Jessica E. Salvador Co-Director and Speaker in this program
I am a Ph.D. student in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the UW; a Mestiza of Ecuadorian and Peruvian heritage born and raised in Los Angeles, California. My research and community interests are in access, equity and engagement of underrepresented students in higher education, culturally responsive instruction, and community based educational reform. I’ve enjoyed teaching “Critical Qualitative Methods” and have served as Teaching Assistant for “Research Exposed! Approaches to Inquiry”, a course that introduces students to research from various disciplines. I currently work on the UW campus at the Undergraduate Research Program where I support planning for workshops, courses, programs, events and advising for undergraduate students interested in research. In the past, I’ve enjoyed teaching mathematics at the secondary level where I also coordinated a college preparatory program and had a prior career in civil engineering. I obtained my B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and M.Ed. from the University of La Verne.
Damarys Espinoza
Ometeotl. My name is Damarys Espinoza. I am Naáyarite (Cora) and Chicana. My maternal grandparents, Juan Carrillo and Maria Dolores Gomez, are from Del Rosario, Nayarit, Mexico. Jorge Espinoza Elizalde and Francisca Almaraz Ledesma, my paternal grandparents, are from the central states of Puebla and Queretaro, Mexico. I am the daughter of Victor Jorge Espinoza and Lourdes Carrillo Gomez.
I am a Mexica Danzante with Danza Mexica Cuauhtemoc de Washington, a politically based Danza circle dedicated to building unity, understanding, mutual respect, and harmony amongst all Nations. This is done by coming together and supporting one another in struggle for political, economic, environmental, social and cultural justice.
I received my undergraduate degree in anthropology and literature at UC Santa Barbara. As a graduate student in sociocultural anthropology, my research foci include Indigenous healing and wellness, HIV/AIDS, Indigenous women's health, medical anthropology, community-based participatory action research, and the history and politics of Mexican immigration.
Ramona Beltran
Ramona Beltran (Chicana/Yaqui) obtained her MSW from Portland State University in 2005. She has over ten years of experience working with diverse youth and families in clinical and programmatic capacities. The majority of her work has centered around services to Latino and Native American communities with an emphasis on the use of creativity and art in programming including film and photography. Her recent area of research focus is on the question of how space and place gets embodied physically and spiritually in indigenous communities. She explores this question by critically engaging the integration of social justice, feminist indigenous governance, and environmental justice. As a doctoral student and NIMH Pre-Doctoral Fellow, Ramona is applying her research question by working with Dr. Karina Walters on an NIH funded project to design and test a culturally appropriate, feasible, and generalizable cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk prevention program for American Indians (AIs) in the Northwest. In addition, she works on a NIMH funded project developing ratings of traumatic events in the lives of American Indian Vietnam Veterans (AIVVP).
Cari Simson
Cari Simson serves as the Outreach and Education Programs Manager for the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition (DRCC). DRCC is the Community Advisory Group for the EPA Superfund Cleanup process, ensuring the public is at the table equally with the PRPs and government regulators as cleanup plans move forward. The lower Duwamish River was listed in 2001 as one of the most toxic sites in the United States. Cari received her Masters in Whole System Design from Antioch University in Seattle, and as part of her final Masters program engaged Georgetown residents in a 'future vision' of their community that is near Superfund sites as a service-learning project with DRCC. Since then she was hired by DRCC and has increased participation by people who live, work and visit the area through festivals, tours, service-learning projects, habitat restoration and stewardship, and a comprehensive Duwamish Vision project. Cari is particularly interested in collaborative, participatory design of "eco-industrial" urban spaces, bringing residents, workers, government staff, and non-profits together towards creating just, sustainable environments. Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition http://www.duwamishcleanup.org/about.html
Aleticia Kyle Silverwood Tijerina, Ph.D.
Dr. Tijerina is Assistant Director of the Northwest Indian Applied Research Institute at The Evergreen State College. She holds a doctorate in political science from Northern Arizona University (NAU) with expertise in Native American policy, public administration and Native nationalism. She holds a Masters of Educational Leadership with a special emphasize in Native programs and education.
Raised in Ohio valley and southern Michigan of mixed heritage of Odawa/French and Mexican parents, as an adult she spent over 25 years working with the Dinè (Navajo) in Northern Arizona as an environmental activist, domestic violence advocate and researcher on AIDS among Native Americans. Recently, she taught at NAU in the Applied Indigenous Studies program and Dept. of Politics and International Affairs.
Her strong interest in research brought her to Evergreen and the Institute with an agenda of expanding student research programs and projects among Northwest Pacific tribes and communities. Her interest in Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) led her to research ceremony as a means of understanding how ceremonial knowledge is passed down from generation to generation. Her dissertation, titled The Sun Dance Movement and Native Nationalism: Unburying the Hatchet, examines ceremonial phenomena and knowledge production. She is currently working on two juried articles about her findings and her research approach to the study of ceremony. She is also a poet and performance artist.
Karina L. Walters, MSW, Ph.D., William P. and Ruth Gerberding Endowed Professor, School of Social Work
An enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Dr. Walters founded and directs the university-wide, interdisciplinary Indigenous Wellness Research Institute at the University of Washington. A recent recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Award, her research focuses on historical, social, and cultural determinants of physical and mental health among American Indians and Alaska Natives. She serves as principal investigator on several groundbreaking studies associated with health-risk outcomes among American Indian individuals, families, and communities funded by the National Institutes of Health.