Professional Experience
- Responsible for organization, scheduling, and final deliverables for the Arts In Education Curriculum Collaborative, funded through ArtsWA
- Worked with teams of teaching artists and classroom educators to develop arts-integrated lesson plans that augment learning potential embedded in BIMA Art in Action videos
- Lesson plans foreground equity, with an emphasis on one or more of the following areas: Spanish dual-language, special education, social emotional learning (SEL), and/or arts integrated curriculum development
Lead Learning Facilitator
Wide Open Campus (2009 — present)
Wide Open Campus (2009 — present)
- Founder and Lead Educator: Curiosity Guild, a project-based STEAM-focused experiential program for elementary and middle-school age learners
- Founder and Facilitator: small-group, humanities-focused classes for teens in philosophy, people's history, contemporary world literature, and poetry
- Founder and Coordinator: Family Word Party, a monthly literary salon for young readers and their families
- Homeschool Educator: design and implement multidisciplinary K-12 curriculum, based on student-centered, constructivist, experiential learning pedagogy
- Developed and taught bookmaking workshop for adult learners in conjunction with BIMA's "Boundless" artists book exhibition
- Developed, with a classroom educator, a comprehensive K-5 lesson plan using bookmaking and list poetry to integrate visual art learning with math and language arts standards
- Designed and produced video series teaching bookmaking skills as part of BIMA's Art In Action Program to promote lifelong learning through open inquiry and exploration and to support social-emotional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Develop and produce a Zine Making art kit, including writing a step-by-step
guide, recording a demonstration video, and sourcing materials within an
allocated budget for Path with Art participant artists to support people navigating trauma in re-imagining stronger, healthier, and
purpose-driven lives and communities
- Support teaching artist during weekly online class
- Connect with, assist, and model classroom behavior for adult students who are recovering from homelessness, addiction, and other trauma
- Facilitated connections between visitors and the Burke by engaging visitors in conversations about exhibits and "behind the scenes" work of the museum
- Implemented inclusive and accessible interactive experiences for intergenerational audiences
- Oriented and supported visitors in their museum experience
- Responsible for all aspects of coordination, policy analysis, and organizational development for 26-member tribal and urban Indian health organization
- Worked with board chair, executive committee, and delegates to promote AI/AN health policy and to reduce health disparities in AI/AN populations
- Supported working relationships between tribes, state legislators, and governmental agencies
- Coordinated information and technical assistance to Washington tribes to promote access to state health programs
- Identified and secured funding for AIHC-WA operations
- Facilitated introduction and enactment of legislation to create a tribal governmental seat on the State Board of Health
Legislative Affairs Specialist
National Congress of American Indians and Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker, LLP (1997 — 2003)
National Congress of American Indians and Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker, LLP (1997 — 2003)
- Represented client interests, researched and drafted legislative and regulatory documents, testimony and position papers, and lobbied the executive and legislative branches of federal and state governments
- Built grassroots coalitions
- Worked on behalf of a coalition of tribal governments to enact federal funding for diabetes programs
- Developed the first voting scorecards specific to tribal issues in Washington State, in coordination with the First Americans Education Project
- Secured Congressional approval of a $32.4 million settlement to the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin
Legislative Assistant
Senator Byron L. Dorgan (1994 — 1997)
Senator Byron L. Dorgan (1994 — 1997)
- Staffed Senate Indian Affairs Committee and Interior Appropriations Subcommittees (BIA/IHS-specific) hearings
- Drafted and coordinated passage of amendments that doubled tribal child care funding and exempted high-unemployment reservations from benefit time limits in the 1996 welfare reform act
- Researched, drafted, and analyzed legislation
- Prepared briefing papers, committee testimony, speeches, and floor statements
- Monitored committee and floor activities
- Maintained relationships with tribal governments, constituents, and interest groups
Education
Certificate in Museum Studies (2020)
University of Washington
BA in Political Science (1991)
University of Southern Maine
University of Washington
BA in Political Science (1991)
University of Southern Maine
Courses
Museums As A Site & Source for Learning (2018)
University of Glasgow
Art & Activity: Interactive Strategies For Engaging With Art (2014)
Museum of Modern Art
Art & Inquiry: Museum Teaching Strategies (2014)
Museum of Modern Art
Tinkering Fundamentals: A Constructivist Approach To STEM (2014)
Exploratorium
University of Glasgow
Art & Activity: Interactive Strategies For Engaging With Art (2014)
Museum of Modern Art
Art & Inquiry: Museum Teaching Strategies (2014)
Museum of Modern Art
Tinkering Fundamentals: A Constructivist Approach To STEM (2014)
Exploratorium
Professional Organizations