Cynthia Figueroa-McInteer

Cynthia Figueroa-McInteer is an architect, quilter, and native New Mexican. She developed an interest in the building trades at a young age while going to job sites with her grandfather who was a carpenter and rancher from Laguna Pueblo. In 2019 she was recognized as the first licensed Native American woman architect in the state by the New Mexico State Board of Examiners for Architects. She studied architecture at the University of New Mexico and owned Figueroa McInteer Architecture, LLC, a small design and planning firm that focused on projects in rural communities where she could personally work on all aspects of design and construction.

After working for herself for 10 years, she shifted gears and returned to Sandia National Laboratories as a Strategic Planner, and retired from Sandia in 2020 as manager of the Strategic Planning Department in the Facilities organization. Cynthia and her husband Bob have two sons, and live in Albuquerque with their dog JoJo.