Lawyer and nonprofit chief executive Pamelya Herndon serves the people of New Mexico as the State Representative from House District 28.
State Representative Pamelya Herndon was born in a small Texas town, and went to one of the nation’s top Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Howard University. She earned her law degree at the University of Texas. Pamelya currently serves as CEO of a nonprofit that provides affordable legal representation to low-and-middle income New Mexicans. She met her husband, Alfred Mathewson, former dean of UNM School of Law, at Howard. Their three children were born and raised in the Northeast Heights area of Albuquerque.
Herndon began her career with the firm now known as Deloitte, and next was hired by the Internal Revenue Service as a senior litigation attorney. Herndon moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, during her work with the IRS.
Attorney General Patricia Madrid appointed Herndon to serve in New Mexico’s Litigation Division. There, she provided legal representation to state officials and agencies, before being appointed general counsel for the State Regulation and Licensing Department of New Mexico. She went on to serve as deputy cabinet secretary for New Mexico’s General Services Department.
In 2012 she was hired by the Southwest Women’s Law Center to work as their executive director. In 2018 she departed that role and founded the KWH Law Center for Social Justice and Change. Herndon has also taught courses on the main campus and in the law school of the University of New Mexico. Additionally, she helped train paralegals and legal secretaries at Brookline College.
Herndon was elected as a member of the New Mexico Electoral College in 2008, and is a member of the Albuquerque chapter of the American Association of University Women, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. She has served on the boards of Emerge New Mexico, the African American Performing Arts Center Foundation, the Con Alma Health Foundation, and the United States Eagle Federal Credit Union. She is licensed to practice law in the states of Colorado and New Mexico, and before the United States Supreme Court.