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She was born in Kentucky and worked in Egypt and Costa Rica before she ended up in Albuquerque leading the women's self-sufficiency team, now called WESST.
And after 33 years as its executive director, Agnes Noonan is retiring from the organization.
She's been a powerful influence on the New Mexico economy. WESST is a nonprofit dedicated to giving loans and providing other resources to small businesses, particularly those ran by women and underserved populations.
“We’re lending to folks that I mean would be hard-pressed to get anything other than a payday loan,” Noonan said. “It’s training, it's consulting, it’s advising, guiding, coaching, and to think that we’ve had something to do with so many thousands of businesses over the years."
Joellyn Murphy and Carol Radosevich founded WESST in 1989 and Noonan was named the organization's second executive director in 1991. She will retire at the end of the year.
WESST’s New Mexico chapter started because Murphy saw a program on "60 Minutes" about a woman in Minnesota starting one of the first WESST centers in the country.
“She said, 'Well, if they can do that in Minnesota, we can do it in New Mexico,'” Noonan said, recalling an old conversation with Murphy.
Noonan grew up in Kentucky and was one of ten siblings in a low-income family.
“If I wanted to make something happen, I had to work hard to make it happen,” she said.
Noonan earned a master's degree in international affairs from George Washington University with the help of a scholarship.
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From there, she made her way to Egypt doing marketing consulting work for U.S. companies and spent two years in Egypt at the American Chamber of Commerce.
Noonan was not done jet-setting. She joined the Peace Corps, where she worked with small businesses in Costa Rica.
After the Peace Corps, Noonan needed to decide where to live because she didn't want to return to Washington, D.C., or Kentucky.
“I had friends in Albuquerque, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon and they said, 'Well, come visit and check it out,'” Noonan said.
She was looking for jobs in the city. Having worked with small business in Costa Rica, Noonan reached out to the Small Business Administration, which pointed Noonan in the direction of WESST. She spent five days in Albuquerque and was on a plane to visit her other friends.
“On the plane to go to San Francisco I knew I was coming back,” Noonan said.
She was offered the job a couple of days later while she was in San Francisco. She instead went to Nordstrom to look for clothes for a job at WESST in Albuquerque.
“I was very excited about WESST and its mission,” Noonan said. “I lived in a very male dominated household.”
Until The Women's Business Ownership Act of 1988, women needed a male signature to get a loan.
“Entrepreneurship can be the great equalizer,” Noonan said.
As executive director for 33 years, Noonan was most proud of three things, the building she and the rest of WESST had worked so hard to raise money for, WESST’s diverse team and all the small businesses WESST has helped fund over the years.
“I just was so happy that we had gotten to this point,” Noonan said.
Noonan has been getting WESST ready for the next generation by remodeling for a media studio and a sound stage.
“It’s time for me to step down,” Noonan said. “That's a personal decision.”
