The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and the Tribal Law and Policy Institute would like to once again extend their heartfelt thanks to the following individuals without whom this conference would not have been possible.

Abby Abinanti (Yurok) is the Chief Judge at Yurok, where she was appointed March 1, 2007. She is a former Superior Court Commissioner in California for the city and county of San Francisco and was assigned to the Unified Family Court. She graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1973. Among her tribal court experience, Abby served as Chief Magistrate, Court of Indian Offenses for the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation from 1983 to 1986; an Appellate Court Judge by appointment for Colorado River Indian Tribe in 1994; a Judge by special appointment with the Hopi Tribal Court in 1986; and a Judge by special appointment with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribal Court in 1985. In addition, Abby is the President of the Board of the Tribal Law and Policy Institute.

Claudia Angelos an authority on civil rights, teaches lawyering and litigation, and directs the Civil Rights Clinic, the Racial Justice Clinic, and the New York Civil Liberties Clinic at NYU Law. For more than twenty years at the law school, she and her students have litigated more than 100 civil rights cases in the New York federal courts. Most recently, she has been working on civil rights issues for Native Americans. She frequently speaks on a range of issues, including legal education, prisoners’ rights, civil rights, ethics, and pretrial and trial practice. She is an honors graduate of Radcliffe College and Harvard Law School and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. A longtime past president of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Angelos now serves as its general counsel and sits on the board and the executive committee of the American Civil Liberties Union. She is also a member of the boards of the Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York and the Society of American Law Teachers. In 2015 she was awarded the national award as the Outstanding Advocate for Clinical Legal Education. 

Caroline Felicity Antone (Tohono O’odham), AAS, LISAC, has been in the alcohol counseling field for well more than twenty-three years. She is a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation and has devoted the majority of her counseling efforts in the Native American community, focusing on youth and their families. Caroline is one of eleven women from the Tohono O’odham Nation who successfully completed Sexual Assault Forensic Exam, Support, Training, Access and Resources (SAFESTAR) training to support victims of sexual assault. Through her own personal battles with alcohol, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and suicide attempts, she has discovered that recovery is better addressed at the community level. Ms. Antone is Founder and Executive Director of I:MIG LLC, “Kinship” Against Neglect and Abuse. Ms. Antone wishes to share her knowledge of overcoming obstacles and using them as opportunities to heal one’s self and others adversely affected by alcoholism and substance abuse.

Steve Aycock is the Judge-in-Residence of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. Until 2008 he was with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation where he had been the chief judge at the Colville Tribal Court for nine years. Previously, Judge Aycock worked for twelve years as the director of the Colville Tribal Legal Office where he represented individual members of the tribes in civil matters. The office specialized in children and Elders advocacy. He has also worked for Evergreen Legal Services and as a public defender in Franklin County District and Superior Courts. From 1984 to 1986 he was a clinical instructor and in 2008 he taught federal Indian law at the University of Idaho, College of Law. Judge Aycock made presentations at the University of Washington, University of Kansas, and Michigan State University law schools on issues related to tribal law and courts. He is currently a board member for the Committee to Aid Abused Women in Reno, Nevada. Since coming to the National Council, he has presented at national, state, and tribal conferences on various domestic violence and tribal issues. Most recently he has been one of the technical assistance providers to the Intertribal Training and Technical Assistance Working Group, which provides assistance to tribes implementing criminal jurisdiction over non-Indian defendants in domestic violence cases. Judge Aycock received his bachelor’s degree in political science from Washington State University in 1977. He graduated from the University of Idaho, College of Law in 1980.

Dr. Twyla Baker-Demaray (Mandan Hidatsa and Arikara) is the President of Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College in New Town, North Dakota. She is an enrolled citizen of the Mandan Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. Dr. Baker Demaray has her PhD from the University of North Dakota in teaching and learning research methodology. Prior to her appointment as President of Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, she served as Director of the Native American Aging Project at the University of North Dakota. 

Dianne Barker-Harrold (Cherokee) is a licensed attorney, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, and has been working with crime victims for more than thirty-four years. She served as a victim advocate, was elected District Attorney for four counties in Oklahoma, and was the first Native American female to serve in that position. Dianne has worked extensively in Indian country serving as a tribal attorney and tribal court judge for fourteen tribes in Oklahoma. She has received several awards during her career, which include her being selected twice as Oklahoma’s Outstanding District Attorney, Outstanding State Prosecutor for Bikers Against Child Abuse, 2010 Bonnie Heavy Runner Award for her victim advocacy work in Indian country, 2013 National Crime Victim Long Term Service Award presented by US Attorney General Eric Holder, and 2013 Distinguished Alumnus for Northeastern State University. Dianne is a frequent speaker and trainer, and current activities include serving as the Senior Technical Assistance Specialist for Unified Solutions Tribal Community Development Group, Inc., for OVC Tribal Grantees for Comprehensive Tribal Victim Assistance and Children’s Justice Act Partnerships in Indian Communities projects; as the Native American Representative on the Oklahoma State VOCA Board; as the attorney for the Tribal Council of the Cherokee Nation; serves on the Cherokee Nation’s One Fire Victim Task Force; and is the Chief Judge for Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. In June 2015, the US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in Washington, DC, asked Dianne to testify to address needs for funding for victim services in Indian country.

Mirtha Beadle, M.P.A, is the Director, Office of Tribal Affairs and Policy (OTAP). OTAP serves as SAMHSA’s primary point of contact for tribal nations, tribal organizations, federal departments and agencies, and other governments and agencies on behavioral health issues facing American Indians and Alaska Natives. In this capacity, Ms. Beadle is responsible for advancing cross-agency actions that support tribal self-governance; working to ensure agency policies, programs, and activities address behavioral health needs of tribal communities; leading and supporting tribal consultation, outreach, education, coordination, and engagement efforts with an emphasis on Native youth; and, implementing specific provisions of the Tribal Law and Order Act. Ms. Beadle also served as Deputy Director, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and Deputy Administrator for Operations at SAMHSA. Ms. Beadle emigrated from Cuba at a young age and holds a Master of Public Administration from Western Michigan University and a Bachelor of Science in Management Systems from the College of Technology at Andrews University.

Tracy Bear (Cree) is a Nehiyaw’iskwew from Montreal Lake Cree Nation. She is the mother of two strong daughters and a beautiful son, and has made her home in Amiskwaciywaskahikanihk since 2002. Tracy is a member of the National Collective for Walking With Our Sisters.

Shannon Bears Cozzoni began employment with the Northern District of Oklahoma on October 25, 2011, and is primarily assigned to Indian Country Crimes. Prior to working for the Department of Justice, Shannon was First Assistant Attorney General of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation where she was employed beginning November 2001. At the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Shannon was primarily responsible for drafting legislation and economic development and gaming matters, including the financing of the River Spirit Casino. Shannon was also the prosecutor and liaison between the Nation and the Northern District of Oklahoma, Eastern District of Oklahoma, and various district attorney’s offices within the nation’s jurisdiction. While at the Nation, Shannon served on the Violence Against Women Task Force. Prior to working for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Shannon was an Assistant District Attorney for Creek/Okfuskee Counties. Shannon obtained a BA from Austin College in 1993 and received her JD from the University of Tulsa in 1996. 

Kurt Begaye (Navajo) Hashk’ááhadzohí (Yucca Strung Out on a Line Clan), born for Tó’aheedliinii (Water Flow Together Clan), is Navajo originally from Chinle, Arizona, and has eighteen years’ experience working in various capacities of HIV prevention, care, and capacity building services. At the Navajo AIDS Network, Inc., he was instrumental in adapting evidence-based interventions addressing the prevention and direct service needs of people affected and infected with HIV on the Navajo reservation. Recognized for his work, Kurt was invited to join the capacity building assistance team at the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center and then later with the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum both located in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2013, he relocated to St. Michaels, Arizona, and works as an independent consultant providing technical assistance and capacity building services to tribes, community-based organizations, universities, and health departments working with American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities.

Arlana Bettelyoun (Oglala Sioux) a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Arlana works in the capacity as Executive Director of the Oglala Lakota Children’s Justice Center (OLCJC), formerly Court Appointed Special Advocates (OLCASA) for the past eighteen years. She has worked in the field of child neglect and abuse for twenty-five years and has been instrumental in the development of Tribal Children's Code to include passage of the historical 2007 Child and Family Code for the Oglala Sioux Tribe. She has a bachelor of science in human service with an emphasis in social services and counseling and an AA degree in tribal law from Oglala Lakota College. Work experience and expertise includes work as a Juvenile Officer within the Oglala Sioux Tribal Court System, Case Management and Investigations, South Dakota Department of Child Protection, presentations regarding court preparation and testimony and leading the passage and implementation of the wakanyeja na tiwahe woope (Oglala Sioux Tribe Child and Family Code). As a leader for this project, which was six years in the making, she gathered information and testimonials to assist in the development and framework of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Child and Family code through the passage of this legal document. She was presented the Bonnie Heavy Runner (memorial) Achievement Award for achievement in service to the American Indian/Alaska Native Community. The Oglala Sioux Tribe presented her with recognition, dedication, and commitment toward preservation of the traditional Tiwahe culture, values, and philosophy. 

Michael Black (Oglala Sioux) was named the Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs on April 26, 2010.  Prior to that, he was the Regional Director for the BIA’s Great Plains Regional Office in Aberdeen, South Dakota, which oversees 12 agencies that together serve 16 Federally recognized tribes in three states (Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota). Mr. Black was named to his position in July 2008 after having served since January 2004 as the Deputy Regional Director for Indian Services in the Bureau’s Rocky Mountain Regional Office in Billings, Montana, during which time he also served a period of eight months as the acting Great Plains Regional Director. Mr. Black began his Federal career in 1987 with the BIA’s Aberdeen Area Office (now the Great Plains Regional Office) as a General Engineer in the Branch of Facilities Management. He went on to hold regional facility and engineering management positions in the Billings Area Office (now the Rocky Mountain Regional Office) until being named the Deputy Regional Director. Mr. Black is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.

Hedi Bogda has a long history working in Indian and tribal law and issues surrounding domestic violence and sexual assault. She has her own practice and is currently the Appellate Justice for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Court of Appeals in Belcourt, North Dakota; a consultant with the National Criminal Justice Training Center in Appleton, Wisconsin; and the Attorney for the Pauma Band of Mission Indians in Pauma Valley, California. Prior to her current positions, she had worked as a federal and tribal prosecutor.

Diane K. Bohn, RN, CNM, PhD has been a certified nurse midwife in clinical practice for twenty-eight years and active in the violence against women and children arenas for thirty years. Her work began in 1986 with a position as nurse counselor in one of the first hospital-based family violence programs in the country. Since that time, Dr. Bohn has been addressing lifetime physical and sexual abuse and health consequences in many capacities including clinician, advocate, educator, researcher, author, program director, and program evaluator. Much of her clinical, research, and programmatic work has been in Indian country. Dr. Bohn is the Director of the Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Prevention Initiative Program at the Indian Health Service facility in Cass Lake, Minnesota, where she is also engaged in clinical midwifery practice. Prior to this position she was the Executive Director of the Family Advocacy of Northern Minnesota where she developed the Child Advocacy Center and SANE Program. She was Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing graduate programs for five years and currently holds a position as Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota. She is past president of the Nursing Network on Violence Against Women International, and past chair of the American College of Nurse Midwives Committee on Violence Against Women. Dr. Bohn received her BSN from the University of Minnesota and her PhD from Rush University, Chicago.

Nikki Borchardt Campbell (Southern Paiute/Northern Ute) is Executive Director of the National American Indian Court Judges Association. She holds a JD degree and a Certificate in Indian Law from Arizona State University College of Law. Nikki also holds a BA and MA in cultural and social anthropology from Stanford University where she graduated with honors. As an attorney, Nikki has worked with all aspects of Indian law as well as civil litigation. Nikki’s current work entails strengthening and enhancing tribal judicial systems, including developing training and technical assistance for tribal judicial personnel, attorneys, and other organizations.

Nancy Bordeaux (Sicangu Lakota) had an upbringing on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota by her grandparents that enabled her to retain her Lakota thought and language. A practitioner of Lakota ceremony and celebration, she is grounded in the women’s protocols. Her culture played an influential role in her former capacity as an Indian Child Welfare Act court liaison in Minneapolis for out-of-state tribes. For a decade, she directed the Indigenous Women’s Life Net, a domestic violence and sexual assault program she founded and directed at the Minneapolis American Indian Center. Today, her extensive experience has contributed significantly to her successful transition as an independent Indigenous Cultural Consultant. She integrates her unique background and professional expertise in her consulting work to diverse nonprofit organizations and state and federal agencies in and outside of Minnesota. She also provides cultural and experiential-oriented presentations, workshops, retreats, and staff trainings for professionals and community members in transcending the impact of historical trauma through cultural intervention and healing work.

Elsie Boudreau (Yup’ik), LMSW, is a Licensed Master Social Worker and a proud Yup’ik Eskimo from the village of St. Mary’s, Alaska. She is the President of Arctic Winds Healing Winds, a newly formed nonprofit. She helped establish and operate an Alaska Native unit within the local Child Advocacy Center for the past six years. In that role, she provides advocacy services and therapy for Alaska Native and American Indian families whose children have been severely physically or sexually abused, and conducts forensic interviews with children. As a prior Children’s Justice Act Project Coordinator for the Tribal Law and Policy Institute, she helped develop an educational video project highlighting child sexual abuse in Alaska, grasping the wisdom of Elders and identifying ways for healing to apply to traumatic experiences. She has also worked with law firms Manly & Stewart and Cooke Roosa Law Group as a Victim Advocate providing support to approximately 300 victims of clergy child sexual abuse in Alaska, South Dakota, Oregon, and Montana. She enjoys working with and for her people and strongly believes that all children have the right to grow up in a safe and loving environment. “Children are to be SEEN, HEARD, and BELIEVED.”

The Boyz (HoChunk, Lakota, Ojibwe, Cree, Potawatomi, Warm Springs, Yakima, Otoe, Kickapoo, Ponca, Hopi, Shinnecock, Oneida, Menomonie, and Navajo) is a traditional Native singing group within the northern contemporary style singing category. The fifteen members represent several tribal nations including HoChunk, Lakota, Ojibwe, Cree, Potawatomi, Warm Springs, Yakima, Otoe, Kickapoo, Ponca, Hopi, Shinnecock, Oneida, Menomonie, and Navajo. The group was formed nearly twenty years ago in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as a way to keep these young boys off the streets. They have evolved into a highly accomplished singing group, winning many top honors such as the Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Award for Best Contemporary Drum Group in 2007, Gathering of Nations World Champion 2007, and Schemitzun Connecticut World Class Champion Singers in 2008. Their CD Boyz Will Be Boyz won Best Pow-wow Contemporary CD at the 2010 Aboriginal People’s Choice Awards in Winnipeg, Ontario. They were also nominated for a Native American Music Award.

Alane V. Breland is the Assistant Chief Prosecutor for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC) in Scottsdale, Arizona, and a Special Assistant US Attorney for the District of Arizona. In the past, she has served SRPMIC as the Interim Director of the Salt River Family Advocacy Center, a Deputy Prosecutor, and a guardian ad litem in the Salt River Legal Services Office. Alane was admitted to the practice of law in the state of Arizona in 2007. She is a graduate of State Bar of Arizona Bar Leadership Institute and is currently a member of the Supreme Court of Arizona Committee on Character and Fitness. She graduated from the University of Alabama with a bachelor of arts in English, and received a juris doctor from the University of Alabama School of Law. Alane sits on the Executive Board of Directors for the MISS Foundation, a nonprofit, 501(c)(3), international organization that provides support to grieving families following the death of a child.

Carolyn Bryant is an investigator with the Crime Victim Justice Unit, the victim rights compliance office at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Office of Justice Programs. She works to ensure that crime victims in Minnesota are treated appropriately by victim service agencies and the criminal justice system, and that their statutory rights are upheld. Previously, Carolyn worked for a community-based victim service organization, where she served in many capacities, including Director of General Crime Victim Services. She has been in the victim services field for more than ten years and values cultivating partnerships with police, prosecutors, and programs supporting underserved communities to address the crime-related needs of victims and survivors. Carolyn has a BS in criminal justice and specialized training in crime victim service provision and improving community and justice systems response to all crime victims.

Jade Carela (Tulalip) has been the Child Advocate for the Tulalip Tribes’ Children’s Advocacy Center, a program serving child victims of crime, for a year and a half. Her role includes direct advocacy for victims, including accompaniment to medical exams, support to families, and drafting and presenting protection orders. She is an integral part of the Tulalip Multi-Disciplinary Team, a tribal-led team addressing child abuse cases. The Multi-Disciplinary Team includes representatives from tribal and federal law enforcement, tribal and federal prosecutors, advocates, and social workers. Ms. Carela has been drawn to this work because of her long-standing dedication to protecting children in her tribal community, and believes strongly that maintaining a tribal-based program for child protection is an essential component to creating a safe community that protects children.

Bethany Case is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker hailing from Louisiana and has been working at the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) in Washington, DC, since the fall of 2008. Her work experience prior to moving to DC includes Forensic Interviewer at a Children’s Advocacy Center, Mental Health Provider in a high school setting, and State Child Protection Investigator. Bethany now applies her direct services experience with children and families in the context of a larger system—the federal government. She works on a variety of government-wide related efforts and initiatives, including Attorney General Holder’s Defending Childhood Initiative, the Federal Task Force on Drug Endangered Children, the Federal Interagency Workgroup on Child Abuse and Neglect, and the National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction workgroup. Bethany’s portfolio at OVC includes OVC’s Vision 21 initiative, Linking Systems of Care for Children and Youth, supporting young male survivors of violence, services to American Indian and Alaska Native victims, and programs to support communities in the wake of mass violence and terrorism.

Vanessa Chauhan is a Senior Regional Specialist in Polaris’s Advisory Services team, managing a portfolio of thirteen states in the central region of the United States. Vanessa has provided trainings and consultations to a diverse group of national and international audiences, including law enforcement, government officials and agencies, victim service providers, and other key stakeholders and professionals engaged in antitrafficking and related gender-based violence and social justice work. Vanessa’s expertise includes consultation on hotline development and operations as an integral component to fight human trafficking, as well as building multidisciplinary human-trafficking responses, with an emphasis on stakeholder engagement, systems-level capacity building, law enforcement and victim services responses, and multisector collaboration toward disruption and eradication of human trafficking networks. In her role at Polaris, Vanessa has worked with key state and federal actors to develop tailored resources and responses to identify and address trafficking in their communities. Before coming to Polaris, Vanessa worked on issues of international and domestic family abductions at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. She also has extensive experience working with international clients on a variety of appellate immigration and cross-cultural matters. Vanessa has a juris doctor degree from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Arizona. She has also studied at the Monash University Law Chambers in Melbourne, Australia, and at the University of Canterbury Law School in Christchurch, New Zealand.

