Board of Directors Diversity Foundation Home Page

The Diversity Foundation, Inc., a not-for-profit foundation
- officially sanctioned by the US Internal Revenue Service in July of 1997 -

OFFICERS

Mr. Edward Lohnes Jr., Chairperson /CEO-Designate **

Minneapolis, MN

Mr. Lohnes is currently President of Lohnes Strategies LLC, producing Job Fairs at various sites around Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN. Previously he worked at American Indian OIC, Division of Indian Works and Peak Staffing, Inc., one of the Twin Cities largest temporary employment agencies for minorities. He has served as the president of the Minnesota League of Human Rights Commissions and had served on the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission for over 10 years. He was also CEO and board member of the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) held in the Twin Cities in 1995 were over 8,000 Native Youth in Olympic style athletic competition and cultural activities.

At the American Indian OIC he worked in the area of job training and client placement. He came to the AIOIC after serving over 10 years with the Minnesota State Department of Human Rights as an investigator and supervisor. Mr. Lohnes and his father Ed Lohnes, Sr., are both members of the Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation of North Dakota. Both are direct descendents of early Sioux Chief Waantan from that region. Edward Jr, is also a highly decorated Marine Corp Vietnam Veteran. In addition he has served as the president of the Minneapolis Umpires Association for 4 years before retiring after 15 years with the MUA.

He has also consented to become the CEO of DF as it increases involvement with Diversity's Dakota Education and Reconciliation Project series across the Midwest once salaries become available.


Dr. John M. Taborn, Ph.D. Vice Chairperson **

Minneapolis, MN

Dr. Taborn is a licensed psychologist and President of J Taborn Associates Inc., a comprehensive psychological services firm in the Twin Cities. He is an Associate Professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Educational Psychology and former Chair of the Department of Afro-American and African Studies. His research reflects his interest in the mental health of minority groups as well as the impact of racism on personal and organizational functioning in the public and private sectors. Over the years, he has consulted with the leadership and staff of numerous businesses, corporations, public and private schools, colleges and universities throughout Minnesota and U.S. Dr. Taborn frequently serves as an expert witness by the courts and legal system in cases relating to discrimination and family custody issues.

In addition, various State and National law enforcement agencies and professional athletic corporations including the National Football League (NFL), the Minnesota Vikings and Timberwolves, etc. regularly utilize his Clinical expertise. John is also retired as a Captain with the U.S. Navy and is a Bush Leadership Fellow recipient. He has authored numerous articles on Diversity and Overcoming Racism in Education, and serves as a consultant to the Minnesota Supreme Courts Advisory Committee on Racial Bias, a Life-Member of “Who’s Who Among Black Americans” and serves on the board of directors of the Stairstep Foundation. Recently Dr. Taborn was honored by the Midwest Psychologists Association as its founder and for his Lifetime service.


Dr. Sandra A. Crossett, Ph.D. Secretary/Treasurer**

St. Cloud, MN

Dr. Crossett has 24 years of experience in public education throughout the Midwest, 11 of that as a special education teacher and 13 as a school psychologist. During her career she has worked in eight districts across Minnesota and Wisconsin with a variety of cultures and economic settings. She is currently employed in the Osseo-Maple Grove Public School District (MN’s 4th largest) and is serving her third term as chairperson of the District’s Psychology Department, which consists of 17 Psychologists. Her areas of specialty in the school system involve multicultural and bias free assessment and program planning and consultation for children with autism and emotional disturbances. Recently she served on the state of Minnesota’s Committee on Public Education that helped develop and author the new criteria for educational autism spectrum disorders.

Dr. Crossett is also a licensed psychologist specializing in the assessment and treatment of children and trauma and abuse victims. In addition, she serves as a In-home therapist and the Administrative Director of Family Visions, a Twin City, non-profit community-based agency that delivers professional counseling services directed toward family preservation and/or family reunification. Besides her work and service with the Diversity Foundation, she has also served on numerous other boards and committees involving human rights, mental health services, and groups promoting community change.

