Teresa leads the Professional Development component of the Speak/SingNativeTM curriculum team, bringing her 20 years of experience in social justice work, community organizing, organizational development and facilitating training in equity, diversity and inclusion to the project. She is a leading educator in Tribal History/Shared History in Oregon, having provided professional development training in the subject in several school districts around the state as well as Indian Education program support and conflict resolution. More than 100 teachers and administrators have completed her training, so she created a Community of Practice for these educators to continue their professional development in understanding tribal culture in public education. She is also the vice-president of the Oregon Indian Education Association and board member of Coalicion Fortaleza, an organization developed in response to the Almeda fire to develop sustainable housing and fire-ready communities. Her philosophy is human-centered, healing-centered using trauma-informed narratives in adult learning development and facilitation with the understanding that this is from an Indigenous perspective. She takes a whole-person approach by always considering the context of all people and situations. including trauma-informed yoga practice, family of origin, state of society, social position, lived cultural experience, gender and socio-economic experience. She manages a program that serves approximately 300 First Nations families in Jackson and Josephine counties through Native American Student Unions, cultural programming and providing what parents need as they plan the year. She recently accepted a board position with SMART Readers, an organization that provides volunteer readers in classrooms for students, and she serves the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy as a board member and Justice Equity Diversity Inclusion committee member.
