From curiosity to creative entrepreneurship: UNM alum Efraín Villa’s global journey
When Efraín Villa packed his bags for an international business law course in the United Kingdom, he didn’t know the trip would alter the course of his life. The Albuquerque native, who had grown up camping in New Mexico but hadn’t yet traveled abroad, was 19 when he took his first trip overseas. That experience, he said, “was nothing short of life changing.”
Villa earned both his Bachelor of Business Administration (2002) and Master of Business Administration (2004) from The University of New Mexico’s Anderson School of Management, graduating with double magna cum laude honors. His undergraduate concentration studies in Travel and Tourism, paired with a minor in Portuguese, hinted at his lifelong interest in culture and exploration.
“The longest trip I have taken to date was originally supposed to be a three-week trek in Peru,” Villa said, “but little by little, the time and passport stamps just kept piling up.” What began as a curiosity for the world became a two-year, around-the-globe journey that would later shape his career as a communicator, entrepreneur, and artist.
It was Villa’s time in the Honors College program that sharpened his analytical thinking and broadened his worldview. “Those years taught me to grapple with complex, heady concepts and to see the connections between disciplines,” he said. “UNM also gave me the opportunity to study abroad in Guanajuato, Mexico; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Pamplona, Spain—experiences that were professionally formative and helped me understand geopolitics in a deeply personal way.”
After graduation, Villa dove into public service, joining the State of New Mexico as a fellow in Governor Bill Richardson’s office. “From the outset, I was given a challenging and rewarding set of responsibilities that allowed me to gain confidence in myself as a subject matter expert in public relations and communications,” he said. His work took him beyond state borders, presenting in Mexico City, Guatemala City, and Lisbon. “Looking back, it really was an exceptional straight-out-of-college job offer.”
That early experience in government opened doors to a career that has spanned public, private, and creative sectors. Villa transitioned into marketing and communication roles—including a position with a global pharmaceutical company—before ultimately founding his own firm, Hot Iron Strike, in 2009. The full-service communications agency provides crisis management, media strategy, and storytelling support for organizations, businesses, and Tribal governments focused on social equity and ecological restoration.
“I’m very proud to have created something through entrepreneurship that keeps creating value for society,” Villa said. “Entrepreneurship, like travel, forces you to think critically and adapt quickly. When your motorcycle breaks down in the middle of the Rajasthani desert, you can’t panic—you have to be resourceful and confident in your ability to get yourself out of trouble. That same mindset applies in business except that now I also get to apply problem-solving skills to support organizations as well as individual clients. It’s nice to be a part of a collective.”
In addition to leading his firm, Villa is a writer and storyteller. His work has appeared in HuffPost, NPR’s Weekend Edition, Travel World International Magazine, AARP, and Zymurgy, among others.
“Storytelling is more of a calling than a profession,” he said. “I do think that it is a skillset that can be nurtured, but I also believe that it is an innate skill in some people—a gift that compels its possessor to make sense of the world and find connections where others see disparate fragments."
During the pandemic, Villa entered another creative chapter, enrolling in art classes at Central New Mexico Community College and other institutions. “I’ve always been artistic, but I wanted to formalize my approach,” he said. Today, his visual art portfolio includes oil paintings, printmaking, and multimedia renderings—one of which became a 45-foot mural adorning CNM’s Student Resource Center. He is currently studying to become a ceramicist and woodworker.
As an extension of his passion for storytelling, Villa also found his way to the screen. He was cast as Mondo in the hit Amazon Prime series Primo, produced by Mike Schur of The Office and Parks and Recreation fame.
He is currently working on a feature film being shot in New Mexico and Mexico, which stars Esai Morales (La Bamba, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning), Mel Gibson (Braveheart), and Cheech Marin (Up in Smoke), among other notable actors. “People always ask me how I got into acting, and honestly, I don’t know,” he said. “I just try to be open to life opportunities that other people might think are too improbable.”
For Villa, every chapter—whether public service, travel, art, or business—connects back to the education and community he found at UNM. “For me, it was important that I was able to get a strong sense of community and I am grateful that El Centro provided a place to physically congregate with peers and meet people who would become lifelong friends.” Now, as a communication consultant, artist, and entrepreneur, Villa continues to use the tools UNM helped him to cultivate curiosity, resilience, and a global perspective.
“Feeding the travel bug might have started as a hobby,” he said, “but like learning and storytelling, it became a lifestyle—a way to keep amplifying all the other parts of life.”
