Board of directors

Dr. Carolee Dodge Francis is a Wisconsin Oneida Tribal member, Social Behavioral researcher, and Professor within the School of Human Ecology, University of WI, Madison. She intertwines community engagement and research scholarship as a reflection of her cultural understanding, thus creating a contemporary context that focuses upon the well-being of Indigenous populations. Dr. Dodge Francis has over 35+ years’ collaborating with Indigenous communities related to wellness/public health, qualitative research, health education/curricula, program development and evaluation, within urban and rural settings across the United States. Her mentoring commitment with Native American high school, undergraduate and graduate students, spans decades. Dr. Dodge Francis is a published author and currently a Principal Investigator for a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant. 

Chenae Bullock, LPIM, an enrolled Shinnecock Nation citizen and descendant of the Montauk Tribe in Long Island New York. She is also African American. Chenae is Licensed Practitioner of Indigenopathic Medicine Research (LPIM) , an Indigenous Perspective Historian, a Cultural Moderator, and a Public Speaker. Appearances in Forbes, Rolling Stones, TEDx, SXSW, Tribal Business News, Bloomberg, Conde Nast Traveler Indian Country Today, Yahoo Finance. As an LPIM, Chenae contributes to her clients' and partners' social and environmental competence by improving their understanding of the natural world and preserving the original physicians' ancient wisdom and sacred knowledge of enhanced healthcare under religious tribal law. Chenae’s mission is to illuminate the view and understanding of Indigenous people through cultural competency in government and environmental spaces, brand partnerships and pure connectivity to what she values most, humanity. 

Ariel Clark (she/they) is an enrolled Tribal citizen of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa & Chippewa Indians. Ariel is an Odawa Anishinaabe attorney working in collaborative spaces of intersection and (re)emergence.  Like her Spirit name, Eddewagiizhik Kwe, which means Both Sides Of The Sky Woman, Ariel’s work weaves through ways-of-knowing, being, and relating.  In her Western legal practice, Ariel provides business, corporate, and regulatory support to organizations, non-profits, government agencies, and tribes with an emphasis on cannabis, plant medicines, and psychedelics.  Ariel takes a common-sense and heart-centered approach to legal advice, and her clients are values-driven leaders who center building and maintaining successful, impactful, and ethical organizations and offerings.  Ariel actively works with a number of non-profit organizations including Life Comes From It, a Black, Brown, and Indigenous-led organization focused on restorative and transformative justice, Indigenous peacemaking, person centered reentry, and land reunion.  In this capacity, she provides strategic and organizational support, and is also collaborating with the organization to support various land-based projects across Turtle Island that center human beings' (re)union with land and our more-than-human relatives.  She recently finished a year-long collaboration of listening and sense-making with community leaders, from which Listening to the Land emerged.  Ethics and values in all our relationships are of central inquiry and dedication for Ariel.  She is actively engaged in conversations about ethical lawyering grounded in our responsibilities to all our relatives and helping to shape policies that emphasize open source, ethical organizational models that honor the Earth, Peoples, and lineages.  Ariel is a co-founder of the Psychedelic Bar Association (PBA), a national association of lawyers involved in psychedelics and engaging with all the ethical complexity that involves.  She co-produced a four-part series, Law & Ethics: The Psychedelics Industry and Indigenous Peoples, and related resource library (e.g. Rights of Nature, Nagoya Protocol, UNDRIP) in service of her inquiry and advocacy (which is also a prayer) – can the overculture legalize “psychedelics” to help facilitate healing in a good way and do less harm to Indigenous communities and the medicines Themselves?  Ariel has written on Rights of Nature as a vehicle to protect sacred plants and traditional cultural knowledge, and she regularly lectures at universities and law schools, including Columbia, Yale, Harvard, UCLA, and Berkeley on biopiracy, Nagoya Protocol, and other issues related to ecological justice, drug policy reform, and Indigenous rights.  Ariel is on the board of Benefit Honoring, an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building a global community rooted in Indigenous traditional lifeways, and biocultural preservation.  She is a member of Roots To Sky Sanctuary, a Black, Brown, and Indigenous-stewarded, land-based healing, and community project.  She is on the board of Common Field, a community of professionals dedicated to community education and centering respectful relationship.  She is a peacemaker-in-training and studies Indigenous peacemaking and Anishinaabe law from Elders.  Ariel was recently awarded a grant to support her knowledge-preservation work with one of her Anishinaabe Uncles, an Elder, traditional doctor, and pipeman in Michigan’s Anishinaabe community.  She has a Bachelors of Arts from University of Michigan in Religious Studies (2000) and a JD from Berkeley Law School (2005). While in law school, Ariel participated with a group of other Native American law students in discussions at the United Nation for what became the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  She loved the years she spent as a law student and young lawyer working at California Indian Legal Services in the Eureka, Santa Rosa, and Oakland offices.  These days, she spends her time with her Aunties, Uncles, and other relatives on her ancestral land singing and playing the Dewe’igun (drum) with the Wiigashk Negamajig Kwe’ok (Sweetgrass Women Singers).

