Board of directors

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.

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.

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. 

Sutton King, MPH, Nāēqtaw-Pianakiw (comes first woman), is the co-founder, president and co-director of UIC.  Afro-Indigenous, descendant of the Menominee and Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, she holds a BA in Psychology with a minor in sociology from the College of Mount Saint Vincent and a Master in Public Health with a concentration on Global Health from NYU School of Global Public Health. Living on unceded territory of the Siwanoy (The Bronx) for over a decade, she is an internationally recognized Indigenous rights activist,  social entrepreneur, and published researcher dedicated to developing and scaling innovative solutions to improve Indigenous health equity across sectors. Her focus centers access benefit sharing and culturally appropriate methodologies within technology, healthcare and business.

In 2020, Sutton was named a New York visionary and nominated as a David Prize finalist. She is a MIT Indigenous Solve fellow and a 3x NYU Fellow participating in the NYU ignite alpha and beta fellowships. In 2021, she was named an NYU Female Founder and “one of the 100 most influential people in psychedelics” by Psychedelic Invest and PsychedStudio. In 2022, Business Insider recognized her as one of the 16 most influential women shaping Psychedelics.

Early in her career, in partnership with Kognito, the DOJ and Indian Country Child Trauma Center, she led the development of the first culturally tailored trauma-informed simulation training law enforcement professionals how to engage with tribal youth. She implemented this programming as well as suicide prevention technology in eighty different tribes across the country. Following that, she joined the New York Indian Council, the Urban Indian Health Program of NYC as the Director of health and wellness. Currently, she is the Co-Founder of ShockTalk, a culturally tailored telemental health platform that facilitates culturally appropriate patient-provider relationships for Indigenous communities. She joins the Indigenous Medicine Conservation Fund as a Program Manager and Bridge Maker sitting on the operations committee. She facilitates a relationship between the Psychedelic Space and Indigenous traditional cultures that centers Indigenous sovereignty. Through her consulting business, Sutton King LLC, she advises organizations ranging from startup companies to philanthropies on stakeholder models and access benefit and sharing through social impact investment and giving.

In her role as an advocate, she sits on the Sovereign Bodies Institute  Survivors’ Leadership Council, made up of Indigenous survivors of trafficking and survival sex work from across North America. This council was put together to advocate for victims and survivors, provide peer support to movement leaders who are survivors, and create a platform for survivor voices, so that the world can learn directly from survivors. She also serves as a Member of the Natives Working Well in Philanthropy (NWWP) (Formerly Native Program Officer (NPO)) Planning Group. 

Jarrad Packard is the Co-Founder, Vice President and Secretary for UIC. Jarrad is enrolled in the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota and is also Oglala Lakota from Pine Ridge, South South Dakota. Jarrad graduated with a Master of Social Work (MSW) from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College in June 2021 and previously graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Health Care Management and Policy from the School of Nursing and Health Studies at Georgetown University in May 2009. Jarrad is currently a Mental Health Specialist at the Seattle Indian Health Board. Jarrad previously worked at the Indian Health Service in Rockville, MD in the Office of Management Services and also served on several committees and was the President of the Employee's Association. Jarrad is excited to be working with the Urban Indian community in Seattle and learning more about Urban Indian mental health issues.

Logan Tootle (she/her) is a member of the Cherokee Nation and white. She holds a MSW from Columbia University specializing in Social Enterprise Administration. Logan recently relocated to New York City from Minneapolis/St. Paul where she worked at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center (MIWRC). Logan served in various capacities with MIWRC, including roles as an Organizational Strategist, Special Project Manager, and Safe Harbor Youth Worker. As a youth worker, Logan provided individual case management and culturally specific support groups to Native youth ages 24 and under who had experienced or were at risk of experiencing commercial sexual exploitation. In addition to direct service, Logan facilitated a variety of training sessions about commercial sexual exploitation, historical trauma, and more to various stakeholders and community members. Logan@urbanindigenouscollective.org