James Holland ’87 was born in Tularosa, New Mexico, and raised in nearby Alamogordo by loving parents and grandparents. His family struggled financially; both his parents were janitors, but James remained unaware of their hardships until he was a teenager. Diabetes affected his family, leading to his grandmother’s need for insulin and his father’s eventual blindness. At 16, James became his father’s eyes and his grandparents’ driver, learning resilience from their example.
“Success is never achieved alone,” he says. “Someone helped each of us along the way, and that taught me the importance of giving back.”
After high school, James and his father agreed: James would attend college while his dad went to a school for the blind in Alamogordo. Choosing NMSU was fortuitous; Las Cruces had a dialysis center his father needed. James managed classes while driving his dad to treatments multiple times each week.
With support from NMSU faculty, including his microbiology professor, Dr. James Botsford, James pursued a double major in chemistry and biology. Botsford, knowing his challenges, held him to a high standard, providing guidance and encouragement along the way.
After graduation, James worked for an environmental consulting firm in California before joining Santa Pacific Pipeline, a division of Santa Fe Pacific Railroad which was later acquired by Kinder Morgan. Today, he is Kinder Morgan’s Chief Operating Officer, based in Houston.
In 2021, James and his wife, Angela, began supporting the Aggie Jumpstart Program, hoping to extend the encouragement he received at NMSU to current students. “I hope students in Aggie Jumpstart achieve their full potential,” he says. “I want their past academic struggles to no longer hold them back.”
Aggie Jumpstart provides extra assistance for selected freshmen for college-level math and English, offering a four-week program that readies students for success. “This program impacts 40 students a year and wouldn’t be possible without the Hollands’ support,” says Cody Womack, director of Aggie Jumpstart. With their help, the program is training current participants as future Jumpstart mentors and counselors.
“My professors knew first-hand my story and my challenges while attending NMSU. They held me to high standards but always had my back. I wanted to do the same for today’s students,” says James. Through Aggie Jumpstart, James hopes to empower the next generation of Aggies to succeed — or in his case, several generations.