Katy’s newest book, Heroes of New Mexico History, is available from
What does it take to be a hero of New Mexico history? This book tells twenty-one stories spanning four hundred years about New Mexicans who made historic choices affecting the history of our state.
Katy Hammel was born in Japan, the daughter and grand-daughter of American Protestant missionaries. As a child, she traveled with world with her family, but she always knew she was an American girl and she longed to live in the USA.
After finishing her undergraduate degree at Yale University, Katy worked as a foster care and adoption social worker in Brooklyn, New York, as a government issues analyst in Fairfield, Connecticut, and as a plaintiffs’ civil rights lawyer in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Now Katy works as a special education teacher for gifted students at a public elementary school in Albuquerque.
Having grown up in a country as densely populated as Japan, Katy is drawn to the wide-open spaces of the American West. She and her husband raised two boys in New Mexico.
Questions or opportunities? Please write Katy at [email protected].