Roberto Múkaro Borrero has a distinguished and diverse background in policy & program development and human rights advocacy, including a specialization on the rights of Indigenous Peoples. He retains over 20 years of experience engaging the United Nations system in thematic areas such as Sustainable Development; Climate Change; the Information Society; and the Organization of American States; among others. Professionally, he has served on the staff of the International Indian Treaty Council and the American Museum of Natural History, as well as an independent contracting consultant for UNESCO, PBS, and other notable institutions. A published writer, an accomplished artist, and musician,  Borrero is a member of the Taíno Tribal Nation, an Indigenous Peoples whose traditional homelands extend through the Greater Antilles to the Southern tip of Florida in the U.S. In 2012, he was traditionally sanctioned a kasike (chief) of the Guainía Taíno tribal community.  He has an educational background in communications and cultural studies. In 2013, Borrero was awarded an honorary Doctorate Degree, Philosophy in Humanities, from Kayiwa International University, Kampala, Uganda.

Tammy Walking Stick Riley, Esq. is a proud descendant of the Cherokee, Powhatan, Lenape, and Mayan Nations. With over 40 years of experience as a music industry executive, radio personality, traditional dancer, public speaker, and urban Indigenous leader, Tammy is a dedicated advocate for the rights of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. She is the founder and CEO of Walking Stick Tribal Life Group, LLC, and Red Feather's Legacy, serving urban Indigenous communities regardless of tribal recognition. Tammy was among the first Native American Indigenous Delegates to the UN’s New York Indigenous Caucus and continues to advise organizations like the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Urban Indigenous Collective. As a lifelong steward of the land, Tammy’s work centers on uplifting Indigenous voices and bringing vital resources to our communities.

Geoffrey Roth is originally from Oregon City, Oregon. He was born on February 7th and has served Indian Country for most of his life. Currently, Geoff is the newly elected Vice-Chair for the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations, a consultant for Urban Indian Health Programs in the Pacific Northwest,  and the Co-Founder of Inaji, a technology company focused on Indian health. 

Mr. Roth has worked with Tribes, Tribal Colleges and Universities, Tribal organizations and Urban Indian organizations in various capacities over the past 20 years. Most recently he has served as an appointee of the Obama Administration at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Indian Health Service. During this time, he worked primarily on the implementation of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (IHCIA) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and was involved in the day to day operations of IHS.   

Mr. Roth also previously served as the Executive Director of the National Council of Urban Indian Health (NCUIH). In that capacity, he worked with Tribes, Tribal Leaders, Urban Indian Health Program Leaders, and Congress on the zeroing out of the Urban Indian Health Program during the Bush Administration. Prior to NCUIH, Mr. Roth served in the Office of Indian Education at the US Department of Education. Mr. Roth also served as the President of the Board of Directors, for the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center (NNAAPC) in Denver for 4 years. Prior to his work in DC, Mr. Roth served as the Executive Director of the Native American Youth Association in Portland, Oregon. 

He holds a BS in Educational Studies from the College of Education, University of Oregon and in 2015 was named the National Public Service Award winner by the College. Mr. Roth is a descendent of the Hunkpapa Band of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation in North and South Dakota.