Lyle Rustad, Executive Director **

St. Cloud, MN

Mr. Rustad has been the principal organizer and overall production manager in developing the Diversity Foundation, its network and services, to-date. For more than 30 years, he has worked and volunteered in organizations such as the American Indian Movement, St. Cloud Area Indian Center, North American Indigenous Games, US Youth Games, Boys Clubs of America, NAACP, and other human services, many related to youth and criminal justice programs, and most reflecting concern for racial justice. A graduate of the University of Minnesota where he studied social work, Mr. Rustad pursued graduate study in education and rehabilitation counseling at the University of South Carolina and, after serving in Vietnam, was a psychiatric social worker in military corrections. Later, as director of the 1,200-member Greater Columbia (SC) Boys Club, supervising more than 100 staff and volunteers, he facilitated its first racial integration, and inclusion of children with disabilities. He co-founded the South Carolina Child Abuse Council and the People Against Sexual Assault program.

In Minnesota, in addition to the Diversity Foundation, Inc., he was producer, director and co-founder with Dr. Tom Eiselt of Diversity Productions of Mankato. He has volunteered in support of Vietnam and Gulf War veterans, in chemical abuse prevention and recovery, in organizations serving persons with disabilities, in a St. Paul Police Department youth mentoring program, the St. Cloud Mayor’s Violence Prevention Council, the Central Minnesota Multicultural Task Force and NAACP, and the St. Cloud team of the Minnesota Churches’ Anti-Racism Initiative. He coordinated filming and assisted with the 1995 North American Indigenous Games, the 1995-98 Birch Coulee "Gathering of Kinship" healing events, and the 1997 dedication of Reconciliation Park in Mankato, honoring living Dakota elders and the memory of the 38 Dakota warriors hung at Mankato following the 1862 "Dakota Conflict."

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mr. John Borman, Trial Lawyer
Winona, Mn.

Mr. Borman is a trial lawyer in Winona, MN. Previously, he practiced for almost 20 years as a member of the Minneapolis law firm of Robins, Kaplan, Miller and Ciresi, as a civil trial specialist, mediator and arbitrator. A political science graduate of the University of Minnesota, he was an organizer for the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG) before enrolling for his J.D. Degree from the Notre Dame Law School. He has practiced before State and Federal courts at every level including the US Supreme Court. He serves on the Board of Governors of the Minnesota Trial Lawyers Association and the Civil Litigation Governing Council of the Minnesota State Bar Association.

He helped organize and has served two terms on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, where he's participated in human rights missions to Africa (Tunisia, Senegal,) Israel and the occupied territories, as well as other global locations. He has authored many publications including the "Handbook on Human Rights in Situations of Conflict." In addition to recognition within the legal profession, Mr. Borman was noted as a "leading American Attorney" by the American Research Corporation, selected as one of Minnesota's "Top Lawyers" in 1998 by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine and voted "Super Lawyer" for several years by the Law and Politics Publication. Borman is a Vietnam combat Marine Corps Veteran and continues to be active with the Corps and the Hiawatha Valley Marines.

Mr. Jerry L. Carter, Journalist/Marketing/Internet Information Specialist

Annandale, MN

Mr. Carter is an Internet Information Specialist, web site designer and program specialist for Lakedale Communications, He started and designed the company's Internet Help Desk. Formerly a county government reporter for the St. Cloud Times, the Duluth News-Tribune and other Greater Minnesota newspapers. His journalism experience includes coverage of city and county government, racial discrimination, socioeconomic developments, and human relations. His heritage (Spanish and Southwestern Native American) gives him the ability to enhance news stories through a minority perspective. As a volunteer with the St. Cloud Area Indian Center, Mr. Carter begin to present a more balanced account of news stories related to Native American issues for area publications. He serves Diversity in the area of media relations and is currently working toward creating and upgrading Diversity Foundation projects’ web sites. He also serves on numerous other civic and non-profit boards and organizations in his home town, including being a Cub Scout Leader.

Ms. Shelley Jacobson, Non-Profit Executive

St. Cloud, MN

Ms. Jacobson is currently the Executive Director of the Greater Minneapolis Girl Scouts and previously held the same position with the Land of Lakes Girl Scout Council, which served over 20 central and northern Minnesota counties. She has spent most of her lifetime working and volunteering in non profit agencies. She has over 20 years of service experience in crisis counceling and programming for women and children in the metro and greater Minnesota. She has also helped facilitate 1st time Collaborative Youth programs with Minnesota Indian Reservations as well as other Minority populations. Shelley's Resume is currently being updated.

