Former New Mexico transportation secretary says deputy state treasurer role a fit for an 'adaptable' leader

SANTA FE  — From the outside looking in, Ricky Serna knows it might be hard to see the common denominator between his former role as head of the New Mexico Department of Transportation and his recent appointment as second-in-command at the New Mexico State Treasurer's Office.

But for him, the through line is clear.

"I think the focus has really just been on, you know, how do agencies need to be led given the circumstances and conditions?" Serna told the Journal an interview on Monday. "I have found myself to be pretty adaptable in that regard."

New Mexico State Treasurer Laura Montoya appointed Serna as deputy treasurer last week following his resignation as New Mexico Department of Transportation secretary, a position he held for about four years before he announced his plans to step down this year.

Serna succeeds Janice Barela, who served in the position for 25 years and will officially leave the role after a transition ending March 17. Montoya said Barela played a key role in choosing Serna as her successor.

Despite speculation behind the reason for Serna's sequential move from the top job at NMDOT to deputy state treasurer this year, Montoya lauded Serna's experience, describing him as a natural fit for the role.

"In the current environment, we're so used to toxicity and chaos, and everyone's always looking for an underlying story," she said. "And the story here is that there's good governance."

She and Serna have been hoping to work in a shared leadership role since they were undergraduate students together at New Mexico Highlands University, she added.

Born and raised in the Española Valley, Serna graduated from Highlands with his bachelor's in elementary education and master's in educational leadership, informing his first career as vice president for advancement at Northern New Mexico College and with the New Mexico Higher Education Department, where he worked on a project to increase graduation rates in 21 school districts.

Prior to receiving Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's appointment to the Cabinet secretary spot in 2022, Serna served as acting secretary of the Department of Workforce Solutions and acting director of the State Personnel Office, according to the Governor's Office.

Montoya said Serna's 20-year career in state government leadership and public education prepare him well to drive forward her office's initiatives, which include expanding the public's understanding of what the Treasurer's Office does, funding additional staff and advancing financial literacy in New Mexico schools.

"We want (New Mexico State University) and (University of New Mexico) to have a concentration in government accounting, budgeting and investing," she said. Just in the 13 boards, councils and commissions that we sit on, that's $160 billion."

Currently, Montoya said 49.5% of New Mexico high schools require financial literacy classes to graduate or at least provide the subject as an elective, but she hopes to expand the requirement at all high schools.

"And we have such a huge number of kids that are going outside of New Mexico when we need to start giving them the skill set and the good paying jobs to stay in New Mexico, manage our pension funds, manage our investment portfolio and our sovereign wealth fund, which is already over $71 billion," she added. "So we see a bigger vision for our people and for our state."

Montoya became the first female state treasurer in New Mexico history when she was sworn into office in 2023. Together, she and Barela formed one of the only all female leadership teams at a state office in the state. 

"We did it our way. We did it how we felt best for New Mexico," Montoya said. "We had a lot of difficult conversations and decisions that we needed to make, and we did them together. And to be clear, I didn't make the decision to hire Ricky on my own. Janice and I made that decision together."

Barela said she plans to spend more time with her family, particularly her grandchildren, when she steps down from the deputy role later this month.

"We started those discussions probably in November, because I wanted to make sure I had a full discussion with her," she said. "I knew that the work that we were doing together was so important, and I had an incredible amount of respect for her and the work that's being done here in the treasurer's office."

According to a press release, Serna will also help oversee day-to-day operations and help Montoya manage a $6 million office budget and a $20 billion investment portfolio.

He said the transition has been about "finding the right balance between me, my personal heath and my family. Those were big drivers of this decision. The only downside about this transition is it seems to be kind of muddied with this question of: why? ... The reason I left DOT is because I was offered an awesome opportunity to work with an awesome treasurer."

John Miller is the Albuquerque Journal’s northern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at jmiller@abqjournal.com.