Board of Directors

President

Sarah Jacobs

Sarah is a native of Florida with an extensive background in law and policy surrounding juvenile justice and child welfare. Sarah studied law at the Ave Maria School of Law and the University of New Mexico School of Law where she received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree. She is licensed to practice law in the State of New Mexico. After passing the bar, Sarah worked in domestic violence survivor advocacy, and as a prosecutor in New Mexico’s First Judicial District, where she co-chaired the regional juvenile justice board and focused her practice on progressive alternatives to traditional juvenile justice concerns. She then worked for the Administrative Office of the Courts as the Court Improvement Project Director for the child welfare system.

Sarah currently works as general counsel to the Aging and Long-Term Services Department in New Mexico where she strives to ensure the focus is inter-generational in nature and that families and communities come to together to support each other throughout their lives. She lives in Santa Fe with her two adorable senior french bulldogs, Roy and Eleanor.

Vice President

Queva Hubbard

Queva Hubbard is a Certified Peer Support Specialist (CPSW) who works with the New Mexico Family Advocacy Program assisting families who have been affected by the child welfare system. Queva has a unique perspective in working with families by offering support and sharing her own 14-year history with incarceration, drug use, and the separation of her children.

In late 2014, Queva decided she’d had enough. While incarcerated, she enrolled herself into a treatment program where she later became a mentor. She continued to participate in a therapeutic treatment program where she graduated and became a peer mentor and then on to be a case manager. Queva understood the damage of trust she had broken with her children and family, so through proper counseling and preparation, Queva was able to regain full custody of both of her children. Since then, Queva has devoted her time and experience in supporting individuals who are dealing with strongholds and barriers similar to her past. 

Member

Jo Jennings West

Jo Jennings West attended the College of Notre Dame (now Notre Dame University of Maryland) where she majored in Theatre and Education. She received her MA in Liberal Arts from The Johns Hopkins University. In addition to teaching Drama and English for more than 20 years, she founded an educational enrichment program that offered after school classes to children in Baltimore-area public and private schools. Jo is also an experienced sales and marketing professional with proven success in client-based development for small businesses. 

In 2015, Jo relocated to Albuquerque and began volunteering for Hospice Compassus writing Life Journals for dying patients. In January 2017, she began her volunteer work with Crossroads for Women by writing for the newsletter and the annual report. Her duties soon expanded to fundraising and board membership. Jo lives in the McDuffie/Twin Parks neighborhood of Albuquerque with her husband Neal O’Callaghan. She has been blessed with a daughter, a son, and six grandchildren.

Member

Barron Jones

Bio coming soon!

Member

Brendan O’Reilly

When Crossroads for Women needed to fill a spot on its Board, Brendan jumped at the opportunity.

            “I first met Kathleen Winslow when I was in grade school,” Brendan said of Kathleen, a long-time Crossroads for Women volunteer who formerly served as President of the Crossroads for Women Board and who died in early-2022. “Kathleen and my mom were college roommates and Kathleen inspired me from an early age to care for and help others. I want to honor Kathleen by helping Crossroads for Women empower women emerging from incarceration to achieve safe, healthy, and fulfilling lives in the community, for themselves, and for their children. As a Public Defender I saw first-hand how an organization such as Crossroads for Women can help people recover from incarceration.”

            Born and raised in Lincoln County, Brendan graduated from St. Pius X High School in Albuquerque (Class of 1994). As a high-school senior, Brendan won the “Funniest Teenager in Albuquerque Stand-up Comedy Championship” with impersonations of Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Ross Perot as characters aboard the Starship Enterprise.

            Brendan earned a Bachelor of Arts in politics (minor: gender studies) from Hendrix College of Conway, Ark. (Class of 1998). While studying at American University’s “Washington Semester” program in Fall 1996, Brendan interned at the White House in the Office of the Vice President (Mrs. Gore’s office). After college, Brendan worked as a print reporter in and around Little Rock and Albuquerque, where he returned in August 2001 to work as the communications director for the Democratic Party of New Mexico. 

            Owing to a lifelong degenerative eye condition, the New Mexico Commission for the Blind granted Brendan a full scholarship to attend the University of New Mexico School of Law (Class of 2007). During law school, Brendan attended Pepperdine University’s Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution, one of the world’s top-rated institutions for dispute resolution studies.

Brendan joined the State Bar of New Mexico in September 2007. A  third-generation New Mexico lawyer, Brendan has worked for the New Mexico Office of the Attorney General (Gary K. King), the New Mexico Public Defender Department (Albuquerque, Serious Violent Felony Attorney), the Law Office of Mel B. O’Reilly, a few personal injury law firms, a medical malpractice defense law firm, and since 2018 has run The Lawyers O’Reilly PC, where he does estate planning, probate, real estate, personal injury, and contracts.

In 2010, Brendan sent a Facebook friend request to Amy Hawkins, with whom he had ridden the school bus in Ruidoso in the mid-1980s. A mere 10 months later Brendan convinced Amy to get hitched and move to Albuquerque from Las Cruces. 

Brendan can be quite persuasive.

Brendan and Amy – whose respective families trace their roots to 1880s New Mexico – live in Albuquerque’s McDuffie/Twin Parks neighborhood with their dogs, which vary in number from two to five at any one time. 

            Brendan volunteers for the following organizations:

State Bar of New Mexico – Trial Practice Section; Chair (2022); Board Member (2021);

State Bar of New Mexico – Solo and Small Firms Section; Secretary (2022); Board Member (2021);

Democratic Party of New Mexico – State Platform and Resolutions Committee; Member (2021 – 2023);

Democratic Party of Bernalillo County – Resolutions Committee; Chair (2019 – present);

Democratic Party of Bernalillo County – County Central Committee (2021 – present).