Zella Kay Cox most recently held the position of Chief Financial Officer and Director of the Administrative Services Division of the General Services Department of the State of New Mexico. She went into the Executive Branch of State Government after having served almost 14 years as the Program Manager for Municipal Court Automation for the New Mexico Supreme Court as part of the Administrative Office of the Court’s Judicial Information Division.
Ms. Cox came to New Mexico in 1996 from Chicago, where she had been the CFO for a multi-office national law firm. Her background is in finance, law, management, and computer technology. In a career spanning 25 years, she has managed corporate law departments as well as private law firms, developed computer applications for litigation support, served as a commercial lending officer for a large financial institution and been involved in a number of initiatives for staff development, process improvement, and quality management.
In addition to her professional endeavors, from the time she was in high school Ms. Cox has been committed to “giving back” to her community through volunteer activities. Her first volunteer assignment was as a Candy Striper at both a children’s as well as veterans’ hospital. From there she continued through to present day with a number of opportunities with not-for-profit organizations, ranging from recording books for the blind, to mentoring elementary school students in reading, to helping to construct houses for Habitat for Humanity, to preparing condition reports for collection items at the New Mexico Museum of International Folk art and preparing information for entry into the Museum’s database. She is a Past President of the Rotary Club of Santa Fe and the current Chair of the Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico Chapter of SCORE. In addition to serving on the Board of the Cancer Foundation for New Mexico, she also serves on the Boards of the Friends of the Santa Fe Public Library, and the New Mexico Wildlife Center.