DeeJay Chino (Navajo) is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. She received her master’s degree in public administration from the University of South Florida and is currently a doctoral student in the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In her current position as the National Baseline Study Field Operations Manager at American Indian Development Associates, she is working on the implementation of a study to examine public health, wellness, and safety of American Indian and Alaska Native women living in tribal communities and Alaska Native villages. Until recently, DeeJay worked on several tribal youth prevention and education programs in Nevada and New Mexico. She has also worked on several tribal youth-oriented programs addressing education, policy, and health issues. 

Michelle Chino (Northern Cheyenne) is an American Indian researcher and educator with expertise in the social determinants of disease and injury, and the impact of health disparities among diverse populations. She is internationally recognized for her work on health measurement among indigenous populations. Dr. Chino founded and directed two University of Nevada, Las Vegas, research centers: the Center for Health Disparities Research and the American Indian Research and Education Center, and has brought in numerous prestigious research grants including the first university-level National Institutes of Health grant. Along with Dr. Melva Thompson-Robinson, she founded the nationally recognized, peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice. Dr. Chino brings a unique perspective and many years of experience to the School of Community Health Sciences, her students, and the community programs with which she works.

Chumash Inter-Tribal Singers Bird songs from an intertribal perspective all point toward the West as a place of tradition and similarities in style and ancient islands off the coast of present California. These songs are composed of an allegorical cycle and served to perpetuate the lifestyle and traditions through effective medium of music and dance in lieu of written language. For example, through the use of bird metaphors and allegory, these lessons would instruct and imprint on children and adults the proper time for the young to leave the nest and start a new family, and the necessity of parents to “let go” of their maturing children. Bird songs helped to preserved Southern California Indian culture and history. 

Bonnie Clairmont (Ho-Chunk), citizen of the HoChunk Nation of Wisconsin, resides in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she is employed with the Tribal Law and Policy Institute as the Victim Advocacy Program Specialist. Prior to her employment with the Tribal Law and Policy Institute, Bonnie was Outreach/Client Services Coordinator for Sexual Offense Services of Ramsey County, a rape crisis center. While employed there, Bonnie provided leadership in the development of Sexual Assault Response Teams and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner programs and provided guidance with multidisciplinary sexual assault protocol development. She has worked more than twenty-five years advocating for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. She has dedicated much of her work to providing and improving services for victim/survivors of sexual assault, battering, and child sexual abuse, particularly those from American Indian communities. For four years, she coordinated the Strengthening the Circle of Trust Conference, a conference focusing on sexual assault and exploitation perpetrated by American Indian spiritual leaders/medicine men. Bonnie co-edited a recently published book Sharing Our Stories of Survival, an anthology of writing by Native women who have experienced violence. Bonnie provided technical assistance to research conducted by Amnesty International USA that lead to the report “Maze of Injustice: The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA.” She and her partner Jim Clairmont have two children and five grandchildren.

James Clairmont (Sicangu Lakota), C.O.M., provides spiritual guidance and support to those in need such as victims of crime and abuse. Jim has conducted various healing ceremonies such as the chair ceremony to memorialize victims of homicide and the wiping of tears ceremony. He serves on the Elder’s Council at the University of Minnesota offering guidance and spiritual support to Native students experiencing personal problems. He provides spiritual support to patients in hospitals as an “on-call” volunteer Native spiritual advocate. Prior to his retirement, James was a teacher for more than twenty years in the Twin Cities where he taught Indian studies, chemical health, and Lakota language. He has presented workshops and served on panels about topics such as the appropriate use of Native spirituality in our work; sexual assault and exploitation perpetrated by spiritual leaders; and listen to the grandmothers at numerous conferences. As a former dancer and as a lead singer for a well-noted drum group the Porcupine Singers, James has been in the powwow world all his life and now enjoys emceeing powwows and lecturing on the role of the singer and on Indian history and culture. His pride and joy are his two children, son Lakota (Hokie) and daughter April, his five grandchildren, and his many hunka children.

Cordelia Clapp (Pawnee) is an RN, who has more than twenty years of nursing experience with nine years of work in a clinical tribal setting. She currently serves a Nurse Trainer of Sexual Assault Forensic Exam Service Training Access and Resources (SAFESTAR) Project and is actively involved in numerous boards and committees. She works diligently to improve health care delivery system to American Indian/Alaska Native communities.

Desireé Coyote (Nez Perce, Walla Walla, and Cayuse) is the Family Violence Services Program Manager of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. She is a proud indigenous woman; Nez Perce on her father’s side and Umatilla, Walla Walla, Cayuse on her mother’s side. Desireé is a survivor of intimate partner violence, sexual assault (marital and acquaintance), the system, and racial intimidation. With more than twenty years of working to end violence against women, her first seven years were with mainstream programs with a nonprofit in Lakeview, Oregon, as the Community Education/Volunteer Coordinator and with Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence as the Women of Color Caucus Director. In 2002, she returned to serve her own tribe—her current passion. Currently, Desireé serves as the Family Violence Services Program Manager for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. She is responsible for writing, maintaining, and coordinating Office of Violence Against Women grants for the tribe. Desireé facilitates and coordinates a few teams in addressing intimate partner violence, the Tribal State and Federal Summit, and assists other tribal nations. Desireé is a member of the Oregon VAWA Advisory Board since 2010. In developing the state’s STOP VAWA Implementation Plan, it led to addressing services to the underserved, marginalized, oppressed communities and tribal nations. She also held memberships on the Governor’s Council on Domestic Violence (seven years) and Women of Color Network (eleven years).

Christine Crossland is a Senior Social Science Analyst in the Office of Research and Evaluation at the National Institute of Justice (NIJ)—the research, development, testing, and evaluation agency of the US Department of Justice (DOJ). Christine is primarily responsible for planning, implementing, directing, evaluating, managing, and reporting on social and behavioral research grants, cooperative agreements, contracts, and studies funded by the DOJ. She works with other government agencies, nonprofit organizations, public and private businesses, and public safety and health agencies to coordinate a broad and enhanced research agenda in the area of violence and victimization. Since joining NIJ in 1998, Christine has directed and managed a number of federal research and evaluation programs and activities. She was the Deputy Director of the former Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program where she managed more than forty drug-testing research sites across the United States. She also has overseen a number of evaluability assessments and evaluations on Indian country programs or initiatives. Currently, Christine is directing a program of research addressing American Indian (AI) and Alaska Native (AN) crime and justice issues. She also is the Director of the AI and AN Violence Prevention Research Program, which is specifically designed to examine violence experienced by AI and AN women living in Indian country and Alaska Native villages.

Virginia Davis is a Senior Policy Advisor at the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) where she works on public safety, criminal justice, and human rights issues. Virginia first joined the staff at NCAI in 2005. From 2009 to 2013, Virginia served as the Deputy Director for Policy at the Office on Violence Against Women at the US Department of Justice. In that capacity she played a lead role in the administration’s efforts to advance reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Before joining NCAI, Virginia was a Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow at Georgetown University and worked at the National Women’s Law Center where she focused on employment discrimination and the role of the federal courts in women’s lives. Virginia has written and spoken widely on criminal justice issues, civil and women’s rights, federal Indian law and policy, and international human rights. She is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.

Georgina Davis-Gastelum (Village of Kake) has a Community Wellness Advocate certificate from University of Alaska–Southeast. She has trained two years with the “Peace of Kake” team under the national organization Healthy Native Communities Fellowship and is currently employed as a health educator. Georgina works comfortably both in a support role and a leadership role—having served two years on the Organized Village of Kake tribal council, one year as vice president. She has participated in and helped organize mock circles in the village. Georgina works with the Kake Coalition on organizing activities that build a strong community, including traditional foods programs, culture camps, and beading classes, hosting visiting youth groups from other states—networking within the community, with outlying communities, and nationwide. 

Kim Day, RN, SANE-A, SANE-P, is the SAFEta, is the Project Director at the International Association of Forensic Nurses (IAFN). As the SAFEta Project Director, she provides technical assistance and training around the US Department of Justice’s National Protocol for sexual assault medical forensic examinations of adults/adolescents. She is a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) with dual certification as a SANE-A and SANE-P by the IAFN. Mrs. Day has worked on many national-level projects such as the PREA medical protocol advisory committee, the NSVRC’s SANE Sustainability project, the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare’s PREA standards training for correctional health care, and the Southwest Center for Law and Policy’s SAFESTAR project. She also has participated in the Office on Violence Against Women’s DNA Backlog Roundtable and the White House Roundtable on Sexual Violence. Mrs. Day also participated in the Office for Victims of Crime’s Vision 21 project, was a member of the National Coordination Committee on the American Indian/Alaska Native SANE-SART initiative and the AG’s Federal/Tribal Prosecution Task Force the NIJ SAFER Steering Committee, OVW’s new Pediatric Sexual Abuse Exam Protocol project, and the SART toolkit advisory committee. Mrs. Day has spoken at many national, state, and local conferences and webinars on the National SAFE Protocol and the medical forensic examination. She has authored chapters and/or contributed to textbooks including The Atlas of Sexual Violence, Sexual Assault Victimization Across the Lifespan and co-authored The Clinical Management of Children and Adolescents Who Have Experienced Sexual Violence: Technical Considerations for PEPFAR Programs in 2013.

Sarah Deer (Mvscogee/Creek) is a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma. Sarah Deer has worked to end violence against women for more than twenty years. She began as a volunteer rape victim advocate as an undergraduate and later received her JD with a Tribal Lawyer Certificate from the University of Kansas School of Law. She is currently a Professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Minnesota. Her scholarship focuses on the intersection of federal Indian law and victims’ rights. Deer is a co-author of three textbooks on tribal law. She has received national recognition for her work on violence against Native women and was a primary consultant for Amnesty International’s Maze of Injustice campaign. She is the recipient of a 2014 MacArthur Fellowship.

Debbie M. Demientieff, Special Projects Coordinator, ANTHC- BH, has an associate degree in human services. Debbie has worked as a Tribal Family Youth Specialist and a Tribal Administrator. As the current coordinator of the Domestic Violence Prevention Initiative for ANTHC, she works directly with the tribal partners and a training team coordinating efforts addressing domestic violence and sexual assault. Debbie coordinates the Garden of Roses Camp for Girls and a leadership project with the Alaska Leadership for Results program.

Sonia DeVelez has been a registered nurse for eight years. Her background and passion is in forensic nursing. She deals with victims of sexual assault and domestic abuse. She has received awards from the University of Riverside Extension for her commitment and hard work. Her picture was published in their 2013 catalog and she was named a “Rising Star.” She continues to provide care and education to women of sexual assault and domestic abuse in Indian country.

Juana Majel Dixon (Pauma) is presently the Tribal Delegate and Co-Chair of Religious Cultural Concerns Committee; Co-Chair of the Public Safety Task Force to End Violence Against our Native Peoples of the National Congress of American Indians; and also serves her tribe as a Traditional Appointment as a Pauma Tribal Legislative Council, and Program Manager for the Pauma-Rincon SART. She is an Adjunct Professor for the American Indian Studies department at Palomar College. She also has been a visiting professor at San Diego State University and Mesa College. She is an Advisory Council member of the National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center while also assisting a number of American Indian community organizations throughout the country.

Marnie Dollinger is a Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART) at the United States Department of Justice. She is responsible for advising tribal jurisdictions regarding their implementation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) in Indian Country. She is providing programmatic expertise in the Native American Sex Offender Management Initiative and will be assisting in the continued success of the Sex Offender Management and Planning Initiative. In addition to working in the field of sexual offender management, Ms. Dollinger received a Master’s Degree in Forensic Science from National University in San Diego, CA and dedicated much of her career to death scene and crime scene investigation. She worked with the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office and Medtox Laboratories in addition to county and private laboratories and hospitals. She currently continues her forensic science interests as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Investigative Forensics for the University of Maryland University College.

John Dossett is the General Counsel to the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).  Mr. Dossett’s work at NCAI began in 1995 and includes a range of legal, legislative and intergovernmental issues relating to the rights of Indian tribal governments. He co-directs the Tribal Supreme Court Project along with the Native American Rights Fund. The Project was formed in 2001 in response to a series of U.S. Supreme Court cases that negatively affected tribal sovereignty. Mr. Dossett received his bachelor’s degree from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and his law degree from the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

Christine Duclos is an evaluator/researcher. Her research interests include community-based program planning and intervention, information dissemination, community primary care, HIV, American Indian health, criminal justice and health interface, teen and women’s health, and suicide prevention and intervention. She also is Chair of the Colorado Multiple Institutional Review Board at the University of Colorado Denver as well as a panel member and special populations’ reviewer (e.g., prisoners, women, decisionally challenged). Affiliated institutions include The Children’s Hospital, Colorado Prevention Center, Denver Health Medical Center, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, University of Colorado Hospital, and the University of Colorado at Denver. Chris has a BA in sociology, a MPH (health administration) from the University of Pittsburgh, and a PhD in health and behavioral sciences from the University of Colorado at Denver. 

Elizabeth Duran (Pueblo of Pojoaque) is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Pojoaque.  She was first elected to the tribal council at age 18 at which time she served as tribal secretary.  Elizabeth was elected as Governor for the Pueblo of Pojoaque in January 1974.  Elizabeth is acknowledged as being instrumental in the revival of the traditional ceremonial practices at the Pueblo of Pojoaque.  Additionally, she worked with the Pojoaque Valley School District to incorporate Tewa classes as a second language for Tewa Pueblo children that has been in place since 1974.  Elizabeth is a life-long tribal council member on the Pueblo of Pojoaque Tribal Council.  Elizabeth has taught at the University of Oklahoma, School of Social Work; UC Berkeley, College of Public Health; and New Mexico State University, College of Health and Social Services as an adjunct professor.  Classes she has taught include policy, research, and social work with American Indians, American Indian Health, and Social Cultural Concepts.  Elizabeth was hired by her Pueblo in June 2012 after her retirement from NMSU as Director of Social Services for the Pueblo of Pojoaque.

Lucille Echohawk (Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma) resides in Arvada, Colorado. She has worked in the Indian child welfare field for more than twenty years as a volunteer and was also employed as a Strategic Advisor with Casey Family Programs for twelve years. She then served as Executive Director of the Denver Indian Family Resource Center until her retirement in 2014. She currently serves as a Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA) with Spirit of the Sun, Inc. She has been active in the nonprofit and philanthropic fields with tribal nations and urban Native communities for more than thirty years. She holds a BA degree from Brigham Young University and an MEd from Erikson Institute for Early Education, Loyola University–Chicago. Lucille is cofounder of Native Americans in Philanthropy, the Denver Indian Center, and the Denver Indian Family Resource Center and served as board chair for the three organizations. Currently she serves Native Americans in Philanthropy as a Network Weaver for the Southwest Region. She also sits on the Tribal Law and Policy Institute’s board of directors and is a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Child Welfare Capacity Building Center for Tribes as well as a consultant. 

Troy Eid was unanimously elected chair of the Indian Law and Order Commission and was the United States Attorney for the District of Colorado from 2006 to 2009. Mr. Eid is a shareholder in the Denver office of the international law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP, where he co-chairs the American Indian Law Practice Group. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Denver College of Law and the University of Colorado Law School, where he teaches Indian law, energy, natural resources, and environmental law. Mr. Eid chairs the Training Committee of the Navajo Nation Bar Association, which oversees the semi-annual bar examination and review course for attorneys, judges, and lay advocates practicing before Navajo courts and administrative agencies. He clerked for the Honorable Edith H. Jones, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Sam English (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) has been an artist all his life and is a recovering alcoholic who advocates for the arts and recovery from alcohol. Sam drank alcohol for twenty-five years, quitting at age thirty-nine. At that point, Sam was a captive of alcoholism and everything in his life destroyed, such as personal integrity and a marriage with three children. On December 10, 1981, Sam had his last drink, went to a men’s stag meeting associated with Alcoholics Anonymous (he chooses to break his own anonymity), and has been sober for more than twenty-five years. Sam’s art career was always in his blood; however, it didn’t come alive as a profession until he sobered up. It was at that point that a decision had to be made, and he chose the artist profession knowing that it would be a life of art and poverty, and that it has been. Sam has been fortunate enough to have created approximately eighty poster print images for various American Indian programs. Sam has designed the images for eight of the Indian Nations: Justice for Victims of Crime conferences to date.

Diane Enos (Salt River Pima-Maricopa) has background experience as a journalist and artist. Diane Enos served twenty-four years as an elected tribal leader, twelve of those concurrently as a Maricopa County Public Defender. She was first elected to the Council for the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC) while a second-year law student at Arizona State University College of Law (Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law). Diane was elected to four terms on the tribal council, and then elected President of the SRPMIC for two terms. During her tenure as President of the SRPMIC, Diane was appointed delegate to the Tribal Justice Advisory Group with the US Department of Justice, which, through tribal efforts, evolved into the Tribal Nations Leadership Council, where she then served as chair until 2014. She served on the Self-Governance Advisory Committee for the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Self-Governance; chair of the Arizona Indian Gaming Association and Arizonans for Tribal Government Gaming; and chair of the Maricopa Association of Governments Domestic Violence Committee. Having practiced as a guardian ad litem with the tribe’s Legal Services Office, Diane is currently the director of the SRPMIC’s Family Advocacy Center, involved in the collaborative work of the community’s multidisciplinary team during the initial investigatory stages of cases involving child abuse and neglect, Elder abuse, and domestic violence. Diane lives in Salt River, and with Michelle is the parent of Xavier (twelve), Victor (thirteen), Emma (fifteen), four dogs, and one big cat.

Jennifer A. Fahey, JD, MPA has worked in law and policy for the past twenty years, primarily in government and nonprofit agencies. She is a practicing attorney and criminal justice consultant, providing training and technical assistance to local, state, and tribal jurisdictions nationwide and is a primary author of the recently published Joint Jurisdiction Courts: A Manual for Developing Tribal, Local, State & Federal Justice Collaborations. Ms. Fahey previously served as an elected county attorney in Minnesota, and while in office she helped develop an innovative, alternative “sentencing circle” program in coordination with the judiciary, the Minnesota Department of Corrections, the Mille Lacs Band of Indians, and the community. Ms. Fahey later served as Deputy Director of the Crime and Justice Institute where she worked to create and implement responsible criminal justice and social policy grounded in evidence-based principles. Ms. Fahey holds a law degree from Hamline University School of Law and an MPA from Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.

Cheryl D. Fairbanks (Tlingit/Tsimpsian) is a professor and attorney who specializes in Indian law, state-tribal relations, Indian gaming, tribal courts, peacemaking, mediation, family, school, and educational law. She has worked with the New Mexico Office of Indian Affairs, as Senior Policy Analyst, in the area of state-tribal relations and helped establish the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) Desk and the University of New Mexico Indian Law Clinic. She lectures extensively on ICWA, tribal-state relations, and peacemaking. She serves as a Justice for the Inter-Tribal Court of Appeals for Nevada and the White Earth Band of Chippewa Tribal Court of Appeals.

First Nations Women Warriors is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. First Nations Women Warriors is a group of professional Native women veterans who are focused on helping veterans through guidance and resources. With its networking and administrative skills, First Nations Women Warriors can assist other like organizations that support veterans. Its mission is to inspire, honor, and empower fellow Native women veterans through mentoring and educating. First Nations Women Warriors’ vision is that Native women veterans are respected and recognized for their service and sacrifices to their country.

