FOR URBAN NATIVES BY URBAN NATIVES

Darby Galligher is a member of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. In May, she graduated with her BS in public health from Miami University (in Ohio). She is currently a graduate student at NYU’s College of Global Health, working towards her MPH with a concentration in Global Health. She is also interested in raising awareness about IHS and other opportunities that are available to indigenous peoples. Growing up, she experienced a disconnect from her tribe, and only after enrolling into Miami University and getting involved in the Myaamia community on campus, was she able to feel connected to the tribe. Prior to her senior year of college, she was unaware of IHS, and other health and wellness opportunities that were available to her as a tribal member. Her main goal of working in indigenous health is to increase awareness of those services to those who may not know about them, as well as making those services more readily available

Logan Tootle is a member of the Cherokee Nation. She is currently a MSW student at Columbia University specializing in Social Enterprise Administration. Logan is completing her social work fieldwork with UIC as an MSW Associate. In addition to her studies, Logan is a Research Assistant for Dr. Brooke S. West who focuses on the sociostructural factors of substance use and HIV/STIs among womxn.

Logan recently relocated to New York City from Minneapolis/St. Paul where she workedat the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center (MIWRC). Logan served in variouscapacities 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.

Andrea Torres is a queer individual whose ancestry is of the Indigenous peoples of Colombia. In 2017 she graduated from SUNY Purchase with a BA in political science and minor in sociology. Her focus has been on environmental justice and its related health implications, with a more recent focus on food and land sovereignty for Indigenous people. Her previous research emphasized the importance of grassroots organizations that provide a platform to mitigate the health impacts faced by the financially and racially oppressed communities in the South Bronx. In May 2020 she graduated with a Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management from The New School, with a focus on food sovereignty, food justice, and decolonization. More recently she researched how the health needs of the Indigenous diaspora from South America, Central America & the Caribbean in NYC can be addressed by community organizations, health centers, and legal organizations.  This research has looked at the medical and social work field through a critical lens to understand how to meet the health and wellness needs of the Indigenous diaspora in culturally relevant ways. She has spent her time in school collaborating with her peers to carve out a space for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students who are seeking to find a place for discussions and healing around experiences with climate change, capitalism, white supremacy, anti-queerness, and all other forms of oppression. Her ultimate goal is to address climate justice in a holistic manner that centers decolonial approaches such as land rematriation, food justice, and BIPOC health and wellness as strategies for climate change mitigation. 

Gianna Reza-Ortega is a queer person with roots in the Chiricahua Apache tribe and Mexico. She
is a recent graduate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with bachelor’s degrees in
Biology and Chemical Engineering; she spent her undergraduate career planning and executing
programming in both physical and virtual spaces to build community and raise voices of young
adults from marginalized communities. Gianna is looking to transition to working in public
health, and is passionate about reproductive healthcare and healthcare access for migrants, as
well as the intersections that exist with carceral systems. She has worked as a Digital Organizer
with the Frontline Election Defenders, directly managing a team of volunteers to make the voting
process accessible for everyone who was able to cast a vote and bring language justice to the
team by translating all volunteer-facing documents to Spanish. She looks forward to learning
from and with urban natives of the tri-state area while working to address their needs in mental
and physical wellbeing.