Otero-Warren, Nina, 1881-1965

Nina Otero-Warren was born Oct. 23, 1881 in Los Lunas, NM to a prominent New Mexico family; she was descendant of the Lunas, one of the first settlers in New Mexico. Otero-Warren attended Maryville University in Saint Louis, Missouri (1892-1894) and married Lieutenant Rawson D. Warren in 1908 but divorced him after 2 years.

In 1914, Otero-Warren worked with the women's suffrage campaign in New Mexico with Congressional Union (later National Woman's Party) and ran unsuccessfully for House of Representatives in 1922. Starting in 1917, she served as one of New Mexico's first female government officials in many different capacities: Santa Fe Superintendent of Instruction (1923-1929), chair of the State Board of Health, Inspector of Indian Schools in Santa Fe County (1923), appointed as state director of the federal Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, selected by Governor Larrazolo to the first Board of Public Health (1930), Director of Literacy Education, Director of the Work Conference for Adult Teachers in Puerto Rico. She died January 3, 1965.