Board of Directors
Joanne DeMichele
President
Silver City
Joanne DeMichele began advocating for the rights of residents in manufactured home communities in 2021 after a personal experience exposed the vulnerabilities faced by homeowners in land-lease communities. Shortly after moving to a 55+ manufactured home community to age in place in an affordable, supportive community, she and her neighbors were blindsided by news that the land beneath their homes had been sold to out-of-town investors, without notice or the opportunity to have a say in their future.
Determined to discover solutions, Joanne began researching New Mexico’s Mobile Home Park Act. She quickly learned not only that the law was inadequate and not enforced but also that disturbing but apparently unnoticed abuses were happening in New Mexico and across the country: predatory investors purchasing the land in manufactured home communities, raising rents, cutting services, and destabilizing the lives of residents—most of whom are vulnerable working people or retired and/or disabled people living on fixed incomes. She contacted her state senator, Siah Correa Hemphill, and Senator Bill O’Neill and successfully encouraged the introduction of legislative protections for homeowners. Since then, Joanne has become a committed advocate, working to preserve affordability, security, and dignity for residents of land-lease communities across the state.
Bob Stetson
Vice-President
Albuquerque
Bob Stetson is an 18-year resident of the Albuquerque Meadows 55+ Mobile Home Community and has served on the Board of the Meadows Residents’ Association eight times. He has served as the Albuquerque Meadows’ representative on the District 4 Coalition of Neighborhoods since 2012. In 2017, Bob worked diligently with the Albuquerque Police Department and Meadows Management to re-introduce the Neighborhood Watch program into the community.
In 2015 Bob was appointed by Mayor Berry to serve on the City Charter Review Task Force and in 2018 he was appointed by Mayor Keller as a Commissioner on the Albuquerque Environmental Planning Commission where he served until his term ended in 2024. Bob’s background is in Real Estate and Development which also introduced him to the NM Legislature where he was instrumental in helping lobby to get two bills passed; the “NM Voluntary Remediation Act” and the “NM Infrastructure Development Zone Act.”
The Albuquerque Meadows was managed from its inception in 1972 by Meadow’s Management Company until 2021 when it was sold to an out-of-state private equity company. Rents immediately went up, and the park was faced with poor maintenance and management, and people began to leave. Bob recognized that the only way to save the once thriving community was to find a way to purchase it and become a resident owned community.
In May 2025, he joined the Land of Enchantment Manufactured Home Owners Alliance in order to fight for the rights of New Mexico residents living in land-leased manufactured home communities.
MaryKay Brady
Treasurer
Las Cruces
After living for over thirty years in the home my husband and I built outside of Deming, I relocated to Las Cruces as a solo ager in search of a safe, secure, and welcoming community. I found that at Trails West—a 55+ manufactured home community that fit within my budget. In my six years here my lot rent has increased from $654 to $809 per month. I did not initially realize the inherent risks of owning my home but not the land it sits on.
Along the way, my vocabulary has expanded to include terms like land lease, private equity, and opportunity to purchase. I have learned the unique challenges and uncertainties facing home owners who do not own the land beneath their homes. That is now part of my knowledge base—and it is not always a comfortable reality to know that my single largest investment could be at risk.
With a commitment to helping meet the needs of greater housing security—for myself and all New Mexicans I have joined the board as treasurer of the Land of Enchantment Manufactured Home Owners Alliance.
Coupled with my thirty years of banking and financial services I bring a strong foundation to fiscal responsibility and strategic planning to my advocacy work.
Together we will work to help educate residents and advocate for long-term solutions for affordable, equitable housing in our Land of Enchantment.
Together we will advocate for policy reforms and support opportunities for resident-led ownership and strong protections focusing on seniors and fixed-income residents.
Pat Stetson
Secretary
Albuquerque
Pat Stetson has been a resident of the Albuquerque Meadows 55+ Mobile Home Community for the past 18 years. She and her husband originally moved to the Meadows to care for his mother who had lived in the park since 1995. After losing her mother-in-law to Parkinsons, Pat decided it was time to return to work. Having a background in Real Estate and Office Management she applied and got a job with the Albuquerque Meadows management team where she worked for more than eight years.
To Pat, the Meadows was not just a neighborhood; it was a family. She was proud of how beautiful and well-maintained it was kept by the management company she worked for. They maintained the park with a sense of pride because they were the original company that developed it in 1972 and managed it until February of 2021.
Pat retired in December 2020, two months prior to the park being sold to a private equity company. Soon after it was sold, things began to change and the park was no longer the “Albuquerque Oasis” she had once sold. In addition to high lot rent increases, the park was faced with poor maintenance and management.
In January 2025 Pat joined the Meadows Action Team (MAT) in an effort to help fight for three pieces of legislation being presented to the Legislature that would benefit Manufactured Home Communities throughout New Mexico. In May 2025, she joined the Land of Enchantment Manufactured Home Owners Alliance to continue those efforts.
Florence Dean
Director at Large
Alamagordo
Florence Dean moved to an Alamogordo mobile home park in 2016 because of its palm trees, beautiful flowering shrubs, pool and its proximity to medical care.
In 2024, all those assets became secondary when the natural gas supply to the park was abruptly shut off. It remained so for six months while the residents dealt with cold showers, cold laundry, cold food and in December-cold homes.
While attempts were made to substitute electricity, then propane, ultimately the park owner was persuaded by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office to make the necessary, though expensive, repairs.
When, in 2025, three bills designed to help the many mobile home owners with the same problems, were introduced to the New Mexico Legislature, Florence worked to help pass the three bills. With knowledge acquired of the current invasion of homeowners rights in New Mexico by out-of-state groups, Florence is adding her voice to others who are also threatened by rent increases and diminishing maintenance.