LEAH BLACK — OUTREACH AND MARKETING MANAGER OF AVIATION FOR ALBUQUERQUE

BY RYAN BOETEL

JOURNAL BUSINESS EDITOR

Take radio, beer, trash and planes, then throw in the national anthem and a musical performance every once in a while.

Leah Black can do it all, and with a smile on her face and positive energy.

Black is the outreach and marketing manager for aviation for the city of Albuquerque. That makes her the public face of the Albuquerque International Sunport, which is in the midst of a yearslong $87 million renovation project.

She’s had a somewhat unconventional career, with a bit of overlap in her jobs, as she’s taken on additional roles and responsibilities.

Born in Grand Junction and raised in Denver, Colorado, Black is the only child of two parents who were in a rock band in the 1980s and who instilled in her a love of music.

She moved to Albuquerque in her early 20s, where she worked jobs in radio and for breweries. At Marble Brewery, she started taking on additional responsibilities like marketing and she was ultimately tapped as the first female executive director of the New Mexico Brewer’s Guild.

She held the position from 2019 to 2022, during which she guided the craft beer industry through the COVID-19 pandemic and was involved in reshaping state laws to make it easier to launch a brewery and for restaurants to sell locally made beer.

After the pandemic, she started her own marketing firm and got a contract with the city of Albuquerque marketing its ... trash. Black literally took a job marketing the Solid Waste Department, which under her watch launched a “Talkin’ Trash Tuesdays” video series to inform people of things like the do’s and don’ts of curbside recycling.

Now that she’s a full-time city employee, Black hosts a regular podcast with Mayor Tim Keller about local people making a difference in Albuquerque.

In her free time, Black and her partner, Wayne, retrofitted a camper van and take road trips, often to South Padre Island, Texas, so Wayne can kite board. They also have been investing in local real estate and have two dogs, a terrier mutt named Charlie and Bernedoodle named Josephine the Chicken Wing.

/JOURNAL