Yahya Fouz is a Senior Policy Advisor in the SMART Office. He is responsible for evaluating and assessing sex offender registration and notification management systems in Indian country to determine substantial implementation of Title I of the Adam Walsh Act, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). Prior to joining the SMART Office, Mr. Fouz served as an Assistant District Attorney for the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office. He prosecuted DNA-based prosecutions and a range of violent felonies, including gang-related shootings, home invasions, and conspiracy to murder. Mr. Fouz also handled cases involving child victims and witnesses, including child endangerment and physical and sexual abuse. Prior to becoming a prosecutor, Mr. Fouz served as staff attorney for the National District Attorney’s Association’s National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse. He assisted prosecutors from around the country on a variety of legal issues pertaining to child physical and sexual abuse, including shaken baby syndrome and computer-facilitated crimes against children. Mr. Fouz received his BA from the University of Virginia and his JD from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, where he was a member of the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law. Mr. Fouz is a member of both the Ohio and New York bars.

Carrie Frias has served as Chief General Counsel for the Pueblo of Pojoaque since November 2015. Previously she served as General Counsel for the Pueblo, starting in July 2014. Carrie has a background in Indian law with experience lobbying on behalf of the tribal provisions in the Violence Against Women Act on Capitol Hill. She has a strong interest in working with tribal communities to combat violence against Native women.

Joye E. Frost was appointed by President Obama as the Director of the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) on June 14, 2013. During her previous tenure as OVC’s Acting Director and Principal Deputy Director, she launched the Vision 21: Transforming Victim Services initiative to expand the reach and impact of the victim assistance field. She forged closer ties with State Victims of Crime Act administrators and championed the integration of innovation with research in OVC’s efforts to build capacity in the field. She fostered a groundbreaking partnership between OVC and the Department of Defense to strengthen support to military victims of sexual assault, and greatly expanded OVC’s work to assist victims in Indian Country. She was instrumental in the development of OVC’s Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner and Sexual Assault Response Team Training and Technical Assistance initiatives and spearheaded a number of OVC projects to identify and serve victims of crime with disabilities. She also implemented and oversees a discretionary grant program to fund comprehensive services to victims of human trafficking. Ms. Frost began her career as a Child Protective Services caseworker in South Texas and worked in the victim assistance, healthcare, and disability advocacy fields for more than 35 years in the United States and Europe. During this time she spent several years working at both the community and headquarters level for the Department of Army.  Ms. Frost earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Health Services Management from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Mr. Paul Fuentes has been employed with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma since 2009. He currently serves as Probation/SORNA Officer of the Trial Court. Mr. Fuentes has contributed to the judicial branch of the tribes by providing extensive grant writing and successful program development. Most recently, he secured funding for the construction of Phase I of the Tribal Justice Center. Mr. Fuentes serves as a Grant Peer Reviewer for the Office of Justice Programs. Earlier in his career, Mr. Fuentes worked in the behavioral health field as a Mental Health Aid, Case Manager, and Program Coordinator for Substance Abuse Prevention Services for Western Oklahoma Indians. He holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s degree in community counseling from Southwestern Oklahoma State University.

Jerry Gardner (Cherokee) serves as Tribal Law and Policy Institutes Executive Director and is an attorney with more than 35 years of experience working with American Indian/Alaska Native Nations, tribal court systems, and victims of crime in Indian country. Jerry has served as the Executive Director of the Tribal Law and Policy Institute (TLPI ) since its founding in 1996 and oversees all TLPI projects and services. Jerry has also served as the Director of the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Tribes, Council Member of the American Bar Association (ABA) Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities (IRR), and an ABA Tribal Courts Council member.  Jerry has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, UCLA School of Law, and Southwestern School of Law. He previously served as the Administrator for the National American Indian Court Judges Association (NAICJA). He has been an appellate court judge for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (North Dakota) and Poarch Creek Band (Alabama). He served as the Senior Staff Attorney with the National Indian Justice Center (NIJC) from NIJC’s establishment in 1983 until TLPI’s founding in 1996. He served as a Professional Staff Member at the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in the late 1970s. He also served in legal training positions for the national office of the Legal Services Corporation and the American Indian Lawyer Training Program. Jerry received his J.D. from Antioch School of Law.

Anthony Gastelum (Village of Kake) earned his Certificate in Behavioral Health Science/Drugs and Alcohol from San Diego Community College. Over the years, he has been actively involved with the Organized Village of Kake Culture Camps, Tribal Youth Program, Tribal Courts, Circle Peacemaking, 7th Generation Mentoring Program, Across Ages Mentoring Program, SEARHC Behavioral Health Prevention, SEARHC Traditional Foods Project, OJJDP Tribal Youth Program/Technical Assistance department, national and local Healthy Native Communities Fellowship program, and Andrew Zimmern foods. In his role as a counselor, Anthony has been extremely effective. He instills confidence in his patients that treatment will have a positive outcome. Anthony is passionate about helping people. He is a traditional singer and drummer who participates in and leads traditional ceremonies as a way to promote emotional healing.

Lea Geurts is a Project Specialist with the National Criminal Justice Training Center of Fox Valley Technical College. She provides training and technical assistance for tribal grantees funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and other Department of Justice programs. Lea began her career working with both juvenile and adult probationers. She developed and implemented probation systems focusing on building a stronger tribal community, enhancing community safety, and reducing recidivism by pairing “best practice” concepts with the utilization of local tribal resources. Lea was promoted to Court Administrator and then Judicial Services Director where she developed Tribal Judicial Systems including program development of the courts overall functionality and oversight of the clerk’s, records officer, probation, and contractual judicial support services. Lea continues to actively create and promote collaborative relationships that provide resources to enhance all aspects of Tribal Judicial Systems. Additionally, Lea has worked with multiple tribal technical assistance providers as a consultant and instructor topics including: justice system planning, comprehensive approaches to sex offender management, Tribal Probation Academy, Indian Alcohol Substance Abuse Program, probation case planning, incorporating tribal resources into offender management, working with substance abusing offenders, recognizing victims as stakeholders in probation, accessing resources for juvenile offenders, and enhancing communication between agencies when dealing with child victims. Lea earned her bachelor of science degree in criminal justice administration.

Leon Ghahate (Laguna Pueblo) a member of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico after attending New Mexico State University and studying psychology and educational psychology, Leon began working with the Hualapai Tribe. First with the Hualapai Youth Substance Prevention Program and then with the Hualapai Juvenile Prosecutors Office coordinating the juvenile diversion program. He has worked with juveniles for seven years in the Hualapai community. Although every tribe is different, they all have the same relevant problems such as substance abuse, domestic violence, and lack of economic and educational opportunities. Tackling those problems with youth and families have always been a lifelong passion for Leon.

Elena Giacci (Diné) is a Diné woman and an antisexual and domestic violence training specialist and advocate for American Indian and Alaska Native people. She has more than twenty-six years of experience in the violence against women field and has a BA in criminal justice. Elena trains throughout North America on sexual and domestic violence. Elena is Chair of the Albuquerque Mayors Anti Domestic and Sexual Violence Task Force and Faculty Leader on Native Project 2.0 in cooperation with the national organization, Futures Without Violence. She was a Team Leader for the National Indian Health Services Domestic Violence Clinic Demonstration Project, which worked with more than 100 Indian, tribal, and urban health care facilities as well as domestic violence advocacy programs across the United States to improve the health system response to domestic violence. Ms. Giacci was co-investigator with Dr. Elizabeth Miller in a research study funded by the National Institutes of Health, a qualitative study to examine partner violence, sexual violence, and reproductive coercion on reproductive decision making. Elena has served as the Executive Director of the State Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, co-chair of the Albuquerque Mayors Sexual Assault Task force, member of the New Mexico Governors Victim Rights Alliance, and chair of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women and Children. She has served as President of the Board of Directors for Rape Crisis Center of Central New Mexico, Chair of American Indian Death Review Team, and member of the New Mexico Attorney General FVPA Task Force.

Jodi A. Gillette (Hunkpapa and Oglala Lakota) currently serves as a Policy Advisor for Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Endreson & Perry, LLP after serving as a political appointee under the administration of President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2015. During her tenure under the administration, she served as the Special Assistant to the President for Native American Affairs in the White House Domestic Policy Council. Subsequently, she served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary to the Assistant-Secretary Indian Affairs in the US Department of the Interior, as well as the Associate Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House. Prior to joining the Obama administration, Ms. Gillette served as the executive director of the Native American Training Institute in Bismarck, a nonprofit offering technical assistance and training to tribal, state, and local governments in the area of human service delivery systems. As the longest serving political appointee in the administration, Jodi was quite influential in advising the president of the United States on policy to improve the lives of Native Americans and strengthen the nation-to-nation relationship between the United States and Indian tribes. She was instrumental in advancing the protection of Native women and children against violence, ensuring tribes were treated as governments when faced with emergencies, and resolving long-standing legal disputes between tribes and the federal government. Ms. Gillette holds a bachelor of arts degree in government and Native American studies from Dartmouth College and a master of public policy degree from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

Marcia Good is Senior Counsel to the Director of the Office of Tribal Justice (OTJ) at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC. Since joining OTJ in 2013, Marcia has worked on projects and policies in Indian country in the areas of criminal jurisdiction and prosecution, victims’ rights, training for law enforcement, sexual offender registration, tribal access to criminal databases, and children’s issues including the Indian Child Welfare Act. From 1999 to 2013, Marcia was an Assistant US Attorney for the District of Montana, prosecuting violent crimes in Indian country and child sexual exploitation cases. She also worked as a guardian ad litem for children in abuse and neglect cases in Montana state court from 1997 to 1999, and spent seven years prior to that as a Deputy County Attorney for the Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office in Billings, prosecuting child abuse and neglect cases, juvenile matters, Elder abuse, and felony cases. Marcia graduated from Eastern Montana College in Billings, Montana, and the University of Colorado–Boulder School of Law.

Natasha Gourd (Spirit Lake Dakota) helped establish and implement the “Wodakota” Peacemaking Court System for court-affected tribal youth, using tribal Elders for cultural guidance. She continues to monitor and guide the program in meeting its goals and has trained the seven full-time Elders in peacemaking techniques, which they carry on successfully on their own. She is committed to helping address historical trauma and believes in the importance of tradition, language, and culture for healing. She also is passionate about the importance of tribal Elders in this process. 

Dr. Diane Gout conferred her PhD from Boston University in the interdisciplinary sociology and social work programs. Her dissertation is entitled “Cultural Identity and Familial Relationships as Protective Factors against Intimate Partner Violence among American Indian and Alaska Native Mother.” Dr. Gout is the owner and executive director of Gray O.A.K. LLC, a Maine-based research and evaluation company working primarily with tribes and nontribal agencies who work with tribes throughout the United States and Alaska. The overarching mission of the company is to empower communities and develop internal capacity through the promotion of ownership, autonomy, and knowledge (O.A.K.). Dr. Gout has successfully developed a framework for data collection that is interwoven with the art of storytelling, a concept that is well-received and regarded by tribal agencies and organizations. Previously, Dr. Gout was a member of the Violence Against Women Act Measuring Effectiveness Initiative funded by the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). She oversaw the analysis and reporting of data from each of the discretionary grant programs and provided training and technical assistance to more than 200 OVW-funded tribal grantees each year. Through this work, she developed strong relationships and connections with tribal communities. Dr. Gout’s evaluation and research experience is instructed and complemented by working directly in the field for nearly twenty-five years. She has worked with survivors of rape, child sexual abuse, and domestic violence. In addition, she has worked with teams to develop policies and protocols, evaluate systems, and conduct research on issues of trauma and abuse.

Juli Ana Grant is a Senior Policy Advisor in the SMART Office. Prior to her position at SMART, she worked for the Office on Violence Against Women. Prior to her work at the US Department of Justice, Ms. Grant was the Manager of Sex Offense Management and Domestic Violence Programs and the Tribal Justice Exchange Project at the Center for Court, and the Director of the largest victim services agency in Brooklyn Criminal, Supreme, Community Courts and the Brooklyn Family Justice Center.

Steven Hafner, MA, CHES is a research assistant in the Office of Research and Evaluation at the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), one of two federal scientific agencies at the US Department of Justice. At NIJ, he works on NIJ’s projects related to tribal crime and justice. Steven previously interned for the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board in Rapid City, South Dakota, and currently collaborates with the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board in Portland, Oregon, on projects related to health communication and violence prevention. Steven is also a certified health education specialist. He holds a BA in evolutionary anthropology and German studies from Duke University, an MA in health education from Columbia University, and is currently a doctoral candidate in social and behavioral sciences at the TH Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University.

Leslie A. Hagen serves as the Department of Justice’s first National Indian Country Training Coordinator. In this position, she is responsible for planning, developing, and coordinating training in a broad range of matters relating to the administration of justice in Indian country. Previously, Hagen served as the Native American Issues Coordinator for the Executive Office for US Attorneys (EOUSA). In that capacity, she served as EOUSA’s principal legal advisor on all matters pertaining to Native American issues, among other law enforcement program areas; provides management support to the US Attorneys’ Offices; and coordinates and resolves legal issues. Hagen is also a liaison and technical assistance provider to Justice Department components and the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee on Native American Issues. 

Laura Harjo (Muscogee Creek Nation) is a citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation and has special interests in social movements, social media, indigenous planning, and missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico.

Lenny Hayes (Sisseton Wahpeton-Oyate) MA, LADC, is an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton-Oyate of the northeast corner of South Dakota. Lenny is also owner and operator of Tate Topa Consulting, LLC. He has extensive training in mental health issues that impact the Two-Spirit/LGBTQ community. Lenny has always worked within the Native American community. His lived experience and training have made him a sought-after workshop presenter on Native American historical and intergenerational trauma and how it impacts the Native American community as well as the Two-Spirit/Native LGBTQ individual and community. Lenny was a consultant and participant in a project with the National Resource Center for Tribes and the National Resource Center for Permanency and Family Connections. Lenny recently completed and participated in a project with Prevent Child Abuse North Dakota. This project consisted of creating an educational DVD in regard to adult survivors of child abuse. Lenny is a co-facilitator of a support group for Two-Spirit/Native LGBTQ with the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center in which participants can discuss mental health issues that impact this population. Lenny is also assisting in the development of a Two-Spirit/Native LGBTQ curriculum that will be used to educate providers who work with this community. Lenny is former Chairman of the Board of the Minnesota Two-Spirit Society. Lenny is also a board member to the First Nations Repatriation Institute and an Advisory Committee Member with the Capacity Building Center for Tribes and the Southwest Indigenous Women’s Coalition. 

Melina Healey is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law and a Mansfield Family Foundation Equal Justice Works Fellow with the Center for the Human Rights of Children (CHRC). She teaches legal research and writing at Kent and directs the Native Trafficking Project at CHRC. She previously taught in Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s Child Law Policy Clinic, where she and her clinic students worked to combat child sex trafficking on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. Melina collaborated with local victim’s services groups, law enforcement, Elders, and Tribal Council and drafted Fort Peck’s landmark sex trafficking law, the first tribal antitrafficking law in the state of Montana. This year Melina is continuing her efforts to eliminate the trafficking of Native people in Chicago through direct legal services and policy advocacy. Melina was previously a judicial clerk to the Honorable John T. Nixon in the US District Court in Nashville and has worked at several public defender and child advocacy organizations where she represented trafficking victims and survivors. She has also been working with the Fort Peck Tribes for the past five years on child law and racial justice issues.

Gertrude Heavy Runner (Blackfeet) is a distinguished tribal Elder grounded in the language and traditions of her people. Ms. Heavy Runner (Buffalo Head Woman) is the mother of thirteen children, which included the late Bonnie Heavy Runner (Sim-Sin). Gertrude’s parents, John and Mary Ground, were longtime keepers of the Thunder Bundle, and today Gertrude is the keeper of the Blacktail Bundle. At the same time, she traveled extensively to Catholic pilgrimages in France (Lourdes), Egypt (Jerusalem), Rome (Papal Audience), Mexico (Our Lady of Guadalupe), Turkey, Germany, Austria, and Canada.

Iris HeavyRunner Pretty Paint (Blackfeet), PhD, is the Training and Technical Assistance Service Line Director and the Native Aspirations Project Director at Kauffman and Associates, headquartered in Spokane, Washington. Native Aspirations is funded by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to provide national training and technical assistance to sixty-five American Indian and Alaska Native villages to reduce violence, bullying, and suicide among youth. The Native Aspirations Project contributes to a nationwide tribal movement toward healing, violence prevention, and positive youth development. Dr. PrettyPaint provides administrative oversight for a ten-member team to conduct data-driven community prevention planning; build community coalitions; and implement evidence-, practice-, and culture-based interventions. She has more than thirty years of experience as an educator, researcher, and evaluator; is a leading authority on cultural resilience, student retention, and indigenous evaluation; and her publications address issues of traditional Native culture and resilience, family support models, cultural and school partnerships, and indigenous theoretical foundations on educational persistence. She has delivered training and technical assistance on a variety of topics, such as the contagion of violence and student retention.

Aislinn Heavy Runner-Rioux (Blackfeet) is a doctoral student in educational leadership with a focus on higher education administration. Aislinn serves as the Assistant to the Dean of the Graduate School and the Indigenous Graduate Education Liaison at the University of Montana. She is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Scholar, Washington Native American Fellow, and American Association of University Women Scholar. She is the daughter of Bonnie Heavy Runner.

Thomasine Heitkamp is an Associate Provost and Professor of Social Work at the University of North Dakota (UND) in Grand Forks, North Dakota. She has held a host of academic leadership roles at UND over the past thirty years. Currently, she serves as the Co-PI on a National Institute of Justice–funded grant to study the impact of oil development on domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking in tribal communities and counties in the oil patch of North Dakota and Montana. Her work as a researcher and educator has been acknowledged through a myriad of presentations at countless national and international conferences.

Brian Hendrix (Muscogee Creek) is the Deputy Assistant of Native American Affairs with Oklahoma Secretary of State and Native American Affairs Chris Benge. An enrolled member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, Brian has a great deal of experience in working with Oklahoma tribes and federal grants. Before joining the Secretary of State and Native American Affairs, he was the State-Tribal Crime Victim Liaison with the Oklahoma District Attorney’s Council. In 2011, the Oklahoma District Attorneys Council, Victim Services Division received a grant award from the Office for Victims of Crime for the Oklahoma State-Tribal Crime Victim Liaison Demonstration Program. The project, the only one of its kind in the nation, was developed to provide outreach to American Indian crime victims in Oklahoma. Mr. Hendrix also worked ten years as the Executive Director for the Payne County Drug Court Program and served for three years as a board member for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. During his tenure at the Payne County Drug Court, Mr. Hendrix also served as a faculty member for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals Tribal Training Initiative and the Native American Alliance Foundation. Prior to his work in Payne County, Mr. Hendrix delivered and coordinated children’s protective services first as a Child Protection Worker and then as the Indian Child Welfare Coordinator for Muscogee Creek Nation. He is a graduate of Oklahoma State University with a BA in psychology.