James B. Jensen, Attorney/ Small Business Owner

St. Cloud, MN

Mr. Jensen and his wife Julie, are currently co-owners and operators of the Wild Bird Center of St. Cloud. He previously worked over 10 years in product development in the legal department at Bankers Systems, Inc.,also in St Cloud. He is a graduate of the William Mitchell College of Law, with experience in agricultural and small business financial planning. In addition he has done extensive legal work, held board memberships with non-profit agencies, senior citizen law, NSP mediation, as well as working in numerous social and environmental organizations and legal services for St. Cloud, Winona County as well as other communities around the state of Minnesota. Jim's Vita is also presently being updated.

Mr. Oscar Reed, Creator & Director of programs for youth and families challenged by poverty

Minneapolis, MN

A former outstanding running back for Colorado State University that led to a legendary nine-year career as a running back for the Minnesota Vikings that included seven NFL Division championships, along with 3 Super Bowl appearances. Mr. Reed later served 15 years as youth programs director for the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority. He is now director of the Community Empowerment and Prevention Program in Minneapolis, and a consultant on the circle process for preventing violence and resolving conflict. With fellow Viking legend Jim Marshall, he is co-founder of a youth and family service agency, Life’s Missing Link, Inc. He has an extensive background in the Native American restorative justice program, and in leading programs for youth development, employment and pre-apprenticeship, as well as many other experiences related to volunteerism, community Public Relations and charitable fund-raising.

Sgt. Mamie Singleton, Supervisor Investigator, St. Paul Police Department

St. Paul, MN

Sgt. Singleton has over 24 years of experience serving in the patrol, investigative and administrative divisions of the St. Paul Police Department. In addition to being one of the first African American females in Minnesota law enforcement, she was also selected to serve as one of first female field training officers for 10 of those years. Prior to graduating from the St. Paul Police Academy, Ms. Singleton received a scholarship to study communication at Macalester College. She has since completed the criminal justice program at the College of St. Thomas and is continuing to pursue her Education in Business Management at the University of Minnesota.

Active in church and community, Mamie is founder (1994) and director of the Youth Initiative Mentoring Academies (YIMA) which partners adult law enforcement and community mentors with “ at-risk youth” in tutoring and aviation flight training; In addition, she’s a founding member of the Ramsey County Community Sentencing Program, co-founder of the African American Breast Cancer Alliance of Minnesota; board member of the Minnesota Association of Black Physicians and of the American Cancer Society, Advisory Board president at the Free At Last Church of God in Christ and assistant to the St. Paul Central District missionary of her denomination. The St. Paul Urban League and Free at Last church honored her with their prestigious Community Service and Millennium Awards for outstanding service. Recently St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly presented Sgt. Singleton with the City's Karl Neid award for 2002, given annually to the City's top employee who does the most for the entire community through their off-duty public service.

Betty Smith, Mayo Clinic Medical Technician

Betty Smith was born and raised in Rochester, Minn., and has been employed by the Mayo Clinic for the past 20 years in their Transfusion Medicine Department. Previously, Betty was employed by Sears Roebuck, Rochester Post Bulletin and the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company. Her other volunteer and community activities have varied from serving as Brownie and Cub Scout leader, sunday school teacher, Methodist Hospital support group organizer, parent volunteer coordinator with Rochester Public Schools as well as teen drug abuse advisor with the Rochester Chamber of Commerce. She graduated from Rochester Public Schools, and has completed many Mayo Clinic Continuing Education Programs as well as pursuing a business/marketing degree at Rochester Community and Technical College.

Smith joins our Diversity Foundation board after serving as volunteer with DF's on-going Winona-Dakota (W/D) Reconciliation and Cultural Education Program co-sponsored with the City of Winona, Minn. Betty only recently has confirmed documentation of her Dakota Native American heritage. After her mother's death in 2001, she began researching her family history and has since located and met some of her relatives at the Sisseton-Wahpeton and Spirit Lake Dakota Reservations in South and North Dakota. In her research, Betty discovered her great-great-great grandmother was a well-respected Sioux /Dakota Indian who married a French Canadian fur trader prior to the Minnesota 1862 Dakota Uprising and Excile. Betty's mother, Nora Jetty, and aunts were raised on the Spirit Lake Reservation, and educated at St. Micheals and Marty Indian boarding schools. As so many Native American men had done, Nora and her sister, Sarah, left the "Rez" and joined the Navy during WWII, working directly under Admiral Rickover in Washington, D.C. Upon discharge after the war, both ladies moved to Rochester, where they and their descendents have worked and continue to raise their families to the present day.

