What's Inspiring You? with Kelly Ami
- Jun 8
- 4 min read
This is the first of an ongoing series of conversations with our colleagues and partners in the work of community-centered systems change in New Mexico, where we talk about what is keeping them inspired or helping them to grow. We hope you can source renewed energy and inspiration from this series! Chloe chats with Kelly Ami for this first installment, on the tails of Kelly's recent welcome onto the ABC team at BernCo's Community School and Strategic Partnerships Department.
"There is a bonding that happens through play. And as adults, we get farther and farther away from that bonding... How healthy and wonderful it is to play with others in our communities."
In May of 2026, Kelly Ami, previously the Community School Impact Coordinator at Wilson Middle School, joined ABC as a Public Health Specialist working in Albuquerque's International District. Kelly is a compassionate, human-centered systems-thinker who approaches problems with clear strategy, as well as a deep commitment to amplifying authentic community voice.
The team at ABC is thrilled to welcome her into this role, and it feels like just the right time to sit down with her to hear about what's been inspiring her in her work lately.
When asked, “What is one thing that has been inspiring you lately in your work? And how is that inspiration directing you?” Kelly begins, “So… I’m not in a lot of places where adults play. What I want to share - it’s outside of my work, but it informs my work, because it gives me buoyancy and levity.”
In a tones of joy and gratitude, Kelly shares about the connections that she has made at her community ballet studio over the past ten years since moving to Albuquerque, which are rooted in play, safety, and trust. The studio is preparing for an upcoming community theater production of Swan Lake and began rehearsals last Sunday.
"Half of the ensemble are swans, or creatures that are a part of the evil sorcerer in the story… And it had been so long since I had seen adults playing and pausing in their roles. Saying to each other things like, 'No, you need to be more scared, because the creatures are coming out! And there’s a full moon! And a cloud is covering the moon! You’re scared!'
... As I’ve been dancing [at this studio] for ten years - some of the dancers, I don’t even know their last names, but I know such an intimate part of them because we play together every Sunday."
For Kelly, the idea of embracing play as an avenue for strengthening bonds in one's community has been a source of inspiration. Preparing for Swan Lake with her community ballet studio has brought this idea to the top of mind, and at the same time, conversations with community partners (Bernalillo Health Equity Council & Bernalillo County Urban Agriculture) working on an International District alleyway cookbook have prompted Kelly to consider how this concept has shown up during her time at Wilson Middle School. At Wilson, Kelly worked with students, school staff, community partners, government partners, and families to develop and sustain their Safe Routes to School initiative.
"What surprised me with middle and high school students was how much scaffolding was needed for imagination, when you approach it from an academic sense. So often, we are told to engage a spatial imagination when we do any kind of visioning… But if the psyche of the student has not experienced other spaces, what is the imagination that is there? That’s a very deficit-based perspective, but you have to see how urban blight changes those internal landscapes [for students].
When I first started working with students, it was very disheartening to see the I don't knows… So many I don't knows. But I chose to take those literally, not as a brush-off, but as though they truly did not know.
When we took our students out into the field, there was interaction, and bonding, and play. Play has the ability to transgress norms, but it has to be done in a container of safety.
... So [with the students], there we were, within the container of a lesson plan, building that trust. And it was in those spaces that I really understood that play is transgressive in terms of the I don't knows. It’s how you can bond and have a very supplemental spatial imagination. And if you can get a middle school student - who is negotiating their own identity - to play, there’s buy-in.”
The work Community School Impact Coordinators do - organizing school communities around shared goals and strategizing on how to use local resources to achieve them - is challenging, important, and often heavy. For anyone engaging in systems-change, it is easy for the seriousness and gravity of the work to take center stage and cause us to neglect critical aspects like play, imagination, and true relationship building. Kelly's reflections are timely, at a moment in history when we all likely could use a bit of levity.
As this piece hopefully sparks a consideration in you to pay attention to how play is showing up (or not showing up) in your work, maybe you will also be inspired like Kelly to lean into play to strengthen your work. If you do, we would love to hear from you about it in the comments.
We leave you with a link below where you can stream the full score of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake (click through onto YouTube to stream), as well as an article on the folklore and mythology behind swans in storytelling.
Do you have something you'd like to share with our community that has been inspiring or energizing you lately? We'd love to hear from you here.
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