Bronwen Murray
Executive Director · Policy & Legislative Leader · Artist & Labor Advocate
Bronwen Murray is an Executive Director, public policy strategist, and labor leader with more than fifteen years of experience at the intersection of policy, governance, and the arts. She currently serves as Executive Director for SAG-AFTRA’s Colorado and New Mexico Locals, overseeing organizational operations, labor relations, legislative strategy, and member engagement across four states.
Murray began her career as Communications Director at a startup technology development company, where she supported the launch of four new companies and led strategic communications for emerging products. During this period, she was part of a team whose work received a prestigious R&D 100 Award, recognizing one the company’s innovations as among the most significant technological advances of the year.
Before her current role, Murray served for multiple legislative sessions as a policy director and senior staff member for New Mexico State Senator Martin Hickey, M.D., and State Representative Pamelya Herndon. There she worked on more than 300 pieces of legislation, including landmark healthcare, behavioral health, public safety, and gun safety laws such as Bennie’s Law HB9, SB 317, SB 273, SB 88, and New Mexico’s Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order Act.
Among the legislative efforts she is most proud of are New Mexico’s landmark behavioral healthcare laws, including Senate Bill 317, which eliminated out-of-pocket cost sharing for behavioral health services; Senate Bill 273, New Mexico’s mental health parity and access law; and healthcare legislation including Senate Bill 88 and related measures to strengthen healthcare access and protect New Mexico’s Medicaid system. These laws reflect Murray’s commitment to making mental health and substance use disorder treatment more affordable, more accessible, and more equitable for New Mexicans.
Murray also worked on major public safety legislation including the Bennie Hargrove Gun Safety Act, which holds adults accountable when children gain negligent access to firearms. Bennie’s Law was later honored in a ceremony at the White House as a model law for national replication. She was also involved in the passage of New Mexico’s Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order Act, commonly known as the state’s red flag law.
Murray became eligible to join the Screen Actors Guild as a principal performer in the 1995 Disney classic Tom & Huck. She was elected to the SAG-AFTRA New Mexico Board in 2023, where she chaired the Legislative Committee. In this capacity, she worked on labor and policy priorities affecting performers and media professionals, with a particular focus on worker protections, arts advocacy, and equitable access to health benefits.
Her professional background bridges public policy, labor, and the arts, with an emphasis on governance, coalition-building, and community-based leadership. She is a graduate of Emerge and a recipient of the statewide Social Justice Award from Alabama’s largest news organization. Increasingly, her work focuses on technology governance, including the policy and labor implications of artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and emerging media systems.
She holds a Master of Science from Northwestern University, where her graduate work focused on media economics and the impact of digital technology. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Auburn University summa cum laude. A fourth-generation union member, Murray proudly works throughout the Southwest and Mountain West to advance labor rights and strengthen the creative workforce.
Bronwen Murray: Selected Legislative Contributions
Before becoming a regional executive director, Bronwen Murray worked in New Mexico legislative offices supporting Senator Martin Hickey and Representative Pamelya Herndon. Her legislative portfolio includes behavioral health access, healthcare financing, firearm safety, and public education. The entries below describe that earlier work.
Bennie Hargrove Gun Safety Act — HB 9 (2023)
Contribution: Murray supported Representative Herndon's work to advance the Bennie Hargrove Gun Safety Act and helped coordinate public education about the law. Her work included outreach, informational-session planning, and communications with community partners. In October 2021, she moderated an Albuquerque town hall on firearm storage and community safety, documented by Source New Mexico.
Outcome: New Mexico enacted HB 9 in 2023, addressing negligent access to firearms by minors.
Source New Mexico: town hall moderated by Bronwen Murray · KSFR: HB 9 signed into law
Behavioral Health Cost-Sharing Reform — SB 317 (2021)
Contribution: Murray's legislative work included helping advance reforms to reduce out-of-pocket costs for behavioral health treatment.
Outcome: SB 317 prohibited cost sharing for covered behavioral health services under health plans subject to the law and established the Health Care Affordability Fund. Senator Martin Hickey and Senator Jeff Steinborn sponsored the bill.
Governor's Office: SB 317 signed into law
Health Insurance Mental Health Coverage — SB 273 (2023)
Murray's behavioral health legislative portfolio also includes SB 273, Health Insurance Mental Health Coverage. This is a separate measure from the 2021 cost-sharing legislation, SB 317.
Research on New Mexico's behavioral health coverage reforms
Medicaid Trust Fund — SB 88 (2025)
Murray's healthcare legislative work included the Medicaid Trust Fund initiative while serving as Representative Herndon's District Legislative Aide. The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce identifies Murray in its coverage of the 2025 Medicaid Trust Fund legislative awards; the awards were presented to the legislators.
Outcome: SB 88 created a Medicaid Trust Fund and a State-Supported Medicaid Fund to support the state's healthcare financing.
Chamber coverage identifying Bronwen Murray · New Mexico Rural Health Association: SB 88
Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order Act
Murray's public-safety legislative portfolio includes work on extreme-risk firearm protection legislation. New Mexico's original act was SB 5 in 2020. It established a civil court process for extreme-risk firearm protection orders.
New Mexico Legislature: original SB 5 (2020)
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