Leadership

Technology and community leaders committed to establishing HI-STORE CIS are profiled below:

Mayor Sam Cobb, Chairman

Sam Cobb is the Mayor of Hobbs, New Mexico and has extensive experience with community service organizations in Lea County. For the State of New Mexico, he served as the Commissioner for Economic Development and Vice Chair of the New Mexico Small Business Investment Corporation. Other appointments include the SBIC Board and the Association of Commerce and Industry, for which he was the recipient of VIVA. Cobb has working knowledge of the Spanish language and a solid background in Mexican and Japanese cultures. He and his wife Rhonda have two sons, Phillip and Jarred.

Councilor Jason Shirley, ELEA Vice-Chairman

Jason Shirley was born in 1981 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  He moved with his family to Carlsbad in 1991 to pioneer Word of Life Church.  After graduating from Carlsbad High School, he returned to Tulsa to attend Rhema Bible Training Center, from which he graduated in 2002 with an emphasis on youth ministry.  He returned to Carlsbad in 2003 to accept the youth pastor position at Word of Life Church, where he still is employed today.  He is also the hospice chaplain at Golden Services in Carlsbad.  He is married to Tiffany Shirley of Sand Springs, Oklahoma (2002).  They have a 5 year old daughter, Brooklyn.

John A. Heaton

John Heaton is the volunteer energy coordinator for the City of Carlsbad where he serves as the Chair of the Mayor’s Nuclear Task Force. He is also an appointed member of the board of the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance and Chairs the Board of CEHMM and the NM Mining Commission. Prior to these appointments, he was elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives where he served on the interim Radioactive and Hazardous Waste and Pension & Investment Oversight Committees. At the national level, he was chairman of the NCSL Energy committee, where he chaired the Environmental Management oversight sub-committee and the High Level Waste Working Group. He is married to Julia and has two adult children.

Commissioner Jack Volpato, Treasurer

Jack Volpato is a Carlsbad native who has extensive experience in government affairs.  He served as Commissioner of Eddy County from 2006 to 2014.  He was also a member of the Carlsbad Department of Development, Past President of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, and a Member of the Mayors Nuclear Task Force.  Other special activities include co-founding the Noahs Ark Animal Refuge, creation of an annual scholarship to NMSU-C, and acting as Chair of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce.

Commissioner Susan Crockett

Susan Crockett is an Eddy County Native.  She was elected Eddy County Commissioner District 5 in 2012.  She sits on the NMAC Board for Economic Development and Infrastructure. She is a member of Energy Communities Alliance, Treasurer of ELEA, Secretary/Treasurer of the Carlsbad Department of Development and also holds the position of VP and GM of Springtime Cleaning; where she oversees seventy employees; manages over 50 accounts as well as handles budgeting, payroll, strategic planning and marketing.  She is former Chairman on the Board for the Carlsbad Chamber and currently sits on the Executive Board for the Carlsbad Department of Development.  She is married to Jason Crockett and has two sons.

Commissioner Gregg Fulfer

Gregg Fulfer is a Lea County Commissioner in New Mexico, and sits on America’s Counties for Energy Independence’s Board of Directors.  Gregg has more than 20 years’ experience in economic development and regularly works with multiple county advisory boards, chambers’ of commerce, school boards, city governments and leaders of all the communities in Lea County. At the state level, Gregg serves on the New Mexico Economic Development Commission and on the New Mexico Environment Improvement Board. At the national level, Gregg is the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of America’s Counties for Energy Independence and serves on the Bureau of Land Management Resource Advisory Council.

Ed Mayer, Program Director (Holtec International)

Ed Mayer is a Program Director at Holtec International, where he is responsible for the Consolidated Interim Storage Facility in southeastern New Mexico. The facility will address the Nation’s spent nuclear fuel issue with the safest technology licensed by the USNRC.   He is also responsible for the construction of the Holtec Technology Campus in Camden, NJ. The $320M project is aimed to help revitalize the City of Camden, a former bastion of technology and manufacturing. Prior to these roles at Holtec, Mayer served 28 years in the U.S. Submarine Force where he commanded the USS Oklahoma City (SSN-723) and USS Florida (SSGN-728). He is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University where he earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.