WE - PRESIDENT
Sam Barr, a tribal member of the Samish Indian Nation, serves as the WE President. Sam has been skippering Coast Salish canoes on the Salish Sea for the past 6 years for the Samish Canoe Family and the Stillaguamish Canoe Family. He has been a GIS Analyst/Natural Resources Technician for the Samish Indian Nation Department of Natural Resources; and a Deputy Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Stillaguamish Tribe. He also serves as the Chair of the Samish Language Committee. Sam has a BA in Environmental Science and Resource Management from the University of Washington, and grew up on Lopez Island. He has a passion for learning about traditional ecological knowledge while connecting it to traditional language and exploring the beauty of Coast Salish culture.
WE - VICE PRESIDENT
Nancy C. Tsawayugah Maryboy is the WE Vice President. She is Navajo and Cherokee, and she lives in the San Juan Islands. Nancy is the Founder of the Indigenous Education Institute and she is a Affiliate Professor in the School of Environmental and Forestry Sciences. Nancy has been PI for groundbreaking NSF projects such as “Cosmic Serpent: Bridging Native Ways of Knowing with Western Science." The work of Dr. Maryboy and her colleagues has opened a portal for collaborative science programming with traditional indigenous wisdom, which is invaluable for addressing environmental concerns of the present and future. Her pioneering work will leave a legacy for generations.
Nancy invited Whiteswan Environmental to present at her Indigenous Worldviews for Informal Science Conferences held in New Mexico and Washington DC at the National Museum of Natural History. WE are forever grateful to Nancy for her amazing mentorship and willingness to be on our board.
Nancy invited Whiteswan Environmental to present at her Indigenous Worldviews for Informal Science Conferences held in New Mexico and Washington DC at the National Museum of Natural History. WE are forever grateful to Nancy for her amazing mentorship and willingness to be on our board.
WE - TREASURER
Erin Licata, serves as the WE Treasurer. She is a descendant of the Pamunkey and Patawomeck Tribes and lives in Anacortes, Washington. Erin is currently employed by the San Juan Islands Conservation District managing the local Islands Youth Conservation Corps. Erin received her Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science from Huxley College at Western Washington University. Erin has a strong background in traditional ecological knowledge, environmental research, monitoring and restoration throughout Western Washington. She has deep connections with the San Juan Islands and its community and believes that the health of our people is directly dependent on the health of our environment. She envisions a community and a world in which human beings co-exist peacefully with each other and responsibly with nature by empowering our next generations in inter-tribal cultural restoration, resource management, conservation and stewardship.
WE - SECRETARY
Rachel Wilbur is of Tolowa and Chetco descent through her mother and lives on Lopez Island, Washington. She is currently a PhD candidate in human biology at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, where she studies the impacts of social determinants and historical trauma on the contemporary health of Native Americans. She previously served as the co-President of the First Nations Graduate Circle, UNC’s Native American graduate student organization. Rachel holds a BA in medical anthropology, a BS in public health, and an MPH in health behavior. She is passionate about addressing health inequality through Indigenous knowledge.
WE - BOARD MEMBER
Paul Cheokten Wagner and his mother Sasayatha have been working with our youth and community members since 2015. Cheokten and Sasayatha are WSANEC Nation members who have generously shared a wealth of historical knowledge, cultural teachings, stories, songs, traditional healing remedies, and way of life in the archipelago of the Salish Sea as they remember lifeways before there was a International border. Cheokten also teaches our youth flute and drum making. Cheokten is the Founder of Protectors of the Salish Sea.
WE - BOARD MEMBER
Shauna Johnson is Coast Salish from the Tsawout First Nation on her mother’s side and Tsimshian from Laxkwala’ams on her father’s side. She is the Marine Use Planner for the W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council. She has a Master of Science degree in Indigenous Community Planning (ICP) and has specialized expertise in providing planning support for indigenous communities to revitalize and promote indigenous community planning research, methods and practices grounded firmly within indigenous laws, legal traditions and ways of knowing and being. She is a registered Applied Scientific Technologist (A.Sc.T.) and is currently working towards becoming a Registered Professional Planner (MIP, RPP). She has experience working with indigenous communities on housing strategies, comprehensive community plans (CPP), strategic, land use (reserve based, and watershed level based), environmental management, marine spatial/use plans (MSP/MUP), economic development plans and indigenous food systems projects. She is also an adjunct professor at University of British Columbia (UBC) in the School of Community of Regional Planning (SCARP) Indigenous Community Planning (ICP) program, mentoring, supervising and co-teaching ICP practicum students.
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Whiteswan Environmental relies on donations from the community to make this vision a reality.
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