Northwest Region: Indian Education Summit
Quality Inn, Clarkston, WA
June 28 - July 1, 2010 » Info
Speaker Bios - Northwest Region: Indian Education Summit
Mandy Smoker Broaddus
Mandy Smoker Broaddus is an enrolled member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux tribes in north-eastern Montana. She is currently the Director of Indian Education for the Montana Office of Public Instruction. The Indian Education Division works to ensure statewide implementation of the Indian Education for All constitutional provision, which provides for the integration of accurate and authentic American Indian content with rigorous, standards-based instruction in all content areas, all grade levels, and all K-12 public schools in Montana. The division also works diligently to increase achievement levels and improve the academic experience for American Indian students, thereby closing the achievement gap.
Before coming to OPI in 2005 as the Indian Student Achievement Specialist, Mandy worked as a Principal and Dean of Students in her home community of Frazer, Montana, a rural K-12 school district with a 100% American Indian population. In addition, she has served as an instructor at the University of Montana and Fort Peck Community College. She is also the author of a poetry collection entitled Another Attempt at Rescue and is the co-editor of an anthology of human rights poetry entitled I Go to the Ruined Place.
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Martina Whelshula, Ph.D
Dr. Martina Whelshula is a member of the Arrow Lakes Nation of the Colville Indian Reservation. Her educational and experiential background is diverse and focuses primarily in the field of education and healing. She possesses a doctoral degree in Traditional Knowledge, a Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies.
Dr. Whelshula has worked extensively with Native American communities nation-wide in the areas of local and national policy development, education, community mobilization, and healing.
She has served as the Chair pro-tem for the Washington State Native American Education Advisory Committee with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, a member of the Washington State Native American Think Tank, member of the Washington State Multi-Ethnic Think Tank, Washington State Board of Education’s Equity Committee and was appointed by Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire as Trustee to the Evergreen State College Board of Trustees and the Governor’s P-20 Council.
Dr. Whelshula’s professional experience has ranged from Research Director for national health policy development for Congressional review, to P-12 native language instructor in the public school system, tribal Head Start Director and President of the United Indian Nations Tribal College. She is an educator, therapist, and organizational consultant.
Dr. Whelshula is currently Administrative Director for the Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations, a residential treatment center for alcohol and drug addicted youth. The Healing Lodge treatment center is governed by seven consortium Tribes in the northwest; the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, Colville Confederated Tribes, Kalispel Tribe, Kootenai Tribe, Nez Perce Tribe, Spokane Tribe of Indians, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
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Sheryl Petty, Ed.D
Dr. Sheryl Petty has worked in educational and organizational improvement for the past 15 years. She is currently Executive Director of California Tomorrow (www.californiatomorrow.org), a research, advocacy, and training non-profit organization specializing in strategies that foster equity and inclusion across the preK-16 spectrum.
Prior to California Tomorrow, Dr. Petty managed the equity and community engagement approaches at the Stupski Foundation, formerly an education reform, technical assistance provider supporting urban school districts around the country with a focus on students of color and low-income students. She has also been an organizational development consultant with a focus on communities of color, a Development Director, and a high school teacher and mentor with youth facing profound challenges. Her skills include equity-driven change process facilitation, strategic visioning and analysis, coaching and mentoring, and creating frameworks and tools for equity-based action within and across organizations. She has co-designed and facilitated trainings and planning processes with consultants and hundreds of practitioners around the country.
Dr. Petty holds a B.A. in Mathematics, an M.A. in Systematic Theology, and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership & Change. Her work focuses on clarifying the meaning of educational equity and culturally responsive practice at the classroom and systems levels, with an emphasis on creating healthier, compassionate communities.
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LoVina Louie
LoVina Louie, Coeur d’Alene, Colville and Nez Perce is the Youth Programs Supervisor, for the Coeur d’Alene Tribal Youth Programs. Ms. Louie created Rock n’ the Rez to empower youth to make positive choices and build their self-esteem by teaching and learning our language culture and tradition as well as giving them an opportunity to express themselves through the performing arts of dance, drama, singing and video production. LoVina has worked with youth and families for the last 25 years.
Christine Meyer, Ph.D
Dr. Chris Meyer is a member of the Coeur d’ Alene Tribe of Idaho. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Education, from Eastern Washington University, Master of Arts in Special Education from University of Idaho and a Ph.D. in Education Administration from University of Idaho.
Dr. Meyer has worked in education for thirty-five years, the majority of those years in Indian Education. She taught at the Coeur d’ Alene Tribal School for eight years, Whitworth University for ten years, and has been an elementary school administrator in South Dakota, Washington State, and in Idaho for over ten years.