Betty states Diversity Foundation's work with the W/D reconciliation & educational documentary is "helping to pay tribute to our rich Native American history across southern Minnesota", which she feels "has largely been unknown, yet so important for all cultures to acknowledge & celebrate." During this past year's 2005 Great Dakota Gathering, in Winona, many of Ms. Smith's immediate Rochester and "off reservation" relatives joined, for the first time, with other Dakota and European ancestors from both on and off reservation communities all across the U.S. and Canada. Like Betty's family, many of those attending our W/D Homecomings were descendents of early Dakota who had, for generations, once lived and called Winona and Southern Minnesota their Homeland. These relatives had often lived and survived here in harmony before eventually the 1851 Treaties & subsequent US govt. & military actions and policies had forced their Dakota exile from the entire state in 1862. Betty stated she and her family were very pleased to be involved with the W/D Gathering & DF documentary & were important beginning steps toward "cultural healing & educational awareness process."

Phoukham (Pooh) Vongkhamdy, District Conservation/Asian American Employment Program Manager, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRSC), Mille Lacs County, US Department of Agriculture

Milaca, MN

Born and raised on a family farm in Laos, Mr. Vongkhamdy (Pooh) immigrated to the USA as a youth and has worked for NRCS - as a soil conservationist for nine years. He currently serves as manager of the district office and of the statewide Asian American Employment Program (AAEP). He facilitates AAEP projects nationally and serves as an advisor to the NRCS Civil Rights Programs. Pooh has overcome many obstacles in his life and is often looked to as a mentor and role model to many S.E. Asians who have immigrated to the US. After escaping from the communist Laotian regime in 1980, he lived in a Thailand refugee camp before his arrival here speaking no English. He was enrolled in St. Cloud public schools’ ESL program and became one of the first Laotian graduates of St Cloud Technical High School in 1984. He studied at the University of Minnesota-Morris, and later, received his bachelors degree in Agriculture from the Univ. of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Since 1989, Pooh has worked for the USDA throughout the state of Minnesota leading up to his present position. Pooh and his family reside in St Cloud, Mn. where he has served on the St. Cloud Human Rights Commission. He serves as a community (schools, hospitals etc.) liaison and translator on behalf of Laotian and SE Asian immigrants. The Asian Pacific Islanders Association awarded him their “Excellence in Outreach” Award for his outstanding service. He serves as a volunteer coach for St. Cloud Schools and the Minn. Youth Soccer Association.

Travis Zimmerman, Director, Minnesota Family Investment Program services, American Indian Opportunities Industrialization Center (AIOIC)

Minneapolis, MN

As a Native youth who’s family came from the Reservation “Rez”(Grand Portage band of the Ojibwe), Mr. Zimmerman has always felt the need and purpose to help improve conditions and life for all Indian people and the commitment to serve as a “unifying liaison” between all races and cultures. After completing military service and graduating from St. John's University, he has worked in several areas of youth development, Race relations and Human Rights with special emphasis in American Indian cultural recovery and advancement. Prior to his current position, he provided family self-sufficiency and support services on behalf of the American Indian Chamber of Commerce in Minneapolis and was a lead organizer and Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe (the first ever on a Minnesota reservation).

From 1995-97, as executive director of the St. Cloud Area American Indian Center, Mr. Zimmerman helped develop programs to provide services and opportunities to the urban Indian population never before served. He was instrumental in starting the annual “Unity Pow Wows” designed to create awareness and improve understanding between the Native and Non-Native populations in St. Cloud and surrounding Central Minnesota. He has served on the St. Cloud Human Rights Commission and worked with “at risk youth” as a substance abuse/Youth counselor and as a community liaison worker with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Minnesota, and at the St. Cloud Children's Home.

