Tamera L. Miyasato, Mdewakantan Dakota, is a Learning Specialist at Technology & Innovation in Education (TIE). Her experience in education began teaching secondary English Language Arts and Speech Communications at Pine Ridge School. Tamera was born in Yankton, SD and grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the Flandreau Santee Sioux Reservation, where she is an enrolled member.

She has extensive practice working with American Indian communities through her current involvement in K12 education; and previously in public health, and film production. Her activity in these fields include developing culturally relevant curriculum, classroom management strategies, and school-wide cultural proficiency plans. In addition, her previous activities include community outreach and education surrounding traditional Lakota use of cansasa (sacred tobacco) and cultivating relationships across the world through film production work.

Tamera shares her work with educators across Turtle Island (United States) through speaking engagements, professional learning workshops, and other activities. She specifically shares the Woope Sakowin in the Educational Setting, a self-developed framework that began as the foundation for classroom management and was implemented over a two-year period at Pine Ridge School. Since then, it has expanded into many different areas of school improvement, such as: cultural proficiency, school climate, and effective leadership practices. Tamera continues to develop this work in her position at TIE.

Her unique background and professional experiences allow her to work with diverse groups of people. She brings a different perspective to many conversations surrounding education. Tamera is currently pursuing her doctorate at the University of South Dakota and lives in Rapid City with her husband, Charles, and their son, Lucian.

Mandy Smoker Broaddus, Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux, has nearly 20 years experience working toward social justice, equity, inclusivity and cultural responsiveness, particularly in the realm of American Indian education. She currently works for the non-profit, Education Northwest, as a Practice Expert in Indian Education.

She has served at the tribal college, K-12 and state education agency levels across her home state of Montana. Her leadership of the Schools of Promise initiative led to the development of a new model for improving Montana’s lowest performing schools, which were all located on a reservation in Montana. She also led the state’s Indian Education for All work that served as a model for many other states seeking to include American Indian identity, culture and history in their educational systems.

Mandy is also passionate about developing culturally responsive systems that meet the needs of all students. She believes that honoring students, their families and their communities is a necessity and that stronger, more authentic community outreach—as well as youth empowerment and leadership development—are necessary components to closing achievement gaps.

She received the 2015 National Indian Educator of the Year award by the National Indian Education Association, as well as an appointment by President Obama to the National Advisory Council on Indian Education.

Twyla Baker is an enrolled citizen of the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan Hidatsa & Arikara Nation) of North Dakota. She lives and works on her ancestral homelands on the Fort Berthold Indian reservation in northwest North Dakota. She is the President of Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, the Tribally chartered college of the Three Affiliated Tribes. Twyla’s work touches a broad swath of her home reservation, and serves a number of stakeholders, including students, Tribal members, community members, and the state and region. Born and raised on Fort Berthold, Twyla left home for several years and built a life away from the reservation, though she maintained strong ties to her home community. Viewing life through an Indigenous lens, her world view informs nearly everything she does professionally and personally, and she is raising her children to know, see, and carry on their Tribal life ways as they were taught to her by her parents. Given her strong grounding in her culture and identity and the social capital that brings, Twyla is particularly suited to carrying out her work within her community. She has spent a lifetime establishing her credibility among her Tribal people and with external constituencies.