Sarah Henry, is an Attorney Advisor for the National Center on Protection Orders and Full Faith & Credit (NCPOFFC), a project of the Battered Women’s Justice Project. The mission of the NCPOFFC is to promote and facilitate nationwide implementation of the full faith and credit provision of the Violence Against Women Act and enforcement of the federal firearm prohibitions and the federal domestic violence/stalking criminal provisions. Ms. Henry provides training, legal analysis, and policy review on local, state, tribal, and national issues. She conducts research and develops training materials, resources, and publications. Before assuming her current position, she worked as a teacher. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado Law School.

Jacque Secondine Hensley was sworn in as the Chair of the Kaw Nation on July 13, 2016. Kaw Nation has approximately 3,400 tribal members and employs more than 150 people. Prior to becoming Chair of Kaw Nation, Jacque was employed with the Department of Human Services (DHS) as the first Indian Affairs Liaison for Director Ed Lake. Jacque came to DHS from Governor Mary Fallin’s office. She was appointed by Governor Fallin as the Native American Liaison in July 2012. Jacque served as a senior advisor to the governor on Native American affairs with areas of responsibility to include monitoring compacts between the state and tribal governments and meetings between state agencies and tribal governments. A native Oklahoman, Jacque is a member of the Kaw Tribe of Oklahoma as well as being part Shawnee and Delaware. Jacque earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Oklahoma State University and a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of Tulsa. Prior to her employment with the state of Oklahoma, Jacque was a special agent with the Department of Defense where she investigated suspected cases of fraud of military contracts. Jacque also worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) as a special agent where she primarily investigated child abuse cases. While employed with BIA, Jacque served as an adjunct professor at the Indian Police Academy in Artesia, New Mexico. She also she served as president of the State Child Protection Team in Oklahoma. Jacque Secondine Hensley is married to Mike Hensley. Jacque and Mike have two sons, Blake and Brad. 

Jesucita Hernández (Pascua Yaqui) is a Senior Technical Assistance Specialist for Unified Solutions Tribal Community Development Group, Inc. She is an enrolled member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and Native Arizonan. In April 2003, she was hired by her tribe to develop and create a victim service program. She also formed a crisis response team to help eliminate the gaps between outside agencies and the Pascua Yaqui Tribal. As time moved forward, she was able to bring speakers and trainers to the team, as they educated team members and elevated their own knowledge and expertise. She was selected by the team to chair and facilitate the crisis response team, now known as the Guadalupe Intervention Support Advocacy Team, which continues to thrive today. This program continues to grow and provide increased funding for the Walking in Balance Victim Services, which was an Office for Victims of Crime (OVC)– and Office of Violence Against Women–funded program. After six years in direct services, she transitioned into a new role as a Training and Technical Assistance (T&TA) Provider with Unified Solutions. She has worked as a Program Manager from 2008 to 2012 providing T&TA support to Tribal Victim Assistance grantees, Children Justice Act grantees, and Faith Based Grantees. She transitioned into the role of a Technical Assistance Specialist in 2012 under the Coordinates Tribal Assistance Solicitation. She continues to assist OVC grant-funded programs as a T&TA provider. Today, Jesucita loves working with teens and serves as a youth minister for her church. 

Heather Hoechst has always had a heart for public interest law as is demonstrated by her robust career serving those in need. After graduating cum laude from the Dickinson School of Law at Penn State University in 2012, Heather joined the Center for Public Interest Law and Advocacy team as a Post-Grad Fellow at the Dickinson School of Law to research and facilitate the creation of a Medical-Legal Partnership in University Park, Pennsylvania. Shortly thereafter she joined Women Against Abuse to provide a holistic approach to address multifaceted nature of client issues such as legal counseling and advocacy. Earlier this year, Heather joined DNA-People’s Legal Services as a Medical-Legal Partnership Attorney on the Navajo Nation focusing on providing free civil legal services to low-income Native Americans. When Heather is not working, you can find her running on trails throughout the Four Corners and competing in ultra-running competitions.

Diane Humetewa (Hopi) is a US District Judge of the US District Court for the District of Arizona and was the US Attorney for the District of Arizona, serving in that position from December 2007 to August 2009. Confirmed in 2014 as the first Native American woman and enrolled tribal member to serve as a federal judge, Humetewa is one of three Native Americans in history to serve in this position. Humetewa is also a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Professor Humetewa has served as counsel to the US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and to the Deputy Attorney General for the US Justice Department; as a member of the US Sentencing Guideline Commission, Native American Advisory Committee; and as an Appellate Court Judge for the Hopi Tribe, of which she is an enrolled member.

Lonna Hunter (Tlingit and Dakota) is the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Office of Justice Program Tribal/State Liaison for crime victim services, as well as homeland security, emergency communications, and criminal apprehension. Formerly, Lonna was the Resilience and Adverse Childhood Experiences Prevention Planner within the Minnesota Department of Health, where she provided technical assistance and building capacity to communities with an emphasis on eleven tribal communities in Minnesota to expand resiliency and prevention efforts around adverse childhood experiences and historical trauma. In the past, Lonna coordinated the federal Office for Victims of Crime statewide needs assessment for legal needs of victims of crime at state and tribal levels. Lonna worked at the statewide coalitions of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women, the Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition, and the National Director of the Sheila Wellstone Institute. Lonna’s past awards and honors include 2006 Gold WATCH Award for strangulation legislation, 2007 Minnesota Women’s Press Changemaker Award, 2008 Minnesota Women’s Consortium Woman of Distinction Award, 2012 Tribal Law and Policy Institute—Bonnie Heavy Runner Victim Advocacy Award, the Center on Women and Public Policy Feminist Leadership Fellow—Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and the Creative Community Leadership Fellow at Intermedia Arts. In addition, Lonna has provided expert testimony to the Attorney General Eric Holder’s Taskforce on American Indian/Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence. Lonna also worked on behalf of victims of with Jeff Anderson and Associates on holding clergy accountable for child sexual abuse in Indian country.

David F. Hutchinson, MRC, LCSW, has thirty-four years of experience providing, developing, and administering mental health services for nonvoluntary populations. He developed and directed residential and outpatient programs for adolescent and adult sexual abusers in Florida and North Carolina. David was also Program Director for the Family Services Center in Asheville, North Carolina, and Coordinator of Child/Family Services for Smoky Mountain Center in Sylva, North Carolina, before serving as Director of Children’s Services for Meridian Behavioral Health Services where he designed the Juvenile Justice Treatment Continuum. He is currently co-owner and Vice President for Shared Vision Consulting, LLC where he develops and replicates integrated continuums of care targeting at risk populations such as court involved youth and youth and families involved with social services.

Pam Iron (Cherokee/Laguna Pueblo), Executive Director for American Indian Resource Center, has worked for more than forty years in the field of Indian health, founding an urban Indian health center and serving as the Executive Director of Health for the Cherokee Nation. She also served as the Chief of Staff for the late Chief Wilma Mankiller. She has also worked for more than twenty different tribes throughout the United States assisting them with self-governance activities, planning, and management development. She is an expert in developing and presenting curriculum and educational materials focusing on cultural competency in Indian country. She is co-author of Strategies for Cultural Competency in Indian Health Care, published by APHA 2006. Ms. Iron served on the National Advisory Committee for the Violence Against Women Act, representing the interest of Native people and communities to the Office on Violence Against Women.

Mike Jackson (Village of Kake) grew up in Kake listening to his Elders tell of Kake history and the Story of Creation and Raven’s life as it pertains to Kake history, and the clans and crests of the two moieties have inspired Mike’s visions of the characters to come up with his designs of Kake way of life. Mike was fortunate to know his great grandparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and extended family in his village, who guided him throughout his life in a good way and taught him Kake core community values: Kake laws of the land that we come from.

Mattee Jim (Zuni) is of the Zuni people clan born for the Towering House People Clan; this is how she describes herself as a Navajo. Mattee has extensive experience in HIV prevention; HIV testing and counseling; community planning on the regional and state level; and training in curriculum development, recruitment, project management, policy development and training, cultural competency trainings, and sensitivity training. Mattee is a Supervisor for HIV Prevention Programs at First Nations Community HealthSource, a member and a Co-Chair of the Transgender Task Force for the New Mexico Community Planning and Action Group, and a decision-making member for the Statewide New Mexico Community Planning and Action Group. She is also on a Community Advisory Board for Shared Action and a National Advisory Board Member of the Center of Excellence for Transgender Health and a Board Member for the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico. She is also a Co-Chair for the New Mexico Transgender Coalition. Mattee easily connects with high-risk populations on a variety of sensitive topics and is skilled in networking and strategizing activities with local, state, and national programs in the areas of improving HIV testing and prevention services for at-risk and underserved populations.

Christopher “Kirk” Johnson, PhD, has been at the Directors of Vancouver Guidance Clinic, a private practice, since 1989. He holds a PhD from the University of Arizona with a major in counseling/guidance and a minor in educational psychology. He received a master of science and bachelor of science from the University of Oregon. He is a Sex Offender Evaluation and Treatment Specialist for the state of Washington and also sits on the Clark County Sheriff’s Department’s Sex Offender Leveling Committee. Kirk also specializes in child sex abuse counseling and treatment.

Paula Julian serves as a Policy Specialist for the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, the National Indian Resource Center Addressing Domestic Violence and Safety for Indian Women. As Policy Specialist, Paula assists with policy development; technical assistance and training; and development of partnerships to strengthen laws, policies, and responses addressing violence against Native women. Formerly, Paula was with Sacred Circle as an Outreach Coordinator providing technical assistance and training to strengthen responses to violence against Native women crimes. Since the early nineties, Paula has worked on violence against women starting as a volunteer shelter advocate, and then in various capacities from nonprofits to a federal government position, including at Futures Without Violence (formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund), at the Office on Violence Against Women, US Department of Justice, with the Avellaka Program of the La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians, and with the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, Inc. In these capacities, she has had the opportunity to analyze and develop policies affirming government-to-government relations with tribes and the federal trust responsibility to assist Indian tribes in safeguarding the lives of Indian women; assist with the development of local tribal responses; develop and implement tribal technical assistance and training; and develop partnerships that result in social and systems change increasing the safety of women across the country.

Steven Juneau (Tlingit and Haida) has more than twenty years of career law enforcement service in Indian country serving as a Police Officer, Training Sergeant, Chief of Police, Special Agent, Deputy Chief of Training, Assistant District Commander, Special Agent in Charge, Deputy Associate Director for Field Operations Directorate, Associate Director–Professional Standards Directorate, and his current position as the Director for the US Indian Police Academy. He is a graduate of the US Indian Police Academy, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center’s Leadership Institute, and the FBI National Academy 200th Session. Director Juneau is an enrolled member of the Tlingit and Haida Tribe of Alaska and a descendant of the Blackfeet Nation of Montana.

Leslie Kabotie (Crow) As a member of the Crow Tribe of Indians in Montana, Lesley Kabotie received her undergraduate degree from Stanford and a master’s in nonprofit management from Regis University. She brings twenty years’ experience working with tribes and has her own consulting firm: Kabotie Consulting. Ms. Kabotie consults with tribes in the areas of education, health care, technology, energy, environment, and community development. Kabotie Consulting is a Native, woman-owned business.

Paul Kabotie (Hopi) is a member of the Hopi Tribe of Arizona, is Santa Clara Pueblo from New Mexico, and a graduate of the University of New Mexico. In addition to his training as a dialogue and group consensus facilitator, he brings decades of real-world business, entrepreneur, and nonprofit board experience including corporate executive management, board leadership, managerial and financial systems development and management, and project and personnel management. Paul is a seasoned entrepreneur managing and developing every aspect of operations and business development of multiple distinct ongoing business enterprises. Paul has been an active member of the Denver business community for more than seventeen years, as an active member and former chairman of the Rocky Mountain Indian Chamber of Commerce. He also has more than twenty years of involvement at the board level on a diverse array of nonprofit service organizations, at every level of involvement and leadership, including the Indian Center of Santa Clara Valley, California; the American Indian Science and Engineering Society; the Colorado Historical Society; and the Board of Trustees of the Hopi Foundation. 

Jack Kane is a Special Agent with the FBI, serving for Indian Country Crimes. He has been with the FBI for two years.

Brian Kauffman is currently serving as the Executive Director of the Western Community Policing Institute, a nationally recognized community policing and tribal public safety training institute. Brian has more than twenty-five years of experience in law enforcement and public safety–related positions serving in a number of different positions. During his career he has trained thousands of tribal public safety and community representatives across the nation in a variety of topics including executive leadership, community policing, problem solving, and homeland security. Brian received his bachelor of science degree in management and communication from Western Baptist College, and his master’s and PhD degrees in adult learning and educational leadership from Oregon State University.

Kristi A. Knight is a Management and Program Analyst with the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division. Ms. Knight began her career with the FBI in 1997 and has held many positions across the CJIS Division. Currently, Ms. Knight is a Tribal Liaison with the CJIS Division’s Partner Relations and Outreach Unit and is responsible for establishing and fostering valuable relationships with tribal representatives to provide guidance in accessing and utilizing CJIS Division systems and programs. Ms. Knight has represented the FBI CJIS Division at numerous conferences and meetings across the United States to include the International Association of Chiefs of Police, United South and Eastern Tribes, Bureau of Indian Affairs Leadership Symposiums, and Indian country–sponsored events. Ms. Knight is a member of the CJIS Division’s Tribal Working group and holds a degree in accounting.

LeMoine LaPointe (Sicangu Lakota) is a member of the Sicangu Lakota, the Titunwan division of the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires). The living legacy of his indigenous people enlivens his more than thirty-five years of engagement-centered facilitation and leadership of youth at risk and adults in culturally exclusive and multicultural settings, from geographically isolated tribal communities to ethnically diverse inner-city neighborhoods. His infusion of indigenous culture and contemporary adventure-based practice in his consultant work restores the extraordinary in a field too often saturated with ordinary experiences. His integration of environmental, nature-based, and wilderness-centered experience offers a fresh approach to organizational and community engagement. He chairs the boards of the American Indian OIC and AIM Interpretive Center. He is a founding board member of the Tiwahe Foundation and Native Youth Alliance of Minnesota. Finally, he is member of the Indian Health Board of Minneapolis.

Elizabeth (Liz) Legerski is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of North Dakota. Her areas of research and teaching include social inequality, gender, families, and health and social policy. She has experience in both qualitative and quantitative (survey and secondary data) research methodologies. Her previous research explores the impact of forced unemployment on family well-being, low-income women’s access to health insurance, inequalities in birth outcomes, and perceptions of the Affordable Care Act. Her research has been published in journals such as Gender & Society, Social Forces, Sociological Forum, The Social Science Journal, and Women’s Health Issues. She is currently serving as a Co-PI on a three-year grant funded by the National Institute of Justice (#2013-ZD-CX-0072) titled “Exploratory Research on the Impact of the Growing Oil Industry in North Dakota and Montana on Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking.” 

Chris Lobanov-Rostovsky is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with twenty-seven years of experience working in sex offender management and treatment, including both treatment and policy development. Mr. Lobanov-Rostovsky currently works for the Colorado Department of Public Safety/Division of Criminal Justice as the Program Director for the Colorado Sex Offender Management Board, where he is responsible for the development of standards for the treatment and management of sexual offenders, approving treatment providers, and providing legislative and policy input. Mr. Lobanov-Rostovsky also works as a private consultant for federal and federally funded agencies and organizations (Fox Valley Technical College), including tribal jurisdictions, and is responsible for developing and providing training, technical assistance, program assessment, literature reviews, peer review of grant solicitations and reports, and legislative and policy development. Mr. Lobanov-Rostovsky has also published a number of articles and chapters related to sex offender management, with specific expertise on the state implementation of federal sex offender management legislation and sex offender public policy. Finally, Mr. Lobanov-Rostovsky is on the Board of Directors for the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) and is co-chair of ATSA’s public policy committee. 

J. Tate London (Tlingit) has served as an Assistant US Attorney and Tribal Liaison in the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington since 2002. He is a criminal prosecutor whose practice focuses on both violent and financial crimes in Indian country. Tate is a graduate of Stanford Law School (1988) and Stanford University (1984) and is an enrolled Tlingit tribal member.

Patricia Long, PhD, has directed grant-funded programs for increasing collaborative relationships between child serving agencies for seven years and has worked in system change for fourteen years. Beginning at Southwestern Community College coordinating programs with public schools and other agencies on behalf of at-risk youth, she moved on to direct several multicounty projects throughout North Carolina to address the needs of court-involved youth with mental health and SA disorders with Meridian Behavioral Health Services. Currently, Patti is the president and co-owner of Shared Vision Consulting, LLC, specializing in models for care management of court-involved and other high-risk youth populations. Shared Vision managed the Juvenile Justice Treatment Continuum project with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) a model that is now used in twenty-six counties in North Carolina.

Arvol Looking Horse (Lakota) was born on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota in 1954. Raised by his grandparents Lucy and Thomas Looking Horse, he learned the culture and spiritual ways of the Lakota. He speaks both Lakota and English. At age twelve, he was given the enormous responsibility of becoming the nineteenth-generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, the youngest in history. He has felt, on many occasions, overwhelmed by inheriting such a responsibility for the Lakota, Dakota, and North Dakota Nakota Nations at such a young age. He has spoken and traveled extensively. His message is to bring the beliefs in the Creator of All Nations together to pray at once for global healing energy in healing our Mother Earth such as is performed in healing ceremonies by people who surround an individual who is need of health. The world is in turmoil, and this great effort must succeed in order for our generations to have a healthy environment in surviving.

Lu-Anne Haukaas Lopez (Lakota, Chibcha) MFA, is an enrolled member of the Sicangu Oyate Rosebud Reservation and a writer, teacher, and activist. She worked with victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence in residential facilities as well as homeless and refugee populations before beginning her work with Family Wellness Warriors Initiative, a cultural wellness initiative of Southcentral Foundation targeting domestic violence, child sexual abuse, and child neglect in Alaska. Having lived most of her life in remote agricultural communities, her writing is informed by indigenous feminism, subsistence, and survival. Her work has appeared on PBS, American Experience, WGBH, and NPR, as well as in Tahrir Square during Egypt’s Arab Spring.

Panu Lucier (Inupiaq) is of Inupiaq and French Canadian heritage. Her professional career has included facilitating youth development and empowerment; building cross-cultural understanding and mutual respect among urban and rural middle school students, teachers, families, and communities through the development and implementation of the Rose Urban Rural Exchange; child welfare, and child abuse and neglect prevention; statewide systems development; facilitating meaningful conversations to change the lives of children using the World and Community Cafe process; and legislative advocacy to impact policy. 

