SANTA FE, N.M. – The New Mexico State Land Office is a recipient of the 2025 Fall Culture Excellence Awards, winning the Top Workplaces 2025 Culture Excellence Award and the Top Workplaces 2025 Women-Led award from Innovation Women and Lioness Magazine for the third consecutive year. Innovation Women has recognized 191 employers nationally as Woman-Led Top Workplaces for 2025, and the New Mexico State Land Office was one of only three in the state to win the award. The Woman-Led Top Workplaces award celebrates outstanding organizations whose most senior leader is a woman who has fostered and built stand-out, people-first workplace cultures. The agency also received awards in the categories of: Employee Appreciation; Employee Well-Being; and Professional Development.
The awards are presented by human resources company Energage. The Top Workplaces and Culture Excellence Awards are based solely on employee feedback to an anonymous survey that measures 15 culture drivers that are critical to the success of any organization, including alignment, execution and connection.
“We never get tired of winning these awards because they are proof that this is an amazing place to work,” said Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard. “It wouldn’t be possible to keep winning awards for our workplace culture if we didn’t have some truly incredible people working here, including a diverse team of leaders who bring a wide range of perspectives. I call this staff the ‘Dream Team’ because they are so dedicated to doing great work on behalf of their fellow New Mexicans. We have made deliberate efforts to bring more fairness to the agency, rightsizing employee salaries and benefits and ensuring that every team member is valued for the important work they do. Those investments have paid off in a huge way for the workplace culture at the State Land Office.”
The State Land Office finished in the top 1% within the public sector for Work-Life Flexibility and employees’ willingness to refer others to work for at the agency.
The State Land Office finished in the top 5% in the following categories:
- Work Life Balance: Employees have the flexibility they need to balance their work and personal life.
- Company Direction: Employees believe New Mexico State Land Office is going in the right direction.
- Employee Appreciation: Employees feel genuinely appreciated at New Mexico State Land Office.
- Innovation: Employees believe new ideas are encouraged at New Mexico State Land Office.
- Leaders In-The-Know: Employees believe senior managers know what is really happening at New Mexico State Land Office.
- Meaningful Work: Employees jobs make them feel like they are part of something meaningful.
- Strong Values: Employees believe that New Mexico State Land Office operates by strong values.
- Open Minded: Employees believe New Mexico State Land Office encourages different points of view.
The State Land Office previously won a Top Workplaces award from the Albuquerque Journal in 2025, ranking 3rd among midsize employers (organizations with between 150-499 employees). It marks the third consecutive year the State Land Office has been named a Top Workplace, after ranking 1st in 2023.
The State Land Office won the Top Workplaces USA Award from USA Today in March 2025, for the second time. Over 2,220 organizations participated in anonymous employee surveys as part of that national contest.
Over the past several years, Commissioner Garcia Richard has instituted agency-wide policies that invest in employees and promote fairness, including correcting pay equity disparities, hiring and promoting diverse candidates to leadership positions, offering remote work up to three days a week, and much more. The State Land Office’s mission is to earn money for schools and other public institutions by responsibly leasing state lands for energy production, commercial development, and agriculture, among other uses. The State Land Office has continued to earn historic revenue, earning $2.56 billion last year alone, as these cultural changes were implemented.
Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard has overseen the New Mexico State Land Office since 2019. In that time the agency has raised about $14 billion for New Mexico public schools, hospitals, and universities. Over 13 million acres of state trust land are leased for a variety of uses, including ranching and farming, renewable energy, business development, mineral development, and outdoor recreation. The State Land Office has a dual mandate to use state trust land to financially support vital public institutions, while simultaneously working to protect the land for future generations.