She has served on Idaho State Indian Education Committee for many years and currently serves as the Vice-Chairman of the committee. She also serves on Gonzaga University Native American Advisory Board, Lewis-Clark State College Native American Advisory Committee, is a member of NIC 9 Point Agreement team, and serves on Washington State University Native American Advisory Board, and the University of Idaho Native American Advisory Board. She was recently appointed to serve on the Inland Northwest Community Foundation Council.
Dr. Meyer is currently the Director of Education for the Coeur d’ Alene Tribe. The Department in collaboration with North Idaho College offers an AA degree on the reservation and an AAS Business Leadership Degree that was designed to meet the current and future workforce for the Tribe.
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Denny Hurtado, MA
Denny (TacH-Mi-acH-t3n) is an enrolled member of the Skokomish Indian Tribe, and a resident of the Skokomish Reservation. He has spent the past three decade’s advocating for Indian rights and Indian education and recently, helped develop the Northwest Native American Reading curriculum, which focuses on the Drum, the Canoe, and Hunting and Gathering. Also worked on the “Reading and the Native American Learner” research document. Am co-author of, “Reading First, Literacy and American Indian Students”, which is getting ready for publication and also finalizing a paper on a “Culture Based Professional Development Model” for educators.
Denny received his Bachelor’s degree in Social Science and a Lifetime Secondary Teaching Credential from the California State University at Sacramento. Denny holds a Master’s degree in School Administration from the California State University at Humboldt. He has been the Indian Education Director for Washington State’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the past ten years and work with all the 29 Tribes in Washington State.
Before his appointment to the Indian Education Director’s position, he was the Upward Bound Director at the Evergreen State College for nearly seven years. Denny also served as President of the Northwest Association of Special Programs for three years, which represents the TRIO programs in, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska. From 1978 to 1992, he was an Indian commercial fisherman and substitute teacher.
Denny has served on the Skokomish Tribal Council for the past seventeen years. He has held the positions of Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and General Council President. He also serves as the Co-chair of the Native Nations Institute, International Advisory council with the University of Arizona. Currently Denny is the Chair of the Native American Advisory Board at the University of Washington, and serves on the College Spark board, National Indian Education Association, and the Western region, college board.
In 1998 he was selected to serve as a panelist for the achievement levels-setting pilot study for the 1998 civics national Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and was selected as an intern for Rockefeller/American Association of Community and Junior Colleges Administrative Internship.
As an Indian educator Denny has presented many workshops and trainings in the area of Indian education and culturally responsive curriculum and professional development. His hobbies include photography, hiking and traveling.
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Renée Holt, MA
For the last 4.5 years Renée has worked at Kauffmann and Associates, Inc. (KAI), based in Spokane, WA. At present Ms. Holt is an education consultant and enrolled full time in the College of Education Department of Teaching and Learning, Cultural Studies and Social Thought doctoral program at Washington State University and currently serves as a general board member for the National Indian Education Association Board of Directors. Ms. Holt’s experience in Indian education is numerous and varied; she has been a Project Manager successfully planning and implementing the logistics coordination and outreach for national conferences on Indian Education in Santa Ana, NM, Rapid City, SD, and Norman, OK. With 5 years of combined experience in higher education administration in the areas of student support services and in American Indian Studies her formal education and professional experience emphasizes the importance of providing culturally sensitive student support services and cultural relevancy for any outreach and communication in Indian country.
Professionally, Ms. Holt has served the Native community as a Program Advisor and an Adjunct Faculty in American Indian Studies and successfully worked in the areas of recruitment and retention among Native youth from the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, Fort McDowell-Yavapai Apache, San Carlos Apache, Pascua Yaqui, and the Nez Perce Nation. While working for the Maricopa County Community College District at SCC, Ms. Holt was involved with the Phoenix Union School District H.O.O.P of Learning Program and the Arizona Indian Education Association to increase the number of American Indian students who attend college before they graduated from high school. Ms. Holt earned her Bachelor of Science in Political Science/History from Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho and her Master of Arts in History with an emphasis in American Indian Western history from the University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho.
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Christy Price, Ph.D
A professor of psychology at Dalton State College, Christy Price has been teaching at the collegiate level for 18 years. Dr. Price won the Excellence in Teaching Award at Dalton State in 2007, and the University System of Georgia Teaching Excellence Award in the Two & Four-Year College sector for 2008/2009. She was also honored by the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition as one of 10 Outstanding First-Year Student Advocates for 2009. Dr. Price’s awards are, in part, a result of her use of innovative strategies in assisting students to achieve learning outcomes. Her dynamic and interactive style make Dr. Price a favorite as a professor and presenter. She regularly presents as a keynote speaker and leads workshops at faculty development seminars and retreats. As a recipient of an institutional foundation grant award, Dr. Price has studied teaching techniques that influence student motivation. Her most recent research focuses on engaging Millennial learners and preventing incivility in the classroom. Christy has completed post-doctoral work in educational psychology from Georgia State University. She holds a doctorate in community health from the University of Tennessee, a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of Nebraska-Kearney, and a bachelor’s degree in social services from Northern Illinois University.