Michele Maas (Anishinaabe) is an enrolled member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and a descendant of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of the Great Ojibwe Nation and Three Fires Confederacy. Michele Maas, LCSW, has extensive experience in providing psychotherapy and early intervention prevention counseling to individuals and families within the Native American/Alaska Native community. Within the context of intergenerational trauma, she integrates her understanding of Anishinaabe culture with Western evidence-based interventions and practices and specializes in working with American Indian/Alaska Natives who have experienced complex trauma. Michele has developed curricula that utilize a holistic method of healing while guiding individuals in their journey of recovery/discovery from trauma, substance abuse, and historical trauma and sexual trauma and grief. She has been an invited speaker at local, national, and international conferences and has extensive experience in presenting and facilitating workshops on issues pertaining to the Native American/Alaska Native community that focus on working complex trauma, historical and intergenerational trauma, domestic violence, and other sociocultural/sociopolitical subjects faced by Native Americans with focus on those living in the urban areas. Michele is passionate about her work within the community and is committed to working to end cycles of historical intergenerational trauma within the Native American/Alaska Native Community.

Kate Manning is an Attorney Advisor for the Victim Witness Staff at the Executive Office for US Attorneys. Since joining the Victim Witness Staff in 2004, Ms. Manning has worked on implementation of the Crime Victim’s rights Act and the Victim Rights and Restitution Act within the Department of Justice and on drafting the 2005 and 2011 Attorney General Guidelines for Victim and Witness Assistance. She has trained extensively on the SVRA and the AG Guidelines for federal law enforcement, prosecutors, and victim assistance personnel. Ms. Manning has also worked as a counselor and advocate for battered women, in the Family Violence and Sex Crimes Unit of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office and at the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop in San Francisco. Ms. Manning graduated from Smith College and the University of Virginia School of Law.

Kevin Mariano is the Chief of Police with the Pueblo of Isleta Police Department. He has over seventeen years of law enforcement experience capitalizing on supervisory experience, operational management, staff development, administrative and finance management, motivational leadership and decision making. Chief Mariano serves as the liaison between the Pueblo of Isleta, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and surrounding law enforcement agencies to build relationships and matters related to community safety. He has been working closely with diverse teams to successfully receive federal grant funding, implement Memorandum of Agreements, developing policy and procedures, and for implementing and managing the Sex Offender Registry Program. Chief Mariano has numerous credentials, certifications, and licenses in result of continued education including Chief Executive Officer Training, Sexual Assault Investigations Training, Working with Sex Offenders Training, and Child Abuse and Neglect Training. He has been a consultant with the National Criminal Justice Training Center of Fox Valley Technical College over the past five years providing instruction and hands on training services for tribal police departments implementing components of the Community Oriented Policing Strategies. Chief Mariano is a Graduate of the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy and the New Mexico Corrections Department Academy. 

Evonne “Snowflake” Martinez (San Ildefonso and Cochiti Pueblo) A Native of San Ildefonso and Cochiti Pueblo, Evonne is the Case Manager for the “Wen Hey Kha Wosatsi Khuu” Path to Wellness program for the Pueblo of Pojoaque Tribal Courts. She is a former board member and co-coordinator of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women (CSVANW), former Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Deputy, and D.A.R.E officer. She attended New Mexico State University, majored in criminal justice and received her Law Enforcement Certification from the New Mexico State Police Academy in 1981. She attended Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico, where she received her Advocacy Certification. Evonne has done work as an advocate for domestic violence and sexual assault and an outreach/educational instructor through Peacekeepers, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department and Tewa Women United. She advocated on behalf of victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault to tribal law enforcement agencies, school personnel, students, tribal communities, and tribal leadership. She worked to getting the CSVANW recognized as a sister coalition to the New Mexico Domestic Violence Coalition with the State of New Mexico.

Rita Y. Martinez (Pueblo of Laguna) graduated cum laude from the University of New Mexico with a BA in criminology and a minor in social welfare. She has more than thirteen years of management and research experience working as a Project/Business Manager for American Indian Development Associates LLC. As a Project Manager, Rita provides important coordination, oversight, and support in the implementation of a number of research projects with varying methodologies at tribal locations throughout the nation. As the project manager for the National Baseline Study on Violence Against Indian Women and the Tribal Youth Victimization Study she works with tribal research sites to identify interview locations and schedules, recruitment, hiring, and oversight of local field interviewers including training, development of research protocols, quality control of data collection, financial oversight, and project reporting to the funding agency. As a field interviewer, she has conducted in-person and telephone surveys for numerous research projects. 

Shannon May is a victim services professional with twenty years of experience providing direct services to victims of crime, delivering training and technical assistance, and managing projects addressing sexual violence. Ms. May is a Project Manager for the FBI’s Office for Victim Assistance where she manages training and technical assistance projects, leads several working groups related to serving victims of federal crime, and works to enhance the FBI’s response to victims in Indian country. As Program Director for Just Detention International, Ms. May oversaw Prison Rape Elimination Act implementation work in Oregon and Texas, including working with prison-based Sexual Assault Response Teams, conducting inmate and staff focus groups, and providing training to corrections and government officials. Ms. May previously served as Resource Delivery manager for the Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center (OVC TTAC) where she coordinated OVC’s Training Schedule for Victim Service Providers and the delivery of OVC’s National Victim Assistance Academy. Ms. May has also served as National Hopeline Network Director for a federal suicide prevention grant and provided direct services to victims of sexual and domestic violence as a Rape Crisis Advocate for CONTACT Delaware and as Special Projects Coordinator for the Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Jackie McArthur (Colville Confederated Tribes) is the Nez Perce Tribe Social Services Manager. The Social Services Department includes the programs Indian Child Welfare, Child Protection, Children’s Home, Adult Protection, Tribal TANF, Financial Assistance, Women’s Outreach Program, Food Distribution on Indian Reservations, Senior Citizens Congregate Meal Site(s), IVision (Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education), Veteran Benefits, and the Child Advocacy Center. Jackie has served in this position since February 2011. Prior to she worked in administration for the Nez Perce Tribe Early Childhood Development Program and was the tribe’s first child protection worker in 1999. She graduated from Washington State University in 1999 with a degree in social sciences. She serves on the Idaho Indian Child Welfare Advisory Committee, facilitates the Nez Perce Tribe Multi Disciplinary Team, and is an appointed member of the Native American Research Centers for Health with the Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations to build support in tribal communities in building recovery environments for youth returning home from inpatient treatment. Jackie and her husband Aaron raise their four children and nephew at the family ranch in Lenore, Idaho, on the Nez Perce Reservation.

Kathy McBride, RN, SANE-A is a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) and the SANE Program and Sexual and Domestic Violence Reservation Response Team (SARRT/DARRT) Coordinator for the Cass Lake IHS Sexual and Domestic Violence Prevention Initiative. Ms. McBride has conducted numerous forensic exams of sexual assault patients and has testified in court regarding these cases. For the past six years, Ms. McBride has helped to coordinate improved internal Indian Health Service health responses to sexual and domestic violence victim/survivors and has facilitated the Leech Lake SARRT/DARRT. Activities of the SARRT/DARRT have included implementing a reservation-wide Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and Strangulation Practice Guidelines and conducting a Safety and Accountability Audit. She has also participated in the coordination of regional multidisciplinary trainings and numerous community awareness events focused on sexual and domestic violence. She has provided community and advocate trainings on domestic and sexual violence and forensic exams, and sexual assault trainings at several area schools. Ms. McBride has received extensive training in responses to sexual and domestic violence and strangulation as well as pediatric SANE training. She is a member of the International Association of Forensic Nurses, is on several area multidisciplinary teams, and is on the Advisory Team for the Beltrami County Domestic Violence Court. Ms. McBride earned her associate of science in nursing degree in 1994 at Northland Community College in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, and has worked as an registered nurse in inpatient, urgent care, and emergency departments.

Rosemary McCombs Maxey (Muscogee [Creek] Nation) lives near Dustin, Oklahoma, on the land allotment of her late grandmother. A retired clergyperson and college instructor, Rosemary hosts an annual Mvskoke Language Immersion on her farm, teaches online language courses for Oklahoma State University and to her friends, and recently taught a language and ecology course at Emory University in Atlanta. She was named Mvskoke Woman of the year for 2016 by the Mvskoke Women’s Leadership of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Rosemary enjoys raising chickens, reading, quilting, cross-stitching, and visiting with friends and family.

Kim McGinnis, PhD, is Chief Judge of the Pueblo of Pojoaque Tribal Court, where she presides over all types of cases, primarily criminal, abuse and neglect, domestic violence, and family matters. She also leads the Path to Wellness Court (adult substance abuse problem-solving court). The Court is in the process of implementing a sober housing/re-entry program funded by the Department of Justice through CTAS. She graduated with honors from Boston University School of Law. She worked for Detroit Legal Aid and Defenders as a public defender in Detroit, representing people in the felony trial court. She then moved to the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office and represented defendants in the appeals court. After moving to New Mexico, Judge McGinnis represented victims of domestic violence/sexual assault as a civil attorney for Eight Northern Indian Pueblos, PeaceKeepers Domestic Violence Program; Taos Community Against Violence; and the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs in tribal and state courts. Before becoming an attorney, she was a neuroscientist, obtaining a PhD in pharmacology at the University of Michigan and completing a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular neurogenetics at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Tatewin Means (Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota Oyate) Tatuye Topa Najin Win (Tatewin) Means currently serves as the Attorney General of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. In this capacity, she oversees the tribe’s Office of the Attorney General, which has the responsibility of all tribal criminal prosecutions for offenses that have occurred within the boundaries of the reservation. She also works extensively with numerous tribal departments, state jurisdictions, and other tribal nations on collaborative strategies to address various issues effecting criminal justice and access to resources in Indian country. Prior to this, Tatewin Means was an Associate for the American Indian Institute for Innovation, an indigenous nonprofit organization based in South Dakota, and specialized in education transformation and reform in schools in Indian country. Tatewin completed her juris doctor degree in 2010 from the University of Minnesota Law School. Before law school, she was Laboratory Manager of a tribally located environmental laboratory at Oglala Lakota College, a tribal college, where she utilized her environmental engineering degree from Stanford University.

Ada Pecos Melton (Jemez Pueblo), MPA  is President of American Indian Development Associates (AIDA). She has thirty years of experience in the design and management of culturally relevant research and evaluation focused on tribal criminal justice systems and interventions. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator and Project Director for two national victimization studies (one involving American Indian/Alaska Native women, the other tribal youth) funded by the National Institute of Justice. Ms. Melton has written numerous project reports, developed instructional and information materials, and authored articles dealing with tribal justice issues. Her public service includes work as a Chief Probation Officer, Court Administrator, and Director of justice-related programs. She holds a master’s in public administration and bachelor of arts in criminal justice, both from the University of New Mexico.

Captain Andrew Merrill is the Commander/Director of the Alaska Department of Public Safety (DPS) Village Public Safety Officer (VPSO) Program posted in Anchorage. Captain Merrill joined the Alaska State Troopers in 2002 and has been assigned to Fairbanks, Bethel, Nome, and Anchorage. He has worked in various assignments to include Patrol, Investigation, and Judicial Services. Captain Merrill supervised the remote Trooper Posts of Nome and Unalakleet as the Sergeant and Post Commander. He was then promoted to the Western Alaska C Detachment Deputy Commander overseeing the area from Kodiak to Kotzebue as well as the Aleutian chain. In his current assignment as the Commander/ Director of the DPS VPSO program he works with partnering nonprofits to administer and oversee the VPSO program throughout the state of Alaska. Captain Merrill is a DARE Officer, School Resource Officer, Alaska Police Standards Council instructor, Hostage Negotiator, and fixed wing aircraft pilot. Captain Merrill holds a master’s degree in public administration specializing in justice administration from Wayland Baptist University and a graduate certificate in criminal justice education from the University of Virginia. Captain Merrill is a graduate of the FBI National Academy session 257 where he was selected as the session representative and one of eight distinguished graduates. He was selected by the State of Alaska Chamber of Commerce to be included in the 2015 “Top 40 Under 40,” which recognizes forty individuals across the state of Alaska for exemplary service to the state of Alaska.

John Molina (Pascua Yaqui and San Carlos Apache), PhD, is the Director of Health Systems for the Dena’ina Wellness Center, for the Kenaitze Indian Tribe in Kenai, Alaska. Prior to this he was the Medical Director for Native Health, an Urban Indian Health Center in Phoenix, Arizona. His previous positions were as the former Chief Executive Officer of the Phoenix Indian Medical Center, and the Assistant Director and Medical Director for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, Arizona’s Medicaid Program. Dr. Molina is a graduate of the University of Arizona, College of Medicine, and Arizona State University, Sandra Day O’Conner College of Law. His specialty training is in obstetrics and gynecology with his clinical practice having been with the Indian Health Service and Las Fuentes Health Clinic of Guadalupe, a community medical clinic he established in his hometown of Guadalupe, Arizona. His academic interest is in Indian health care law and policy, Native American health care leadership, and patient-centered medicine. He has served as a member of the Advisory Committee on Women’s Health and Research with the National Institutes of Health, in Washington, DC, the Agency for the Healthcare Research and Quality Effective Healthcare Program, in Rockville, Maryland, and was past Chairman of the National Council of Chief Executive Officers for the Indian Health Service. Dr. Molina has published peer-reviewed articles on the integration of culture and medicine, and has been the recipient of numerous leadership awards, including an Honorary Doctoral Degree in Letters from A. T. Still University of Health Sciences.

Pam Moore, Project Director for the Institute for Native Justice since 2006, has more than thirty years in the field of crisis intervention, program development, shelter operation, and community organizing. Moore has worked in tribal communities exclusively since the late seventies and has experience in virtually every task related to program design, development, and sustainability. Her ability to deliver practical skills-building training and technical assistance enhances the workshop experience with personal stories illustrating the training objectives.

Lauree Morton is the Executive Director of the State of Alaska’s Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (CDVSA). Mrs. Morton started work in the battered women’s movement in 1984 in a rural East Texas shelter. She moved to Bethel, Alaska, in 1989 and worked as the director of Tundra Women’s Coalition, a shelter and rape crisis center for the fifty-six villages of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. In 1994, she moved to Juneau and served for ten years as the director of the state domestic violence and sexual assault coalition. Mrs. Morton saw her mother through the last stages of Parkinson’s disease and in 2007 returned to the movement working for CDVSA as a program coordinator. She was appointed as the CDVSA director in 2011. While directing the state coalition, Mrs. Morton brought the Center for Disease Control’s DELTA project—Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancements and Leadership Through Alliances—to Alaska and has continued her interest in promoting primary prevention activities as a critical component of ending gender-based violence. In 2010, then Alaskan Governor, Sean Parnell, highlighted a campaign to end domestic violence and sexual assault in Alaska including prevention as an integral campaign strategy. Mrs. Morton, as the director of CDVSA, led the council in developing and financially supporting many of the prevention efforts in use today.

Liz Murphy (Choctaw) is a 2017 juris doctor candidate at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She is the law clerk at Swanson, Drobnick & Tousey, P.C. She is also the research assistant of Professor Sarah Deer at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, and the Lead Project Coordinator for the Native America Humane Society. Her primary areas of practice and research are federal Indian law, victims advocacy, child protection, criminal law, and tribal sovereignty. 

Dr. Brad Myrstol has been a faculty member at the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center since 2009. Dr. Myrstol’s research addresses both social and criminal justice issues. His recent research has focused on issues of procedural justice and fairness with police and within the courts; the context and consequences of homelessness (including the intersection of homelessness and the criminal justice system); and the criminal justice system response to domestic violence and sexual assault. Dr. Myrstol completed his undergraduate training at Montana State University, and earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in criminal justice at Indiana University. 

Mary Kathryn Nagle (Cherokee Nation) is a lawyer and playwright. She is currently a partner at Pipestem Law PC where she maintains an appellate practice focused on protecting tribal sovereignty and jurisdiction to restore safety for Native women and children. She graduated summa cum laude from Tulane Law School, and following law school clerked for three separate federal judges (at the US District Court, District of Nebraska, and on the US Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit). This past year, she authored and filed three briefs in the US Supreme Court on behalf of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center’s Violence Against Women Act Sovereignty Initiative (in Dollar General v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, United States v. Voisine, and United States v. Bryant), all with a focus on preserving tribal jurisdiction to ensure safety for Native women and children. Nagle has litigated issues related to tribal sovereignty and rights for American Indians under numerous federal statutes, including the Indian Child Welfare Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program and has been commissioned as a playwright by Arena Stage, Portland Center Stage, and the Rose Theater (Omaha, Nebraska). Her play SLIVER OF A FULL MOON has been performed at law schools across the United States, including Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, NYU Law School, Stanford Law School, and, most recently, Arizona State University Law School.

Elton Naswood (Navajo) is of the Near to the Water People Clan, born for the Edge Water People Clan, his maternal grandfather’s clan is of the Mexican People, his paternal grandfather’s clan is of the Tangle People, this is how he is Diné. He is originally from Whitehorse Lake, New Mexico, and grew up in Window Rock, Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation. He currently resides in Maryland. Mr. Naswood is a Senior Program Analyst, Capacity Building Division at the Office of Minority Health Resource Center, a nationwide service of the Office of Minority Health. He previously was a Capacity Building Assistance Specialist at the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center and was formally the Founder and Program Coordinator for the Red Circle Project, AIDS Project Los Angeles. He is currently a member of the Community Expert Advisory Council for the Indigenous HIV/AIDS Research Training program at the University of Washington and the US Representative Leader for the International Indigenous Working Group on HIV/AIDS. Mr. Naswood received his bachelor of arts degree in sociology and American Indian justice studies from Arizona State University and attended the graduate degree program in American Indian studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Eric Nation is with the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children and serves as the Director of Training and Development. Lieutenant Eric Nation began his career in law enforcement in 1995 where he has held numerous positions. From 1996 to 2002, Nation was assigned to an undercover narcotics unit and from 2007 to 2012 was assigned as the Commander of the M.I.N.E. Taskforce–Eastside. Nation helped start and develop the Jasper County Drug Endangered Children Alliance and is a member of the National DEC Criminal Justice Working Group. Nation is a Certified Core DEC Instructor that has been involved in the training of thousands of professional across United States as a Trainer for the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children. Nation’s efforts toward Drug Endangered Children in Jasper County earned him the 2009 “Ongoing Victims Service Award” and the 2011 National Drug Endangered Children Collaborative Leadership Award. He was a participant in the Defending Childhood Initiative and Working Group Meeting on Law Enforcement and Children’s Exposure to Violence–US Attorney General Eric Holder–Washington DC, and participated in in the development of International Association of Chief’s of Police’s “Enhancing Law Enforcement Response to Children Exposed to Violence” project tools and deliverables as a Children Exposed to Violence Advisory Working Group member in Alexandria, Virginia. 

Jenell Navarro (Cherokee) is an activist-scholar who lives in California’s Central Coast. She is an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at California Polytechnic State University and works in the field of indigenous studies and indigenous feminism. She is a mother to Nayeli (five years old) and Joaquín (ten months old).

Karen Nelson (Oglala Sioux) is a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and is currently a Tribal Health Advocate for the Pauma Rincon Sexual Assault Response Team. She has a long-standing history of working as an advocate for Native American women and tribal programs, having worked as an advocate for the last forty years. She has worked on issues in the fields of education, child care, Elder care, domestic violence, and sexual assault either as an advocate, medical nurse, or teacher.

