To celebrate 50 years of educating girls at Albuquerque Academy, Alumni Council member Ted Alcorn ’01 is telling the stories of women alumni.
By Ted Alcorn ’01
When Alicia Keyes, Albuquerque Academy Class of ’93, called up an executive at Netflix, she couldn’t have known it would eventually bring two billion dollars in film and television production to the Land of Enchantment.
It was only her third day on the job as Albuquerque’s liaison to the film industry, as she recalled, and the language of economic development, from Local Economic Development Act (LEDA” funding to job incentive training programs, was still foreign to her.
But as a long-time movie producer and media executive, she knew the business. And she had a penchant for dreaming big and taking daring leaps. “One thing that’s made the difference in my career is I’m not afraid to just pick up the phone and talk to somebody, and figure out if it’s gonna work,” she said.
It was a practice she traced back to Albuquerque Academy, where she landed for middle school and which, by her account, changed her life.
Her mom had grown up in Las Vegas, New Mexico, working on a family ranch and without access to a top-quality education, so she put a premium on getting one for her daughters. But Alicia felt “very behind academically” when she arrived at the school. Her math teacher, John Leggott, sat with her at lunch each day, tutoring her to bring her up to speed, she recalled.
She found other spotlights in which to excel, however, including on the tennis and volleyball courts, in drama productions led by Mickey Prokopiak, and on Randy McCutchen’s speech and debate team. “They really taught me how to get up on stage, get up behind the podium, and speak.”
She was also elected president of the Student Council her junior and senior years, where she practiced leadership and learned something about its purpose. In particular, she remembered sitting on a bench with an Experiential Ed instructor Steve “Chappie” Chapman, talking about the goals of student government, “what it could achieve that would have lasting impact on the student body, instead of just planning parties and dances.”
That lesson was with Alicia 25 years later, after decades working in the movie business and raising twin boys, when she accepted a job in the administration of Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller. She was disillusioned with the direction of national politics but determined to do something to help her city and state.
A rumor had reached her that Albuquerque Studios, a sprawling property on the southeast side of town, was for sale. Knowing that production space was at a premium in Los Angeles and elsewhere, inspiration struck. A friend at Netflix confirmed the streaming giant was looking for space to expand. “I just started talking to people in the city and state government who are a lot smarter than me, who had been there for a lot longer, and said ‘How can we put this deal together?’,” Alicia said.
Later that year, Netflix bought the stages, promising to create thousands of jobs for state residents and produce $1 billion of projects, a commitment it later doubled.
The initial deal caught the attention of Governor-elect Michelle Lujan Grisham, too, who promptly poached Alicia to be cabinet secretary of the state’s Economic Development Department, tasked with fostering growth in the media industry as well as in other economic sectors in order to diversify the state from oil and gas.
Alicia was the first woman to ever lead the department. Lujan Grisham has high expectations of her cabinet, Alicia said, but she was steadfast. “Economic development has traditionally been dominated by men, and there were people that struggled with me being a female,” she said. “The Governor supported and stuck up for me.”
By the time Alicia stepped down in 2023, the state’s unemployment rate had fallen to its lowest point in fifteen years and had added more than 10,000 new jobs. Her department calculated it had brought over $34 billion dollars in economic impact to New Mexico.
Now continuing to consult on projects of importance to her, including water, global trade, renewable energy, and outdoor recreation, Alicia is optimistic about the state’s future. “I feel like New Mexico is really at the precipice of change.”
