Circle of Learning Students - Spring 2011

Elviria Aquino – New Mexico
Pueblo of Ohkay Owingeh
Elviria works as a law librarian at the New Mexico State Supreme Court Law Library. She has volunteered countless hours in the preservation and return of a once dormant tribal library to the community of Ohkay Owingeh. She continues to serve as a volunteer in several community organizations, advocating for those less fortunate. For the past ten years Elviria has been working on a family genealogy which has produced seven generations of Pueblo ancestors from both her mother and father's family. Her academic goal is to obtain an MLS with a concentration in archival studies.

Lisa Dirks – Alaska
Unangan (Aleut)
Lisa has been working at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation since 2007 and has a strong interest in social science and public health research. She is particularly interested in community involvement in social science research and the incorporation of community based participatory research methods in the dissemination of research results. Lisa holds a B.A. in Anthropology-Ethnology from the University of New Mexico and a Masters in Health Science Administration from Northern Arizona University.

Susan Gehr – California
Karuk Tribe
Susan is a continuing SLIS student and has been working actively with the Karuk tribe on language preservation. She has been working on processing the Thomas Buckley Papers in the Special Collections of the Humboldt State University Library and on an online dictionary of the Karuk language. Susan holds a B.A. in Women's Studies/Native American Studies and a M.A. in Linguistics.

Amy Moore – Maine
Passamaquoddy Tribe
Amy has a B.A. in Art from Central Connecticut State University and Post Graduate Certification in Museum Studies from Harvard Extension School. Amy currently holds two positions; one as the Library Technical Assistant, Youth Services at Walker Memorial Library and another as Administrative Associate at the Maine Medical Center Library.

Indri Pasaribu – British Columbia
Toba Batak from Sumatra
Indri has a B.A. in English and Political Science from Carleton University in Ontario, Canada. Indri has been working as a volunteer at the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs working to debug their automated library system after a data migration.

Gena Peone – Washington
Spokane Tribe of Indians
Gena has a B.A. in Humanities from the University of Washington. After working at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture for ten years, she recently changed positions and now works as the Assistant Collections Manager of material culture, archives, and archeological material for her tribe, the Spokane Tribe of Indians. She has extensive experience working with American Indian material collections. In her current position, she conducts research and works with community members to develop the tribe’s cultural repository.

Mary Rogers – Montana
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and Confederated Salish and Kootenai
Mary is the Database and Historical Records Manager of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Historic Preservation Department. She has her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma and is a member of the Veteran Warrior Society.

Shannon Rosenbaum – Washington
Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
Shannon is a recent graduate from the University of Washington, earning her B.A. in Anthropology and the Comparative History of Ideas (CHID). She was the 2010 undergraduate recipient of the Burke Museum Archaeological Collections Research Fellowship, where she conducted research on her tribe and helped to create a template for an education kit. Most recently, she was awarded sponsorship through the American Indian Library Association for the Emerging Leaders Class of 2012, in which she participated in LIRT's 35-Year Anniversary Oral History Project.

Samantha Villagomez – Wisconsin
Menominee
Samantha is working as the tribal librarian at Menominee Tribal School. Before becoming librarian, Samantha worked as a substitute teacher at the school. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and a M.S. in Special Education from D'Youville College in Buffalo, New York.

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