Nikole Nelson is the Executive Director of Alaska Legal Services Corporation (ALSC), Alaska’s only statewide provider of free civil legal assistance to low-income Alaskans. For fifty years ALSC has been on the forefront of advocating with Alaska Native partners to empower and bring resources to their communities. Nearly 45 percent of those served by ALSC statewide are Alaska Native, and in our five most rural offices that number is closer to 95 percent. The tribal advocacy efforts are guided by Alaska Native leaders who make up half of the fifteen-member Board of Directors and are directly appointed by regional tribal organizations. Regional partners have generously subsidized most of our rural offices. With  tribal allies, ALSC has secured important legal victories for tribal communities on issues ranging from access to education, protection of subsistence rights, and state recognition of tribal court authority. Nikole joined ALSC in 1998 as a staff attorney shortly after graduating from Willamette University College of Law and became ALSC’s Executive Director in 2010. Throughout her legal career much of Nikole’s legal advocacy has focused on assuring access to health care for low-income and disabled Alaskans as well as systemic advocacy on behalf of Alaska Native children in Alaska’s foster care system. She is a member of the Alaska Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Access to Civil Justice and the Alaska Bar Association’s Pro Bono Services Committee. She was appointed by Anchorage’s mayor to the Housing and Neighborhood Development Commission in 2012, and currently co-chairs that commission’s Oversight Subcommittee on Homelessness. 

Kyle Newman (Yup'ik and Norwegian), MEd, CDC I was born and raised in Alaska. He has worked in residential treatment centers for youth as well as community-based programs for adults. He currently works for Southcentral Foundation's Family Wellness Warriors Initiative, which is using the power of story to break generations patterns of harm and to heal the entire family.

Paula Newman-Skomski, ARNP has been a registered nurse for more than thirty years in various capacities. She has spent the past twelve years as a Forensic Nurse Examiner with Providence Intervention Center for Assault and Abuse providing services to victims of all forms of interpersonal violence. She has been involved with the Snohomish County Sexual Exploitation Intervention Network since its inception in 2006 and has been the chair since 2010. Paula is also the Founder and Board Chair for a project called Peoria Home, which will be a residential recovery program for women who have experienced exploitation through trafficking and prostitution. Paula is passionate about providing services for victims, fighting to end interpersonal violence and human slavery. She has won several awards for her work including March of Dimes Nurse of the Year 2010, Innovation/Creativity Category; The “Spirit of Nursing” from Providence Hospital 2014; “Inspiration in Women’s Health” 2014 from the Nurse Practitioner’s in Women’s Health Association; “Community Champion” 2014 from Molina Healthcare; and March of Dimes Nurse of the Year 2014 in Innovation and Technology. She was nominated for the 2015 National Crime Victims’ Service Awards from the US Office of Crime Victims and US Department of Justice. She has been involved with Girl Scouts for more than twenty years; is a veteran of the US Air Force; and volunteered with the US Department of Health following hurricane Katrina.  

Byron Nicholai (Yup'ik, Toksook Bay) a teenager from Toksook Bay, has gained a major following for his traditional Yup’ik singing and drumming and original songs. He learned traditional Yup’ik drumming when he was in sixth grade. Byron started the Facebook page “I Sing, You Dance,” with a huge response from teens all over Alaska and worldwide. The Facebook page is a way to share his singing with Alaska Native kids while encouraging them to get involved in cultural traditions. Byron mixes his video feed with traditional songs, songs he has improvised, and pop covers. He recently performed for President Barack Obama at the eighth annual White House Tribal Nations Conference in Washington, DC, a gathering of tribal leaders from around the United States.

Jenna Novak is a Regional Specialist in Polaris’s Advisory Services team as well as the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, covering the western and southeastern parts of the United States. In her role at Polaris, she has provided trainings and consultations to a variety of audiences, including, but not limited to, federal and local law enforcement, service providers, judges, prosecutors, child welfare entities, juvenile justice agencies, health care professionals, and larger task forces and coalitions. Her expertise includes engagement with public, private, and nonprofit stakeholders on the ground to improve responses to human trafficking. She has worked with state Attorneys General offices to implement statewide human trafficking training to state entities and developed tailored materials and protocols to enhance states’ human trafficking response. She also specializes in the intersections of domestic violence and sexual assault and human trafficking, hotline operations, and trafficking in tribal communities. Prior to joining Polaris, she worked in West Africa with various organizations focusing on sex trafficking, women’s economic empowerment, and human rights. She has years of experience in the domestic violence and sexual assault fields providing direct assistance for victims and survivors in various roles, including Safehouse Manager, Crisis Consultant, and Case Manager. She has a master’s in international development and service from University of Roehampton in London where she wrote her thesis on managing shelter programs for survivors of trafficking and exploitation. She has a dual bachelor’s degree in sociology, criminology, and society and human services from SUNY Potsdam, where she graduated magna cum laude. 

Arlene Obrien (Tohono O’odham) is the Program Manager for the Southwest Center for Law and Policy (SWCLAP) a nonprofit 501(c) 3 organization based in Tucson, Arizona. Since 2002, SWCLAP has been providing legal training and technical assistance, on a national level, to Office on Violence Against Women grantees serving American Indian/Alaska Native victims of sexual and domestic violence, stalking, Elder abuse, teen dating violence, firearms violence, and abuse of persons with disabilities. Arlene is a citizen of the Tohono O’odham Nation and is responsible for the coordination of the SAFESTAR Project, as well as of the administrative tasks. Arlene is originally from a small village of Gu Vo, located on the Tohono O’odham Nation in Southern Arizona, where most of her family resides. Prior to joining SWCLAP, she served as the Executive Assistant to Chairman for the Tohono O’odham Nation in Sells, Arizona, providing administrative support. She is the proud mother of two sons, Charlie (twenty-two) and Marciano (seven).

Germaine Omish-Lucero (Rincon, Band of Luiseno Indians) has been working and advocating the needs of Native victims for more than fifteen years. Since 2006, she has been the Executive Director for the Strong Hearted Native Women’s Coalition, Inc. to assist tribes to create the appropriate tribal resolutions to help in identifying and mediating essential changes in our Indian nations to reduce crimes covered under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). She is a member or facilitator of the Alliance of Tribal Coalitions to End Violence national 501(c)(3) nonprofit of all tribal coalitions; VAWA Task Force National Congress of American Indians; and National Task Force Re-Authorization Violence Against Women Act (VAWA13). Germaine is a VAWA subject matter expert/tribal spokesperson—Rincon, Band of Luiseno Indians and subject matter expert/curriculum developer/instructor—California Commission Police Officers Standards Training and Inter-Tribal Council of California. She is a California state coalition member of the California Partnership to End Violence. Germaine provides community education to tribal communities on issues covered under VAWA and provides training/workshops to tribal leadership, service providers, law enforcement, and other professionals on cultural competency, PL 280, building healthy relations with Native American populations, and for youth on teen dating violence. She is a member of the San Diego County Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) and Tribal SART Technical Advisor to Rincon, Band of Luiseno Indians/Pauma Band of Mission Indians and Southern Indian Health Council, Inc. She founded the 2014-Kiicha House—first Native women’s shelter in Southern California.

Gwendolyn Packard (Ihanktonwan Dakota), Program Specialist, National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, has worked for many years in Indian country, both at the national and tribal level. She has worked for the National Congress of American Indians and the National Tribal Chairman’s Association, and has developed programs and organized trainings for the National American Indian Court Judges Association. She has served as editor for six national Indian publications. In 1990 she was instrumental in founding the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. For ten years, she served as the Executive Director for Morning Star House, a program that works with off-reservation Indian women and children who are victims of domestic violence. She was Executive Director of the New Mexico Suicide Prevention Coalition, where she set up suicide prevention trainings and promoted public awareness all aimed at reducing the rate of suicide in New Mexico. She is founder and served as Co-Chair for Rain Cloud, an off-reservation behavioral health collaborative in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She serves on the National Advisory Committee for the Joyful Heart Foundation. She is a survivor of domestic violence, a writer, a grassroots organizer, and community activist. She has made a commitment to social change in working to address social and economic justice issues that affect the health and well-being of Indian people as documented in her work experience. 

Deborah Parker (Tulalip) is the former Vice Chair of the Tulalip Tribe. She is an enrolled member of the Tulalip Tribe and of Apache ancestry. She carries her great grandmother’s Indian name, "tsi--‐cy--‐altsa." She graduated with a bachelor of arts in American ethnic studies from the University of Washington in 1994. She is also a mother to three beautiful children, Cedar, Wetuah, and Kayah Rose. Deborah is a survivor of domestic and sexual violence. She worked as the Tobacco Education Coordinator for the Tulalip Health Clinic and implemented new and exciting programming for youth, adults, and Elders. Her favorite style of teaching is through humor and theater. Her lifelong dream is to honor her ancestors by giving back to her community in a culturally respectful manner. She incorporates her passion into her work and brings excitement to personal growth and healing. Deborah has been actively involved in the successful efforts to include Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction in the 2013 Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Her speeches have helped to mobilize tribal governments, activists, and advocates in the community to expose perpetrators and hold them accountable. She is 100 percent committed to justice for victims in her community.

Michael Petoskey (Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa) has been the Pokagon Band’s Chief Judge since his appointment in February 2002. He is a Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians tribal member. Judge Petoskey has been a judge for various Michigan Indian tribes since 1986. He has served on the bench in each of the seven federally recognized tribal communities in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.

Jennifer Pierce-Weeks, RN, SANE-P, SANE-A is Education Director for the International Association of Forensic Nurses, where she implemented the adult/adolescent online Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) training and learning management system. She comes with thirty years of nursing experience, with a focus on forensic nursing since 1995. She presents nationally on a variety of forensic nursing-related topics, including sexual assault and abuse, intimate partner violence, strangulation, child maltreatment and program sustainability. Jennifer’s work at a national level includes being past president of the International Association of Forensic Nurses where she served on the board from 2006 to 2010, serving as a consultant for the Southwest Center for Law and Policy’s SAFESTAR Project, and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s SANE Sustainability Project. In addition, Jennifer has written, edited, and reviewed state-specific protocols and customized protocols for hospitals, Sexual Assault Response Teams, and tribal communities. Jennifer was a contributing author for the most recent edition of the Atlas of Sexual Violence; has contributed to Forensic Health Online; has published in the Journal of Forensic Nursing as well as the Journal of Emergency Nursing; and has edited the STM Learning text, Violence Against Women, co-authoring the chapter on strangulation in the living patient.

Brooke Powskey (Hualapai) is a member of the Hualapai Tribe and recent graduate of Yavapai College in education. Brooke has worked at the Hualapai Health Department and then with the Hualapai Diversion Program. Although not raised on the Hualapai Reservation, Brooke has always known that when she was done with her education that she would return and work for the tribe that had helped her obtain her degree. Brooke's main goal is to help the youth and families in her community. Believing that this will always be the first step in the betterment of her community.

Sherman B. Pruitt retired from the military with twenty-one years of honorable and faithful in the US Marine Corps and Washington Air National Guard. He joined the Tulalip Tribal Police Department in 2005. He graduated from the Basic Policy Academy Training Program from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Academy, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs in Artesia, New Mexico. He graduated from the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, Basic Law Enforcement Equivalency Academy in Burien, Washington. He has been a Firearms Instructor, Taser Instructor, Active Shooter Instructor, Terrorism Awareness Instructor, and Field Training Officer. He has served as a Patrol Officer, Detective, Patrol Sergeant, SWAT Team Member, and Detective Sergeant. He is currently serving as a Commander responsible for the Patrol Unit, Criminal Investigation Unit, Drug Task Force, and SWAT Team. He has attended and successfully completed numerous trainings sponsored by the Department of Justice and Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, to include the Sergeants Academy, SWAT Commander Supervision and Management Training, Criminal Justice Executive Leadership Training, and Internal Affairs Investigations Training. He is currently cross-commissioned with the FBI and US Marshal’s Office regarding the Safe Trails Task Force.

David Raasch (Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians) has a career in justice spanning more than forty years; beginning as a police officer, twenty years in court administration, plus thirteen years as a Tribal Court Judge. Even though now retired he remains on the faculty of the National Judicial College, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Tribal Law and Policy Institute and on the Corporate Board for Court Appointed Special Advocates of Brown County. He is a national speaker on topics of reparative justice, peacemaking, and developing cross-jurisdictional relationships.

Carlette Randall (Oglala [Lakota] Sioux Tribe) is a member of the Oglala (Lakota) Sioux Tribe and has been working in the human services field for more than twenty-five years. She was the Senior Native American Specialist at JBS International, Inc. where she worked on several projects including a Methamphetamine and Suicide Prevention Initiative and the Health Professions Opportunity Grants to provide technical assistance to tribes and tribal colleges to develop programs and program implementation. She began her career in Indian child welfare as a Program Coordinator for a large urban Indian center before taking a position as a direct service provider in New England’s largest shelter for battered women and their children. In 1995 she received a certificate in business management from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She later earned her MSW from the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work.

Stacee Read has spent more than sixteen years working in the child welfare field. Before working for National DEC, Stacee held the Associate Ombudsman position with the Office of Colorado’s Child Protection Ombudsman. Prior to that, Stacee was the Child Protection Safety Specialist for the Colorado Department of Human Services where she oversaw child safety in child welfare across the state of Colorado. She was also responsible for overseeing and reviewing institutional abuse and neglect investigations and facilitating the Institutional Abuse Review Team. Stacee reviewed fatalities and assisted with the facilitation of the Fatality Review Team. Her depth of experience in child welfare issues made her a key member on committees and workgroups such as the Substance Exposed Newborns Steering Committee, the Rural Law Enforcement Meth Initiative, the CDHS Child Fatality Review Team, and the CDHS Prone Restraint Workgroup. Stacee starting working for National DEC as a consultant in November 2011 and then was hired as the Director of DEC Network Development in May 2013. She is responsible for the development and oversight of State and Tribal DEC Alliances, and she provides technical assistance to National DEC network. Stacee received her master’s in social work from the University of Illinois focusing on mental health and administration in 2002 and her bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Iowa with an emphasis on abnormal psychology and dependency behaviors in 1997. Stacee is an adjunct professor at Metro State University in Denver, Colorado, where she teaches in the Master’s Social Work Program.

Amber Richardson (Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe) serves as Senior Program Coordinator for the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute. Amber graduated from Duke University in 2013 as a Gates Millennium Scholar with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. While earning her undergraduate degree, Amber served as President of the Duke Native American Student Alliance. Amber grew up in Hollister, North Carolina, and is an enrolled member of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe. She has represented and contributed to her tribal community by serving on the executive council of the North Carolina Native American Youth Organization, working for a youth grant-writing program called North Carolina Giving Indians Volunteer Experience, interning at the Haliwa-Saponi Tribal Enrollment Office, and traveling as a fancy shawl dancer on the powwow trail. In 2007, Amber was awarded the Joseph Richardson Outstanding Indian Student Award for her commitment to academic excellence. Prior to moving to Washington, DC, Amber worked with the B.O.O.S.T. Program (Building Opportunities and Overtures in Science and Technology) to increase access to mentorship and STEM opportunities for minority students in Durham, North Carolina. Amber’s love for serving minority communities and passion for supporting the representation and development of American Indian youth led her to the Center for Native American Youth.

Devin Rieckmann-Sell is a Program Manager with the National Criminal Justice Training Center at Fox Valley Technical College. She is responsible for a wide variety of technical and administrative duties to manage, develop, and coordinate projects, training, and event activities. Her primary responsibility includes the management of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act in Indian Country Training and Technical Assistance projects as well as the Office for Victims of Crime American Indian/Alaska Native Training and Technical Assistance Project. In addition, Devin works with Wisconsin victim service providers to coordinate the Wisconsin Serving Victims of Crime, the Wisconsin State Victim Assistance Academy, and multiple specialized trainings and technical assistance requests. In addition to her role with these major events, Devin provides leadership with establishing and maintaining collaboration within the National Criminal Justice Training Center team. She developed a comprehensive framework to collect, analyze, and report detailed and time-sensitive financial and program information. Devin received an associate in applied science degree in administrative assistant from Fox Valley Technical College and a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice leadership studies from Marian University in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

Melissa Riley (Mescalero Apache), PhD, is the owner/principal of Native Community Development Associates, LLC, of New Mexico. Ms. Riley is also a consultant to several national, state, tribal agencies and public/private organizations. Her work experience includes the field of training and technical assistance to Native American, Alaska Native, and Latino communities on topics related to social work, behavioral health, education, and medical services in rural and urban programs. Ms. Riley has managed federal projects within the Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, including the National Counseling and Faith-Based Services for Crime Victims in Indian Country Training and Technical Assistance Grant. Ms. Riley also serves as a college instructor and adjunct faculty member at New Mexico State University Grants Branch Community College where she provides classroom and web-based instruction to undergraduate students majoring in education, early childhood development, curriculum development, and criminal justice.

Marilyn McCoy Roberts is the Deputy Director for Operations and State and Local Programs at the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), US Department of Justice (DOJ). In that capacity, she is responsible for the oversight of internal operations, including budget, communications, and technical assistance and training. She is also responsible for oversight of the VOCA formula grant program. Prior to coming to OVC in October 2013, Ms. Roberts served as the Deputy Administrator for Programs of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, DOJ. In that capacity, she was responsible for the three programmatic divisions of the agency. She was formerly the Director of the Drug Courts Program Office of the Office of Justice Programs, DOJ. The Drug Courts Program Office was established under the 1994 Crime Law to administer a drug court grant program and to provide financial and technical assistance to drug courts. Ms. Roberts came to the DOJ in May 1995 from the Office of Government Relations of the National Center for State Courts where she was a Senior Policy Analyst. During her eighteen-year career at the National Center for State Courts, Ms. Roberts held a number of management positions, including Deputy Director of the Washington Office. Ms. Roberts holds a BA in sociology from the University of Denver and an MPA from the University of Colorado. She is a Fellow of the Court Executive Development Program of the Institute for Court Management of the National Center for State Courts.

Kimberly Robertson (Muscogee Creek Nation) is a citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation and is an activist, antiviolence advocate, teacher, scholar, and mother as well as an active member of the Los Angeles urban Indian community. She is an Assistant Professor of American Indian studies and women’s and gender studies at California State University, Northridge.

David Rogers has forty-two years of criminal justice experience in law enforcement, probation, and training. He recently left the Chief of Police position with his own tribe to open an Indian-owned and -operated consulting firm providing training and technical assistance to tribes to help and improve public safety issues at all levels including courts, probation, law enforcement, and community. Mr. Rogers was the creator of the Tribal Probation Academy and will be offering a new academy program for supervisors and administrators.