CONSULTANTS

Andrew (Andy) Paul Favorite, Educator; Archivist, Historian, White Earth Reservation

Waubun, MN

After 25 years as an educator, primarily for Indian children or their teachers, Mr. Favorite in 1997 became the Director of Archives and History for the White Earth band of Ojibwe, building upon prior work as an Ojibwe linguist, storyteller and developer of educational resources on Native American Treaties, language, culture and values. Mr. Favorite is an enrolled member of White Earth, but also counts his descent from the Yankton Sioux “Dakota” Reservation. He also spent two years as economic development planner for the Grand Portage Reservation, and prior to his current position, served as executive director of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, which seeks to reacquire properties lost or sold by the White Earth Band from its original reservation allotted under a treaty with the US Government.

Mr. Favorite earned an MA in educational psychology and studied in the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program at the University of St. Thomas, where he also became the first Native American ever inducted into their Athletic Hall of Fame. He has worked as a recruiter, advisor, counselor, program administrator or curriculum developer at the University of St. Thomas, the University of Minnesota-Duluth, as well as Public and Native American schools throughout Minneapolis and St. Paul. From 1990-93, he served as Educational Director and Home School Coordinator for the Shakopee M’dewakanton Sioux (Dakota) Reservation. He currently serves on numerous boards and committees including the White Earth Tribal College Board of Trustees and Elder Mental Health Advisory Committee. Andy has broad expertise in the history of oppression of indigenous peoples in Minnesota and the USA, and is in high demand as an educator and public speaker.

Cynthia A. (Lindquist) Mala, Cynthia A. Lindquist earned Liberal Arts Bachelor’s degree in Indian Studies and English at the University of North Dakota in 1981 and a Master’s degree in public administration (Indian health systems emphasis) at the University of South Dakota in 1988. As a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow, Ms. Lindquist is completing a PhD in educational leadership, University of North Dakota, and will graduate in May 2006. She began responsibilities as President of Cankdeska Cikana (Little Hoop) Community College in October 2003, which is the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation and her home reservation.

Ms. Lindquist is an adjunct faculty member, Community Medicine & Rural Health, with the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences. She is a founding member of the National Indian Women’s Health Resource Center, a non-profit advocacy organization.

Ms. Lindquist serves as a member of the Barbara Jordan Health Policy Fellowship advisory board for the Kaiser Family Foundation and is also a member of the Council of Public Representatives (COPR), an advisory council to the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Appointed by President Bush to the National Advisory Council on Indian Education (NACIE) in April 2004, Ms. Lindquist serves as the Council’s chairperson. NACIE advises and makes recommendation to the Secretary of Education and the administration on American Indian/Alaska Native education issues.

Recently, Ms. Lindquist was elected as Secretary for the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) the advocacy organization for the thirty-six tribal colleges and universities.

Charles Durrell (Chuck) Robertson, Sr., Writer/ Consultant/ Collaborator, Minneapolis, MN

Mr. Robertson will be one of the principal writers for Diversity Foundation’s Wapasha’s Prairie and Early History of the Dakota (Sioux) educational and Documentary Series. Most recently, he has become a theatrical/ film/ video producer and playwright of national renown. In 1996, he founded Prophecy Productions, a Native American theatre company, which has produced regularly at casinos, universities and Native American gatherings since 1998, and introduced the play, Born Again Savage, at the Aboriginal Voices Festival in Toronto in June, 1999. He is writing the story of tribal encounters with the US Government for Eyapaha Institute, which is led by actor/producer Floyd Red Crow Westerman in Los Angeles.

Mr. Robertson has more than 34 years experience as an educator and counselor, and developed the first Indian Studies Program at Black Hills State University in South Dakota in 1968. He attributes much of his life’s work and commitment to his early days growing up on the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Reservation (where he is enrolled) and attending the Flandreau Reservation Boarding School. Of Dakota and Ojibwe heritage, he became a program analyst with the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity’s Indian Desk in 1970, designing and initiating funding for M.A. and Ph.D. study for Indian students at Harvard, Penn State, and Arizona State Universities and the University of Minnesota – the first graduate training offered Indian students in educational administration.

Later, he was the founding chair of the Minneapolis Indian Health Board as well as one of the founders and principal curriculum writers for the culture-based K-12 Heart of the Earth Survival School in Minneapolis. He also administered the Red School House in St. Paul as well as serving as a lecturer at public and tribal colleges. He has helped develop a program of chemical dependency treatment and recovery for the State of Minnesota and defined a Minnesota law that authorizes schools to hire Native American people to teach cultural information.