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Pearl Yellowman, MA
Pearl Yellowman-Caye, a member of the Navajo Nation. Currently, the Co-Director of the Institute of Native Development, providing a comprehensive approach to capacity building with families, schools and communities. She is also a National Native Youth Leadership Development trainer. Pearl has earned a Bachelors Degree in Social Work/Human Service, a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership and is currently a Doctoral candidate at the University of Montana, in the Educational Leadership program focusing on the Contributing Factors of the Achievement Gap for Native American students. Website: Institute of Native Development
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Linda Ferris
Linda Ferris is the Project Supervisor/Curriculum Developer for the Native American Language Teacher Training Institute at Salish-Kootenai College. She has taught the
Salish language for 3+ years. Her goal is to encourage the revitalization of the Salish language in order to strengthen the youth and build a healthy community. She is a Klamath Tribal descendant, and has five children who are enrolled Salish. Three of her children have attended the N Kwusm Salish Immersion School.
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Kerry Venegas, M.Ed
Kerry Venegas, who calls who calls Gallup, New Mexico home, is the High School Policy Director for the National Indian Education Association. Previously, she was an alternative education science teacher working with at-risk youth in Colorado, New Mexico, and the Washington D.C. area. She also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia and as an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the National Science Foundation. Her experience spans the public, private, and non-profit sectors, including serving as a research consultant for the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. Ms. Venegas holds an Education Specialist degree in Transition Special Education from the George Washington University, an M.Ed in Education Policy and Management from Harvard University, a M.A. in Secondary Education from the University of New Mexico, a B.S. in Bio-Agricultural science, and a B.A. in English literature/writing from Colorado State University. She is currently a doctoral student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, focusing her research on the collaboration between tribal nations and public school district in meeting the needs of Native students in public schools.
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Paula Groves Price, Ph.D
Dr. Paula Groves Price is an Associate Professor and program coordinator for the Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education program in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Washington State University. She received a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Social Foundations of Education, and BA’s from the University of California Berkeley in Social Welfare and Interdisciplinary Field Studies. She teaches undergraduate diversity courses for pre-service teachers as well as graduate level courses in the areas of Critical Ethnography, Qualitative Research Methods, Multicultural Education, Race Theory, and Educational Philosophy.
Dr. Price has worked in collaboration with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and her husband, Cedric Price, the director of Physical Education Activities at Washington State University, to develop and implement the Leadership Development Camp for Coeur d’Alene Tribe youth leaders aged 13-17. This summer camp aims to develop leadership skills, resiliency, and strengthen academic skills for high school and college success. Through participation in team sports activities and specialized academic seminars focused on critical thinking and engagement through culturally responsive curriculum, this one-week residential camp offers students a chance to develop new skills, experience college life, and reflect upon and prepare to meet their goals for the future.
Dr. Price was born and raised in San Diego, California is the first person in her family to obtain a college degree, and She currently lives in Pullman, WA with her husband Cedric and three year old daughter Sachiko.
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Dianne M. Allen
Dianne M. Allen is an enrolled member of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe and has three children and six grandchildren. Herself a Head Start "success story," she has spent her entire career in the field of Education and Early Childhood. Starting off as a Head Start parent in 1979, she found she loved working with young children. She was hired as a aid the following year, attained her CDA in two years, and her B.S. in Education and another B.S. in Child Development and Family Relations in 1988. She is all but thesis for her M.S. in Child Development and Family Relations through the University of Idaho. She worked 5 years as a preschool teacher, and another 5 years teaching a variety of elementary classrooms. She was Minority Student Services Coordinator for the University of Idaho for 2 years. She was Director of Education for her tribe for 11 years. She is currently serving her tribe as the Early Childhood Learning Center Director which offers wrap-around Head Start and Child Care services. She also owns and operates a business, Native Education Solutions, designed to provide services to educators of Native American students specifically in the area of cultural integration.
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Mary Lou Macala, M.Ed
Mary Lou Macala, a classroom teacher with over twenty three years of experience, is the Social Studies department chair at Kingston Middle School where she has taught since 1996. She holds a BA in history from the University of Washington and an M. Ed in Reading and Language Arts from Seattle Pacific University. Ms. Macala is currently working on her National Board Certification in Early Adolescent Social Studies/History. Kingston Middle School, located in North Kitsap County, is situated between the Port Madison and the Port Gamble S’Klallam Indian reservations. Over the past fourteen years Ms. Macala has taught many students from both tribes. When Denny Hurtado asked for teachers to pilot the Tribal Sovereignty curriculum Mary Lou immediately volunteered. Through the two years of the pilot, Mary Lou has worked closely with Shana Brown, the curriculum writer, to expand and clarify aspects of the curriculum.
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