Cinnamon Ronneng (Mdewakanton Dakota) has been working with Red Wind since 2008 and is Program Coordinator. She is Mdewakanton Dakota and has fifteen years of experience working as a sexual assault crisis advocate and developing sexual assault responses for tribes. She serves as faculty for the Red Wind’s National Tribal Advocate Center providing forty-hour domestic violence training and forty-hour sexual assault training. She coordinates the Tribal Transitional Housing Assistance Program working with twenty-one grantees assisting with their tribal program development. She assisted with the development of the Haseya (She Rises) program, providing direct services, women’s education groups and conducted community outreach and education. In addition, Ms. Ronneng is developing Sisters of the Circle Tribal Coalition serving Colorado, Wyoming, and eastern Utah. Through Red Wind she also served as the Domestic Violence Prevention Initiative Program Coordinator providing national technical assistance for the Indian Health Service, working with sixty-five tribes developing a range of one-to-one technical assistance, onsite training, and regional Sexual Assault Response Team Training and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner training. She also worked extensively in the development of the National Tribal Medical Forensic Examination Protocol and coordinated local Sexual Assault Response Team Protocols.

André Rosay is the Director of the Justice Center at the University of Alaska Anchorage and is a Visiting Executive Research Fellow in the Office of Research and Evaluation at the National Institute of Justice. Dr. Rosay is the Principal Investigator for the Alaska Victimization Survey. At the National Institute of Justice, he is working on the program of research on violence against Indian women living in tribal communities, and he is the lead analyst for the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. He has tremendous experience working with practitioners to conduct community-based participatory research that influences policy and practice. His substantive areas of expertise include violence against women and juvenile justice. He has worked extensively with tribal communities in Alaska and he previously served on the Board of Directors for the Alaska Native Justice Center. 

Cheyenne Sanders (Yurok) is Associate General Counsel for the Yurok Tribe, where she is also a tribal member. In her role at the tribe, Cheyenne drafts ordinances and intergovernmental agreements; advises council on tribal programming and policies; and represents the tribe in tribal, state, and federal courts. Ms. Sanders is a descendant of the House of Tse-kwel from the Village of Weitchpec. Ms. Sanders earned a JD with a concentration in public law from Cornell Law School. While in law school, Ms. Sanders served as President of Cornell’s Native American Law Students Association, externed for the Northwest Justice Project’s Native American Unit in Seattle, and clerked for the National Science Foundation. Prior to law school, Ms. Sanders graduated from the University of Washington with a double major in political science and American Indian studies. Cheyenne is passionate about service to her Yurok community and uplifting the lives of Native women. She is currently the President of North Coast WEWIN, the first chapter of the national organization aimed at promoting local Native women leadership through culturally appropriate programming, education, and civic engagement.

Joy Satterfield is the training coordinator for the Institute for Native Justice. Ms. Satterfield has more than six years of experience working with victims of domestic and sexual violence in a shelter located in Indian country. She served as the voice for victims, serving as hotline crisis intervention, domestic violence, and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner advocate. Part of her duties were to provide intake and coordination for the Batter’s Invention Project, informing INJ’S TTA service with a different perspective on working with the victims seeking safety. She has extensive administrative experience and supports the daily operation, data collection, and reporting to Office on Violence Against Women.

Sarah Scanlon (Inupiaq Eskimo, Native Village of Kotzebue) was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, and raised in her tribe’s homeland in the northwest community hub of Kotzebue. She joined RurAL CAP in February 2008 and is currently the Acting Executive Director. Prior to that she served as Deputy Director at First Alaskans Institute. She was also an executive with NANA Regional Corporation for more than twenty years. She has done strategic planning with tribal, nonprofit, and Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act organizations and was a Senate candidate for the Alaska legislature on the Anchorage hillside. All of her life’s work has been in serving Alaska Natives and rural Alaskans. Sarah attended Stanford University and graduated from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Sarah has served on several boards and committees that impact Alaskans including the Alaska Board of Game, Tundra Times, Alaska Native Heritage Center, Best Beginnings, YWCA, AFN Council for the Advancement of Alaska Natives, and Resource Basket Advisory Council. She serves in an elected position on her Native Corporation Board and works with Returning to Harmony, a group of trained professionals in Native Family Systems whose overriding goal is to restore First Nations People to a place of well-being by reclaiming traditional knowledge and values. Sarah is Inupiaq Eskimo and a member of the Native Village of Kotzebue tribe and a shareholder of NANA, the ANCSA Corporation for NW Alaska. A lifelong Alaskan, she and her husband Mike live in Anchorage and their son Mikey works in Washington, DC.

Terrence Shanigan (Native Tribe of Kanatak) is Alaska Native Aleut from the Bristol Bay Region and a tribal member of the Native Tribe of Kanatak where he has served as the President of the Tribal Council (1st Chief) in the past. He has spent his career in law enforcement first serving four years in the US Navy as a Master At Arms during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Terrence worked as an Alaska State Trooper in patrol, and as an investigator in the major crimes and cyber crimes units. He currently heads up the newly formed Professional Conduct Unit (Internal Affairs) for the Alaska Department of Corrections and is the first criminal investigator in the history of the department overseeing cases for its 1,800 personnel and 6,000 inmates.

Brett Lee Shelton (Oglala Lakota) is the Staff Attorney primarily responsible for the Indigenous Peacemaking Initiative at the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). His work at NARF also includes boarding school healing project work, sacred places protection, and other religious freedom matters. He also has worked in private practice, served as a policy analyst for the National Indian Health Board, organized grassroots efforts for international indigenous peoples in biotechnology evaluation, and assisted domestic violence victims in civil court on his home reservation. He has a JD from Stanford.

Joanne Shenandoah (Oneida-Iroquois), PhD, is one of America’s most celebrated and critically acclaimed musicians. She is a Grammy Award winner, with more than forty music awards (including a record thirteen Native American Music awards). She has captured the hearts of audiences all over the world, from North and South America, South Africa, Europe, Australia, to Korea, with praise for her work to promote universal peace. She is a board member of the Hiawatha Institute for Indigenous Knowledge. Shenandoah has performed at prestigious events such as the White House, Carnegie Hall, three presidential inaugurations, Madison Square Garden, Crystal Bridges Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Ordway Theater, Hummingbird Centre, Toronto Skydome, the Parliament of the World’s Religions (Africa, Spain, and Australia), and Woodstock ‘94. Joanne just released a new music video on YouTube on healing from grief, entitled, “I Feel Your Love” influenced by the work of hospice.

Dr. Roshanda Shoulders is a Program Specialist for the Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human Services in the Capacity Building Division. She is the Federal Project Office for the Capacity Building Center for Tribes, and the National Quality Improvement Center for Preventive Services and Interventions in Indian Country. Roshanda has been in child welfare for more than fifteen years. Roshanda has worked in child welfare as a social worker/clinician at the Department of Social Services in Connecticut, at Yale Child Study Center, and at the District of Columbia Child and Family Services Agency. 

Heather Valdez Singleton, MPP, serves as the Program Director of the Tribal Law and Policy Institute, a nonprofit established in 1996 to design and develop education, research, training, and technical assistance programs that promote the enhancement of justice in Indian country and the health, well-being, and culture of Native peoples. Heather has more than fifteen years of experience working on policy issues in Indian country, with a focus on tribal criminal justice systems. She received her master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, where her focus was criminal justice policy in Indian country. She also holds a master’s degree in American Indian studies from UCLA. She has researched and written in the areas of tribal legal and community development and in California tribal history. Her experience includes serving as project director for several research-related projects in Indian country, including the UCLA Native Nations Law and Policy Center’s nationwide assessment of Public Law 280, tribal liaison for tribal court grantees in California, and consultant for the Gabrieleno/Tongva tribal recognition project. In addition, Heather is an instructor for the UCLA Tribal Learning Community and Educational Exchange.

Ernest Siva (Cahuilla/Serrano) grew up on Morongo Indian Reservation, Banning, California, and learned the Serrano language and culture at home. Mr. Siva earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education and choral music from the University of Southern California. Siva serves as Tribal Historian and Cultural Advisor for the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and serves on the Board of Directors of the California Indian Storytelling Association, the Board of Trustees of Idyllwild Arts, and the Board of the Riverside Arts Council (serving the inland area). He is Artistic Director of the Pass Chorale, a community chorus in the San Gorgonio Pass area. He is Founder and President of the Board of Directors of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center and Ushkana Press, saving and sharing all the Southern California American Indian cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. He is also President and Founder of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, where he serves as Distinguished Guest Artist in Native American Culture at California State University, San Bernardino.

Hannah Smith attended East Carolina University where she earned a bachelor of science degree in child development and family relations in 1994. She is also a graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Law where she earned a juris doctorate in law in 2000. From 2000 to 2003 she was a private attorney in the Titus & Murphy Law Firm in Farmington, New Mexico, practicing mostly family law. In 2003 she moved home to Cherokee, North Carolina, where she was employed by her tribe as in-house counsel. She is currently Senior Associate Attorney for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and is engaged with tribal, state, and federal agencies on a regular basis. Her duties have included representing the tribe in Indian Child Welfare cases; juvenile delinquency prosecution in Cherokee Court; and trial and appellate litigation when the tribe is a party to litigation and legal liaison to the Cherokee Indian Hospital. She partnered with the Juvenile Services Program and Shared Vision, LLC to implement the Juvenile Justice Treatment Continuum in the Cherokee Court. She also partnered with Shared Vision Consulting, LLC to write and execute the Title IV-E planning grant for the tribe’s foster care system. She used the integrated systems and Results Based Accountability framework to design into the tribal law the legal structure for the comprehensive, integrated, data-driven child welfare system funded in large part through existing federal resources including Title IV-E and Medicaid funds. She continues to develop partnerships and tools that enhance the intersection of human services and the justice system.

Thomas Smittle (Shoshone/Navajo descent) began to gentle and saddle-train mustangs at the Saddle Horse Training Program at Stewart Conservation Camp Carson City, Nevada, in 2009, under the tutelage of Hank Curry, who encouraged him to excel. Aside from learning the skill of gentling wild horses, Thomas learned many important life skills; responsibility; consistency; congruency of thoughts, feelings, and actions; connection over control; and honest and respectful communication. Thomas currently is a HIP/HIGH clinician for Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue teaching these important skills to men/women combat veterans that suffer with posttraumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, and drug and alcohol dependency. Because of his of his excellent horse skills, Thomas was hired by Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue in the spring of 2011 as a horse trainer. Thomas believes that mustangs are an excellent partner in helping those that suffer the aftereffects of various types of trauma. Thomas was also asked to join the Red Horse Nation staff to help provide Horse Inspired Growth and Healing workshops for Native Youth. He is now promoted to Executive Director of Red Horse Nation, a program of BIG Heart Ranch (501(c)(3)). Thomas also conducts Wild Horses and Warriors Retreat for veterans and managed a 1,400-mile horse ride from Fort Reno, Oklahoma, to Lame Deer, Montana, to commemorate the Cheyenne Exodus.

Shawn Soulsby (Pawnee and Kiowa Indian) is the CEO and one of the founding members of the Technology Alliance of Indigenous Women of the Americas (TAIWA). TAIWA was established to bring Fortune 500 technology talent and management experience to organizations and tribes serving Native America by helping them do appropriate technical needs analysis and using technology solutions to better serve Native people, specifically focusing on providing technical solutions to rural communities and organizations dealing with sexual assault and domestic violence in Native communities. Ms. Soulsby has worked in the technology industry for the past twenty years. She established and managed the first global eLearning program for Nortel Networks with offices in the United States, Canada, France, England, Australia, Japan, and Brazil. Shawn has an extensive background in eLearning development and technology and tools deployment. In recent years, Ms. Soulsby has also been addressing issues dealing more specifically with the identity issues, social justice and sexual assault, domestic violence, and hate violence affecting the LGBTQI population in Indian country. She is a member of the American Society for Training and Development; the Masie Foundations learning consortium, which is a group of organizations that focus on state of the art learning tools, technologies, and techniques; the North Texas Gay and Lesbian Alliance; and DFW GLAD.

B.J. Spamer has served as a Director with NamUs at the UNT Health Science Center since 2011.   She previously worked as an Intelligence Analyst with the Kansas City (Missouri) Police Department and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and as a Forensic Case Manager for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.  Ms. Spamer is a graduate of the DEA's Federal Law Enforcement Analysts Training (FLEAT) Academy and is a member of the International Association of Crime Analysts. She holds a B.S. in Behavioral and Social Sciences from the University of Maryland University College (UMUC), a B.A. in English from UMUC, and a Master’s Degree in Forensic Science from The George Washington University.

Erik Stegman (Carry the Kettle First Nation [Assiniboine]), is Executive Director at the Center for Native American Youth (CNAY) at the Aspen Institute. Before joining the CNAY team, Erik led field outreach and advocacy for the Poverty to Prosperity program at the Center for American Progress. Before American Progress, he served as majority Counsel for the US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs under the leadership of Senator Daniel K. Akaka (HI). He was an expert on a wide range of policy issues affecting tribal governments including economic development, law enforcement, violence against women, tax, education, and telecommunications. In that role, he also led the development of the Stand Against Violence and Empower Native Women Act, which was signed into law as part of the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization of 2013. Before joining the Senate, Erik was appointed in 2011 to serve as Policy Advisor to Assistant Deputy Secretary Kevin Jennings at the US Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. During his time in the administration, he led an intra-agency working group on American Indian policy development. He began his career in Washington, DC, at the National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center. Erik holds a JD from UCLA School of Law, an MA in American Indian studies from UCLA’s graduate division, and a BA from Whittier College.

Gayla Stewart is the Victim Specialist for the Northern District of Oklahoma, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has worked in this capacity since April 1992. Prior to her current position she worked for the state of Oklahoma in several different capacities, including Social Worker and Ombudsman. She has a bachelor of criminal justice from the University of South Carolina, and a master’s in counseling psychology from North Eastern State University. During the last twenty-four years of her employment she has been tasked with working with the eleven tribes in her district, but has also been involved with statewide work in general as it relates to all the tribes in Oklahoma. She regularly attends the Child Protection Team meetings that are held throughout her district and has developed and maintains a working MOU as it relates to “Reporting and Investigating Child Abuse in Indian Country.” Gayla is actively involved with the Oklahoma Indian Child Welfare Association and supports many activities with in her state as it relates to the tribal communities.

Kelly Stoner (Cherokee) serves as Tribal Law and Policy Institute’s Victim Advocacy Legal Specialist. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1988. For the past twenty years, Kelly has taught at the North Dakota School of Law and Oklahoma City University School of Law (OKCU) where she taught American Indian/ tribal law– and domestic violence–related classes. She directed the University of North Dakota Native American Law Project that served clients of the Spirit Lake Reservation with a caseload that targeted domestic violence and sexual assault cases. In 2011, Kelly was appointed as a Judge for the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. She also supervised a project in partnership with the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma that established a SAFE Unit at a local hospital, recruited Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, and targeted community education on domestic violence and sexual assault. Kelly directed the Native American Legal Resource Center at OKCU where she supervised law students prosecuting domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking cases and representing victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in civil matters. She is a frequent lecturer for the American Bar Association’s Commission on Domestic Violence and for the Office on Violence Against Women’s national technical assistance providers on domestic violence issues in Indian country. Ms. Stoner helped to launch Oklahoma’s only tribal coalition against domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking—the Native Alliance Against Violence.

Lou Stretch is a Program Manager for Cherokee Nation Indian Child Welfare, working with Native children in out-of-home placement in deprived cases throughout the United States. She has worked collaboratively with courts and tribal, state, and federal agencies for eighteen years. She has been recognized as an expert witness in state courts throughout the United States and provided training on the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in Oklahoma and other states. Her unit assists state courts in the implementation of requirements to meet the mandates of ICWA. Ms. Stretch is the current president of the Oklahoma Indian Child Welfare Association (OICWA), an agency she has been active in for ten years. OICWA is a leader in advocacy and training of issues relating to Indian children across Oklahoma and nationally. 

Delores Subia BigFoot (Caddo Nation of Oklahoma/affiliation with Northern Cheyenne of Montana) is a trained child psychologist who is the director of three national training and technical assistance centers: Indian Country Child Trauma Center, Project Making Medicine, and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Tribal Youth Training and Technical Assistance Center.

Lawrence Swalley (Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and Sioux) was born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and obtained his Bachelor of Arts at Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell SD with a major in Communications. He later entered the Military and pursued vocational education as a Broadcast Engineer-Electrician for the United States Navy, and Honorably Discharged. Upon returning to the reservation he found employment with the Department of Public Safety and served as a Law Enforcement officer for Pine Ridge and Federally Certified in Artesia, NM. At 54 yrs. of age his experience includes Cultural Camp Coordinator, Director of Programs, Social Worker, Spiritual Advisor, Traditional Story Teller/Singer, Actor/Writer, and Law Enforcement Officer. Over the past 10 years, he has been a Social Worker with the Child Protection Service Agency for Pine Ridge and currently employed with the Oglala Lakota-Children's Justice Center (OL-CJC), formerly Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Program where he represents the holistic and best interest of children, who have been physically and sexually abused, within the Judicial System. He has been providing Cultural Orientation for children and families amongst his people by utilizing the Creation Story of the Lakota. As a Story Teller/Singer and Presenter, he combines the best in oral tradition as handed down for centuries by the Buffalo Calf People (Great Sioux Nation), with contemporary social dilemma and structure. This orientation establishes the root of Indigenous origin, thought, and philosophy as a manifestation of the role, responsibility, and purpose for the woman and man in any era or social construct.

Victoria Sweet (Anishinaabe) is a program attorney at the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. She is licensed in Minnesota. Sweet received her JD from Michigan State University College of Law with a certificate in indigenous law and policy, attended the Pre-Law Summer Institute at the American Indian Law Center, and earned her MAEd and BA from George Wythe University. She worked as the legal fellow at the Indigenous Law and Policy Center at Michigan State University College of Law, spent a summer working at the White Earth Tribal Court, a summer working at the Indian Law Resource Center, and was both a research assistant and teaching assistant for Professors Matthew Fletcher and Wenona Singel. Prior to her legal career, Sweet was a high school teacher and educational lecturer. She has presented at national and international conferences on topics such as human trafficking, violence against Native women, ICWA compliance, protection orders, and intergenerational trauma and provides technical assistance to both state and tribal court judges, attorneys, advocates, and court staff. Sweet’s publications include articles on the human trafficking of Native women and girls and the violence against and exploitation of Native women.

Lt. Dan Taylor (Oglala Sioux) has served the Nez Perce Tribe Police Department since November 2004. Lt. Taylor has served in all capacities within the police department and specializes in major crimes investigations in collaboration with the FBI. The Nez Perce Tribal Police Department, in serving the Nimiipuu and citizens of the reservation, strives to reduce crime and provide a safe community by providing numerous functional preventive, investigative, and enforcement services to the community. These include preventive and traffic patrol, criminal investigations, finger printing, court bailiff and adult probation control, school support and protection, and crime prevention services. The Nez Perce Tribe Police department cover more than 1,200 square miles. Lt. Taylor is a pivotal player in building public trust and community involvement in public safety on the reservation and with state and federal partners.

