees

Isaura Valdez - PDHQ
Email: [email protected]
4-Year Term
Date of Current Term: 05/01/2025
Current Term Expires: 04/30/2029

Karl C. Rimkus – Environmental Services
Email: [email protected]
4-Year Term
Date of Current Term: 05/01/2025
Current Term Expires: 04/30/2029

Karl has been an employee of the City’s Environmental Services Department since 2009 and has served as a City Employee Trustee since 2012 and previously served as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Retirement Trust. He has a Master’s Degree in Education and Geology from the University of Texas at El Paso, became a registered Code Enforcement Officer with the State of Texas in 2012, and has been certified by the International Code Council as a Property Maintenance and Housing Inspector since 2012. In addition to completing required educational courses by the Texas Pension Review Board in investment and pension administration, he was awarded a Claritas (now the Investment Foundations Program) Certificate from the CFA Institute in 2015. Karl currently serves as the Fund’s Chairman, a member of the Administrative Services Committee, and chairs the Facility and Maintenance Committee that provides oversight for the maintenance and operation of the Fund’s Administration Building.

Karina Brasgalla – Economic Development
Email: [email protected]
4-Year Term
Date of Current Term: 05/01/2023
Current Term Expires: 04/30/2027

Robert Studer - CRRMA
Email: [email protected]
4-Year Term
Date of Current Term: 05/01/2023
Current Term Expires: 04/30/2027

Rene Pena
E-mail: [email protected]
2-Year Term
Date of Current Term: 05/01/2025
Current Term Expires: 04/30/2027

Matt C.Kerr - Chairman
E-mail: [email protected]
Date of Current Term: 05/01/2025
Current Term Expires: 01/22/2027

Deborah G. Hamlyn
E-mail: [email protected]
2-Year Term
Date of Current Term: 05/01/24
Current Term Expires: 04/30/26

Art Fierro – City Representative - District 6
E-mail: [email protected]
2-Year Term
Date of Current Term: 01/24/2024
Current Term Expires: 04/30/2026

Art Fierro was elected to represent El Paso District 6 on December 17, 2022, and took office on January 3, 2023.

Prior to his election to El Paso City Council, Rep. Fierro was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in February 2019 and served two terms representing Texas District 79 in El Paso's eastside. During his tenure, he served on the House Committees on Agriculture and Livestock; Elections; and Licensing and Administrative Procedures. As a legislator, he authored and sponsored various bills affecting healthcare, voter rights, and education policy for the benefit of all Texans. Rep.Fierro was a proud member of the House Democratic Caucus, Mexican American Legislative Caucus, the Texas House LGBTQ Caucus, and most recently, the Caucus on Climate, Environment, and the Energy Industry and the Texas House Women's Health Caucus.

Prior to his election to the Texas House, he served on the El Paso Community College Board of Trustees. Rep. Fierro served as Secretary from 2006-2008 and served as the Chair of the Board from 2008 until his election to the Texas House. During his leadership as Chair, EPCC was recognized nationally for developing pathways for minority and under-served students. EPCC was one of 30 colleges selected nationally to participate in the AACC Guided Pathways Program. With the President and the administrative cabinet, Rep. Fierro strived to lead strategic efforts in ensuring student success at El Paso Community College. In 2015, The Aspen Institute named EPCC as a Top 10 Community College in the Nation. In 2016, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) recognized the work accomplished by EPCC with the Student Success Award and the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) recognized EPCC with the Western Region Equity Award.

By profession, Rep. Fierro is a marketing and public relations consultant and has worked with a number of marketing firms, as well as for-profit and non-profit businesses. He has served as President and CEO of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Special skills include strategizing and fundraising campaigns, developing and conducting public relations media plans; and training and motivating volunteers.

Rep. Fierro's community service is extensive, including board memberships in the Hispanic Leadership Institute of El Paso, the El Paso International Airport Board, the City of El Paso International Bridge Commission, and others. He was appointed by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson to one of five Small Business Advisory Committees in the State of Texas. In 2017 he was elected to serve as a Member of the ACCT Diversity Committee, a national organization that ensures leadership and involvement of historically underrepresented diverse populations within the governance activities of ACCT.

He has attended both El Paso Community College and the University of Texas at El Paso.

Representative Fierro lives in El Paso with his wife, Anna, and is the proud father of Julianna and Chris.

Chris Canales - City Representative - District 8
E-mail: [email protected]
Unexpired Term
Date of Current Term: 01/22/2025
Current Term Expires: 01/21/2027

Chris Canales was elected to represent District 8 on the El Paso City Council in late 2022 and was sworn in to serve a four year term beginning January 2023. A native El Pasoan, Chris attended EPISD schools on the Westside and graduated from Franklin High School. He then moved to New York City to attend Columbia University, where he graduated with a degree in Sustainable Development.

Chris’s professional background includes work in the Natural Resources Group at the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation; with a coalition of nonprofits focused on education reform; and at an NYC-based consultancy focusing on sustainability, eco-innovation, and green products and services, with a particular focus on waste reduction. Chris and his wife Nora moved back to the Borderland in 2017, and they now reside in District 8 with their two rescue dogs, Wyck and Q. Since he returned to El Paso, Chris has worked in municipal government, primarily as the chief of staff for his predecessor in the District 8 office.

At the appointment of the Mayor, Chris serves as the Chair of the Animal Shelter Advisory Committee; on the board of the El Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization, the regional body for transportation planning and policymaking; and on the Board of Directors of the City of El Paso Employees Retirement Trust, where he also sits on the Investment Committee. As the District 8 Representative, Chris also serves as an ex-officio member of the Board of Directors of the El Paso Downtown Management District and the Mass Transit Department Board, as well as the boards of the Downtown Development Corporation, the Children’s Museum Development Corporation, and the Health Facilities Development Corporation.

Outside of his roles in local government, Chris works as a referee of professional soccer, and he also holds an elected position in the soccer referees’ labor union Professional Soccer Referees Association.