Meet Our People - CIRCLES

Aldwin Keo

Biography:
Aldwin Keo is researching the migration behavior of lamprey after translocation on the Warm Springs River and Beaver Creek which are located on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon. The two collection sites are Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River and Shears Falls located on the Deschutes River. To monitor the migration behaviors of the lamprey after translocation, radio telemetry will be used to track their movement throughout the Warm Springs River system.

Abigail MacKay

Biography:
Abigail Mackay is a student at the University of Idaho, McCall Field Campus studying Environmental Science with a focus on Environmental and Indigenous Education. She is Kanaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiian, and joined the CIRCLES Alliance to bring further recognition to the relationship Hawaiians have with the land. While she was born and raised far away from her homeland in Salt Lake City, Utah, she lives every day with a vow to mālama ka ʻāina, to take care of the places that she has relationships with.

Abigail graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in Environmental Studies with minors in Natural Resources Economics and Nonprofit Organizations from Utah State University in 2023. In her free time, she enjoys being outside hiking, trail running, rock climbing, and all kinds of skiing and is currently striving to regain her native language, ʻolelo Hawaiʻi, through active study.

Adamarie Marquez

Biography:
Adamarie Marquez Acevedo is a 1st year doctoral student focusing on reproductive physiology scholar and passionate about reproductive justice. Her dissertation research focuses on re-centering Puerto Rican epistemology in agricultural and medical sciences. Under the mentorship of Dr. Amy Skibiel, Adamarie seeks to describe how stress can give rise to the dysfunction of the molecular pathways coordinating reproductive function. By incorporating her community’s knowledge of agriculture and medicine into reproductive science academic spaces, she aims to shift current academic narratives to highlight the immense contribution Puerto Rican scholars have made in both agriculture and medical sciences.

Alie Minium

Biography:
I enter the University of Idaho as a young Inupiaq, Alaskan Native woman who grew up on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. I spent my childhood in nature, on the Land, and letting those Relatives shape the bones of who I am today. I was filled in later, as I pursued education and academia, receiving my Bachelor of Environmental Science at California Baptist University, and growing into the person I am when writing this. I seek to examine my own relationships to the environment, and I dream of teaching either in a Land Based education program, or within the Academy and higher education. I love all things rocks and soil, and strive to bring a sense of connectedness into the research opportunities I pursue both now and in the future.

Marissa Spang

Biography:
Marissa Spang (Esevona’e, Buffalo Woman), M.Ed., descends from Chief Morning Star through her ke’eehe (Cheyenne grandmother) and of Pretty Shield through her kaa’laa (Crow grandmother). She obtained her B.A. degree in Native American Studies from Dartmouth College and her M.Ed. in Learning Sciences and Human Development from the University of Washington. She is currently an Indigenous Education Researcher at the American Institutes for Research, as well as a CIRCLES Ph.D. student. She has worked in K-12, higher education, community-based and tribal systems in rural and urban communities, including as a high school and land-based Science teacher on her ancestral territories. Her work actively attends to the storied and lived collective continuance of Indigenous peoples, by Indigenous peoples – particularly in the context of everyday, land-based STEM, Indigenous language, and computer science learning that employs Indigenous sciences and ontologies, while finding consensual ways to adapt/integrate Western science. Such an approach works and emerges directly with/in land – in so doing, a host of ecological relations are restored, as well as Indigenous peoples’ knowledges, their sense of self and active, self-determining presence on their territories as good relatives/scientists.

Fredi Tapaha

Biography:
Fredina “Fredi” Tapaha is a citizen of the Diné/Navajo tribe from northeastern Arizona. She comes from a small community called Round Rock. Her clans are Naakai Dinéʼé (the Mexican People Clan), born for Hónágháahnii (The-One-Who-Walks-Around Clan). Her maternal and paternal clans are Tódichʼiiʼinii (Bitter Water Clan) and Tsiʼnaajinii (Black Streak Wood People Clan).

Fredi earned a BIS degree in Health Promotion, Nutrition Education and Child and Family Studies from Weber State University. She is a graduate IKEEP (Indigenous Knowledge for Effective Education Program) scholar studying Secondary Education with endorsements in Health Education and English as a New Language. She is also a CIRCLES (Cultivating Indigenous Research Communities for Leadership in Education) scholar. Additionally, she is currently a practicing teacher at Moscow High School teaching Indigenous Knowledge Systems as an elective course with the IKEEP for Young People Program. Frediʼs research interests are Indigenous knowledge systems, Indigenous leadership, and Indigenous education sovereignty.

Heewekse Wisdom

Biography:
Heewekse Wisdom is a Nez Perce Tribal member who received her B.A. in Business Management & Human Resources from Boise State University and is currently obtaining her M.A. in the Adult, Organizational, Learning & Leadership Master’s program at the University of Idaho. She works full-time for her Tribe’s local nonprofit, Nimiipuu Fund, as their Programs Officer. As a CIRCLES scholar, Heewekse is focused on building capacity around culturally-responsive Indigenous evaluation processes and a broader community of practice that can better support community-centered programming. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, friends, and dog Maxx!

• Arlen Washines — Tribal Leader — Yakama Nation Tribe
• Caj Matheson — Natural Resources Director — Coeur d’Alene Tribe
• Marsha Wynecoop — Language Program Manager — Spokane Tribe
• Jade Roubideaux — Cultural Preservation Director — Shoshone-Paiute Tribe
• Silas Whitman — Chairman Circle of Elders — Nez Perce Tribe