Bernie Teba (Navajo and Pueblo of Santa Clara) is a member of the Navajo Nation and the Pueblo of Santa Clara Tribe. Bernie has been the Native American Liaison for the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, Office of the Secretary since 2003. Previously, Mr. Teba served as the Interim Cabinet Secretary for the Indian Affairs Department and Executive Director for the Office of Indian Affairs. Mr. Teba also served as Chief Executive Officer for the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council, a consortium of the Eight Northern New Mexico Indian Pueblo Tribes from 1995 until 2002. Mr. Teba served as Executive Director of the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council and the Five Sandoval Indian Pueblos, Inc. a consortium of five Pueblo tribes in Sandoval County, New Mexico. Mr. Teba also served as the director of the Pueblo of Santa Clara Economic Development Department. Mr. Teba has served on numerous national and state boards and commissions, including serving thirteen years on the Santa Fe Indian School Board, a tribally controlled secondary school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Mr. Teba also served as a member of the Santa Clara Development Corporation Board of Directors, a wholly owned business of the Pueblo of Santa Clara. 

Gayle Thom is a twenty-eight-year veteran of the criminal justice field. Thom medically retired from the FBI during her tenth year as a Victim Specialist, on the nationwide FBI Rapid Deployment and Evidence Response Teams. In an agency-wide vote, Thom was one of six bureau personnel nationwide, tapped for the FBI American Indian/Alaskan Native Advisory Committee. For the past four years, she has been privileged to share from her education and experiences by providing training and technical assistance on a part-time basis to Alaskan villages and Native American tribes. Much of Thom’s more recent career focus has been on managing programs and analyzing financial statements of organizations in nontribal and tribal communities and focusing on crime victims in what the Department of Justice refers to as “Indian country” or tribal communities. In October 2006, she received the highest award bestowed on FBI employees, The Director’s Award for Excellence, for her team’s response to the tragic Red Lake Nation School shooting. She was honored with the National Crime Victims Rights Week Award in 2001 and in 2004. For ten years, Thom was assigned to the Tribal Lands in South Dakota, responding to crime scenes and assisting victims. Most recently she was assigned to the Rosebud and Oglala Sioux tribes. While serving on Pine Ridge, she was humbled to receive the Oglala Lakota Nation Dedicated Service Honor in May 2004 and again in 2009. She was also nominated for the 2005 Service to America Medal and the Attorney General’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Community Partnerships for Public Safety. 

Tracy Toulou is the Director of the Office of Tribal Justice (OTJ) at the Department of Justice. OTJ is the primary point of contact for the Department of Justice's government to government relationship with Indian tribes. The Office also serves as a source of Indian law expertise for the Department. Prior to his current position, Mr. Toulou served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana where his duties included tribal outreach and the prosecution of violent crime in Indian country. He began his career with the Department as an attorney in the Criminal Division. Mr. Toulou attended law school at the University of New Mexico, during which time he had the opportunity to clerk for DNA Legal Services on the Navajo Nation and for the Laguna Pueblo Tribal Court. Before attending law school Mr. Toulou worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Peace Corps in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. He is a descendant of the Colville Confederated Tribes located in Washington State.

Allison Turkel is the Deputy Director for the Federal, International, and Tribal Division at the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) within the US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs (OJP). Prior to coming to OVC, Ms. Turkel served as a Senior Policy Advisor in OJP’s SMART (Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking) Office, where she worked with American Indian tribes to implement the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act and with the military on sex offender issues. Prior to that, she was the Director of the National District Attorneys Association’s (NDAA) National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse (NCPCA), where she managed and supervised program activities and staff. Prior to her appointment as the Director of NCPCA, Ms. Turkel served as the Chief of Training for NDAA’s child abuse programs. Ms. Turkel was responsible for oversight of the national, regional, and local training conferences and programs, as well as supervision of all staff training. Prior to joining NDAA, Ms. Turkel was an Assistant State’s Attorney in McLean County, Illinois, for eighteen months where she prosecuted felony domestic violence cases. Before that, she was an Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office for nine and a half years. She tried a wide variety of felony cases, including narcotics, child physical and sexual abuse, and homicides. Prior to becoming a prosecutor, Ms. Turkel was a police officer for eight years. Ms. Turkel received her BA from the University of Pennsylvania and her JD from Temple University.

Ethleen Two Dogs (Oglala Sioux) Sina Ikikcu Win (Takes the Robe Woman), Ethleen Iron Cloud-Two Dogs is from Porcupine, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. She is an enrolled citizen of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and has Crow ancestry on her mother’s side. The late Pehin Sapa Win (Black Hair Woman), Mary Locke Iron Cloud and Isto Wanjila (One Arm), Eddie Iron Cloud Jr. are her parents and her Tiospaye (extended family) include Taopi Sica (Bad Wound) and Locke and Mila Yatan Pika (Knife Chief). Ethleen provides training and technical assistance nationally to tribal programs and communities in the area of youth and family programming. She is a past Bush Foundation Fellow, serves on the Rosalyn Carter Mental Health Task Force, and is a past member of the Bureau of Indian Education Advisory Committee for Children with Exceptional Education Needs and the First Nations Behavioral Health Association. Ethleen has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Fort Lewis College and a master of science degree in counseling and human resources development from South Dakota State University; and is currently a doctoral student at Colorado State University. Ethleen also serves as the volunteer Director of the Wakanyeja Woapiye Wicoti (Children’s Healing Camp) held annually on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and provides consultation to the Boys/Young Men’s and Girls/Young Women’s Healing Camps also held annually on the reservation.

Eugenia Tyner-Dawson (Sac and Fox Nation) is with the Department of Justice and serves as the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Attorney General for Tribal Affairs and the Executive Director of the Justice Programs Council on Native American Affairs, in the Office of Justice Programs. She is a member of the Sac and Fox Nation and is a descendant of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. Ms. Tyner-Dawson has worked in law enforcement and has an extensive background in serving tribal governments and tribal organizations. For eleven years, she worked with her own tribe, directing numerous tribal programs. In 1996, Ms. Tyner-Dawson worked as a tribal lobbyist for SENSE, Inc., in Washington, DC, and in 1998, she began work with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), at the Indian Health Service (IHS), in the Office of Tribal Self-Governance. In 2000, she transitioned to the HHS Secretary's immediate office, where she served as the first permanent Intergovernmental Affairs Senior Advisor for Tribal Affairs and the acting Executive Director of the HHS Intradepartmental Council on Native American Affairs through June 2006. She also served as the Acting Deputy Director of the IHS, supporting the management of the $3.7 billion national health care delivery program for approximately 1.6 million of the nation’s 2.6 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. Ms. Tyner-Dawson completed her HHS tour as the Associate Director for Planning and Policy Coordination for the Office of Minority Health. She has an associate of arts degree in business administration.

Lauren van Schilfgaarde (Cochiti Pueblo) serves as the Tribal Law and Policy Institute's (TLPI) Tribal Law Specialist, which includes facilitating technical assistance to tribal courts, including Healing to Wellness Courts, and researching legal and policy issues as they face tribal governance and sovereignty. Prior to TLPI, Lauren served as law clerk for the Native American Rights Fund and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. Lauren is licensed in the State of California, and currently serves on the board of the National Native American Bar Association, the American Bar Association’s Center for Racial and Ethnic Justice, and the American Bar Association’s Tribal Courts Council. She recently finished serving a three-year term on the board of the California Indian Law Association. Lauren graduated from the UCLA School of Law, where she focused her studies on tribal and federal Indian law. While in law school, she served as president of the Native American Law Students Association and on the board of the National Native American Law Students Association. Lauren participated in two tribal clinics, including the Tribal Legal Development Clinic and the Tribal Appellate Court Clinic.

Judge Korey Wahwassuck (Ojibwe/Pottawatomie) was a founding member of the joint jurisdiction courts in Cass and Itasca County, Minnesota. She served as a tribal court judge for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe from 2006 until 2013 when she was appointed to serve as a Minnesota District Court Judge for the Ninth Judicial District. Previously Judge Wahwassuck served as a Kansas Supreme Court Certified Mediator (Core, Domestic, and Parent/Adolescent), and practiced law for fifteen years, specializing in Indian law, child welfare, and juvenile delinquency. Judge Wahwassuck earned her bachelor's degree and JD from the University of Missouri–Columbia. She has taught courses on Native American spirituality and sovereignty, treaty rights and tribal sovereignty, tribal court-state issues, and juvenile delinquency guidelines at Penn Valley Community College in Kansas City, Missouri; Leech Lake Tribal College; and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ). Judge Wahwassuck serves on the NCJFCJ’s  Tribal Leadership Forum, and previously served on the NCJFCJ’s Tribal Court Committee and as an Advisory Member of NCJFCJ Diversity Committee. Judge Wahwassuck served as a member of the Minnesota Supreme Court’s Drug Court Initiative Advisory Committee and Minnesota Supreme Court’s Racial Fairness Committees. She authored “The New Face of Justice: Joint Tribal-State Jurisdiction” for the Washburn Law Journal and “Building a Legacy of Hope: Perspectives on Joint Tribal-State Jurisdiction” for the William Mitchell Law Review. Judge Wahwassuck is an alumna of the National Judicial College, joining its faculty in 2008.

Jim Walters is the Program Administrator for the AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program (AATTAP). Mr. Walters is responsible for developing and delivering training and technical assistance to law enforcement, prosecutors, social services, child protection officials and first responders in investigative techniques, program development, and policy issues related to child protection, exploitation, missing and abducted children, and youth at high risk of victimization. Mr. Walters helped develop and was the first AATTAP liaison to the AMBER AATTAP “AMBER in Indian County” initiative, which builds capacity in tribal communities to respond to child protection issues such as abductions, exploitation, and human trafficking.

James Warren (White Earth Ojibwe) retired as the Administrator of the Division of Criminal Investigation for the Wisconsin Department of Justice in January 2008. He held that position since March 1997. As administrator, he was responsible for all agency investigations and was instrumental in the development of the agency’s Internet Crimes against Children’s Program and the Native American Drug and Gang Initiative. Jim is the former Chair of the Wisconsin Police Executive Group and is a member of the Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies. Mr. Warren was with the Milwaukee Police Department for thirty-two years, where over the course of his career he worked his way up to Deputy Inspector. Warren earned his BA from Marquette University and his MS from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He has taught at Milwaukee Area Technical College, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and Concordia University. Warren is the past president of Indian Summer Festivals, Inc. and United Festivals, Inc. He is the past co-chairman of the Greater Milwaukee Crime Prevention Project. Jim is currently a consultant with the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC) of Fox Valley Technical College where he provides consulting/content expertise for NCJTC’s Indian country projects. Jim is an enrolled member of the White Earth Ojibwe Nation.

Eidell Wasserman, PhD, is a clinical psychologist who works in the areas of child abuse and domestic violence with victim assistance programs, primarily in Indian country. She is owner of her own victim services consulting business. In 1988, she developed the first on-reservation treatment program for child sexual abuse victims on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. Her experience includes working in a domestic violence shelter; providing counseling to child sexual abuse victims and their families; program development, community education, performing programmatic process evaluations; and providing training and technical assistance for tribal programs designed to assist victims of crime throughout Indian country. She has conducted workshops on interpersonal violence, grant writing, program development, child abuse, protocol development, Elder abuse, and juvenile offenders and victims. Dr. Wasserman has worked as a Core Instructor at the National Victim Assistance Academy and Assistant Professor of Criminology at California State University, Fresno. Dr. Wasserman has authored publications related to victim services, including a monograph on understanding the effects of childhood trauma on brain development in Native children. She has received awards from the Department of Justice for her service to victims of crime in Indian country. Dr. Wasserman has conducted several trainings for Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Service covering multidisciplinary approaches to dealing with child abuse, grant writing, understanding sudden loss and traumatic grief, trauma and brain development, and responding to survivors of homicide victims in Indian country. Additionally, she has provided training and technical assistance on program evaluation to victim service programs in Indian country.

Shawn Watts (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma) is on the faculty at Columbia Law School. He developed and teaches a course in Native American peacemaking, and has mediated extensively in the local New York City communities. He has also supervised student mediations in court-related programs in New York City. Prior to his current position, he was in private practice representing both creditors and debtors in multimillion-dollar bankruptcies, and he specialized in federal Indian law and tribal finance. Shawn has a JD from Columbia.

Diana Webster (White Earth Band of Ojibwe) is a California attorney and an enrolled member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) in Northern Minnesota. After a successful business career with Northwest Airlines for nearly twenty years, Diana went back to school to get her law degree. After working in civil litigation, she began working with tribal courts around the country as a Tribal Courts Specialist with the Tribal Law and Policy Institute. It was an encounter with a stray dog in Cancun, Mexico, that led Diana to become involved part-time, then full-time in animal protection efforts in Mexico and the United States. As President of the Native America Humane Society, Diana draws on her cultural traditions, education, experience, and passion for helping animals to make tribal communities safer for tribal members and animals. She credits her grandparents, Julius and Evanell Webster, with her success and passion for helping Native communities as they instilled in her a love for her Anishinaabe roots and a strong work ethic.

Danielle Weiss is a Lead Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton working as a senior-level policy and strategy consultant and technical advisor to the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Office of Investigative and Forensic Sciences. Ms. Weiss provides analytical research, project management, and technical support on a variety of portfolios and special projects involving forensic sciences and the law. She has been key to the development and expansion of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System for which she was a lead member of the team that won a Service to America medal in 2011. Ms. Weiss provides leadership support for two NIJ forensic programs: Using DNA Technology to Identify the Missing and Postconviction Testing of DNA Evidence to Exonerate the Innocent. She provided technical editing for and managed the production of NIJ’s resource on fingerprint identification, Fingerprint Sourcebook, and managed or contributed to the development of numerous other training programs. She has also been a liaison on a number domestic and international partnerships, and supports the National Commission on Forensic Science as the liaison to the subcommittee on medicolegal death investigation. Prior to NIJ, Ms. Weiss was a Senior Attorney in the DNA Forensics Division of the National District Attorneys Association, where she developed and provided forensic science trainings. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Western New England University, a juris doctorate from Western New England University School of Law, and a master’s degree in forensic sciences from the George Washington University.

Eileen West is a program specialist for the Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human Services. Her program areas include Tribal Title IV-B child welfare programs, Tribal Title IV-E foster care, adoption assistance, and (at tribal option) guardianship assistance programs. In addition, she is the Federal Project Office for the Tribal Title IV-E Plan Development Grants. Eileen has been in child welfare for more than twenty-five years. She started out investigating allegations of abuse and neglect; worked at the state level in child welfare policy and program development; and then worked on developing a quality assurance process (similar to the current Child and Family Services Reviews). She joined the Children’s Bureau more than ten years ago.

Hallie Bongar White is an attorney and the Executive Director of the Southwest Center for Law and Policy, a tribal Technical Assistance provider for the US Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women. She is an attorney who trains nationally on issues related to sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, abuse of persons with disabilities, firearms violence, and abuse of Elders in Indian country. Ms. White is the former director of the Indian Nations Domestic Violence Law Program and is a graduate of the Native American Studies Department of the University of California at Berkeley. Ms. White attended the master’s degree program in American Indian studies and the College of Law at the University of Arizona. She is the mother of five children and the grandmother of three grandchildren who are enrolled members of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She and her family reside in Tucson, Arizona.

David Pell Williams has been a Police Officer for the Umatilla Tribal Police Department since September 2000. He started in law enforcement in 1998 as a Reserve Officer and a Dispatcher for the same department. Officer Williams spent four years in the US Navy and received an Honorable Discharge, but he was not officially out of the navy when he joined the Oregon Army National Guard. Officer Williams completed just shy of a full twenty-four years of military service that included two overseas deployments, one with the navy (Operation Earnest Will) and one with the Oregon National Guard (Operation Enduring Freedom). Officer Williams retired from the Oregon National Guard as Staff Sergeant in the Military Police Corps. During his military career Officer Williams received multiple awards including a Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, a Navy Good Conduct Medal, and two Army Accommodation Medals. Officer Williams has taught domestic violence investigation regionally in the Pacific Northwest, is a Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers Certified Instructor for Elder Abuse Investigation, a strangulation investigation instructor, a Core Drug Endangered Children (Core DEC) instructor, and is trained to investigate child sex abuse and other sex crimes. Officer Williams holds an Advanced Certificate through Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training and has a Special Law Enforcement Commission through the Department of Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs as a Federal Officer.

Kimberly Woodard joined the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) as its Senior Tribal Affairs Specialist in 2014. In her current role with OVC, Kimberly serves as its subject matter expert on crime victimization in Indian country and advises the office on policy, program development, and grant-making issues that impact tribal communities. Kimberly has twenty years of professional experience in the violence against women field. Immediately prior to joining OVC, Kimberly was employed as a National SANE-SART Coordinator with the Indian Health Service (IHS). Kimberly also spent ten and a half years as the Senior Grant Program Specialist in the Tribal Division at the Office on Violence Against Women. Prior to joining the federal government in 2001, Kimberly served as the STOP Administrator for the District of Columbia and began her professional career in the field by managing a walk-in courthouse legal clinic for the House of Ruth Domestic Violence Legal Clinic in suburban Maryland. Kimberly’s background also includes knowledge and experience in a broad array of criminal justice and public safety issues gained through her work as a Program Manager for the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and as a Pretrial Services Officer for the District of Columbia’s Pretrial Services Agency. Kimberly earned an AB in English and history from Duke University, as well as a JD from the George Washington University School of Law and an MS in clinical mental health counseling from The Johns Hopkins University. She is a licensed mental health professional and is currently completing postgraduate training in psychodynamic theory at the Washington School of Psychiatry.

Laura White Woods (Yurok) people come from the villages of Cha Pekw and Requa; she identifies herself as Ner-Er-Ner. Having been born and raised in New Mexico, she attended New Mexico State University and worked for eighteen years in the Third Judicial District Court in Las Cruces, New Mexico. After returning to the reservation, she now works as a Paralegal and Family Law Mediator for the Yurok Tribal Court in the Civil Access Office in Klamath, California. They assist tribal members with various types of state and tribal court cases, restraining orders, divorce and custody, property disputes, protection orders, child support matters, and much more. She is currently studying for the Yurok Bar Exam and taking Yurok language classes. Since moving back, she has learned more and more about her beautiful people and her tribe’s vibrant culture. She has two grown sons and two beautiful granddaughters in New Mexico that she hopes will someday join her in Yurok Country. Wokh’lew.

Victoria Ybanez (Navajo, Apache, and Mexican) has been working to end violence against American Indian/Alaskan Native women for thirty years. She developed and is the Executive Director of Red Wind Consulting, Inc. (2005–present) coordinating and providing tribal technical assistance for recipients of the Tribal Governments Program for the US Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). Current projects include the development and implementation of tribal-specific shelter and transitional housing programs and assisting tribal programs in development and program delivery, addressing children impacted by violence against Indian women and teen dating violence. Ms. Ybanez developed Red Wind’s National Tribal Advocate Center providing forty-hour Domestic Violence Training Institutes and forty-hour Sexual Assault Training Institutes. She developed the curriculum for each training and serves as lead faculty. In addition, through Red Wind, Victoria works extensively in the provision of Sexual Assault Response Team training, Elder abuse, and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner training, and she has been developing a National Sexual Assault Forensic Examination Protocol for Indian country for the US Department of Justice. She works across multiple additional OVW grant programs such as the Rural Domestic Violence and Child Victimization, Grants to Encourage Arrest and Enforcement of Protection Orders, Legal Assistance to Victims, Campus Program, and Abuse in Later Life Program.

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