L.S. (Lou) Schoen, Consultant ** Minneapolis, MN

Mr. Schoen is a consultant on issues of racism/anti-racism and multicultural diversity in institutions, on communication and reconciliation, race and religion, and on non-profit financial development. He retired in July 1998 as a commission director for the Minnesota Council of Churches (MCC) where he was lead organizer of the ecumenical Minnesota Churches’ Anti-Racism Initiative (MCARI), and supervised the Minnesota Indian Ecumenical Ministry and MCC Refugee Services, among others, and managed the Sin Fronteras migrant loan program. He coordinated cross-cultural studies for the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities (1993-95), and a study of the potential for collaboration in multicultural programming for the Minnesota Consortium of Theological Schools (1993-98).

In addition to consulting, Lou remains active as an anti-racism trainer/facilitator and volunteer organizer in MCARI and in the Episcopal Church where he has held several volunteer leadership positions in the Diocese of Minnesota, regionally and nationally, as well as in his parish. He is author of After Jubilee: Justice…or Exile? – The Church in the Global Economy (Episcopal Parish Services, New York, NY, September, 2000).

He studied political science and organizational development and holds degrees in journalism and religious leadership. A 1963-64 CBS Foundation Fellow at Columbia University, he also spent 30 years as a newspaper, radio and television journalist and corporate public relations executive.

COLLABORATORS

Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Tribe, Agency Villiage, South Dakota

Mayor Jerry Miller and City of Winona, Winona, MN.

Project FINE, Winona, MN, co-sponsor of Episode 1: Wapasha’s Prairie

Winona County Historical Society, Winona, MN

Ernest and Vernell Wabasha (7th generation descendant of the first Chief Wapasha)Lower Sioux Res.


Leonard Wabasha (8th generation descendant…) Mpls., Lower Sioux Reservation, Morton, MN

Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, Minneapolis

Vanguard Productions, Winona, MN

Blue Moon Productions, Minneapolis

Diversity Productions, Mankato, MN

Spirit Lake Dakota Nation, Ft. Totten, ND.

MAJOR ADVISORS

Daniel Pierce Bergin, Producer-Director Twin Cities Public Television

Dr. Roger Bordeaux, Supt. of Sisseton-Wahpeton Schools (Tiospa Zina), Agency Village, SD

Dr. William Crozier, Retired Chair, History Department, St. Mary’s University, Winona; board member/ historian, Winona Historical Society

Jerry Dearly, Oglala Lakota, popular pow-wow MC; secondary cultural teacher, St. Paul Public Schools

Dr. Tom Eiselt, producer-director, Diversity Productions, Mankato, MN

Barbara A. Frey, International Human Rights Law Consultant, St. Paul

Deanna Gallagher, Education Director, Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, Minneapolis

Andrew J. Grey, Sr., Chair, Sisseton/Wahpeton Tribal Council, Agency Village, SD

James Griffin, Deputy Chief (ret.), St. Paul Police Department; historian, author, board member, Minnesota Historical Society.

Dr. Gwen Griffin, Professor Dept of English, Minnesota State University@Mankato; Dakota writer/ consultant, SWST enrolled member

Marcie (Taylor) Halfe- Social Worker/ Dakota advisor & Grandaughter of Eli Taylor, Sioux Valley Dakota Reserve, Manitoba, Canada

Robin Hickman, independent producer of HBO special, The Gordon Parks Story; former executive producer at KTCA-TV, St. Paul

Mike Hotaine, historian, former Chief, Sioux Valley Reserve, Manitoba, long-time international pow-wow MC, Dakota culture and language teacher.

David Larson, historian, educator, Wapasha descendant; former Chair, Lower Sioux Tribal Council, Morton, MN

Dr. Eldon Lawrence, historian, President, Sisseton/Wahpeton Tribal College, Agency Village, SD

Erich Longie, President, Little Hoop Tribal College, Spirit Lake Reservation, Fort Totten, ND

Tim Longie, elder advisor/historian, Member and former Chairman, Spirit Lake Tribal Council, Ft. Totten, North Dakota

Kenneth Lohnes, Spirit Lake Casino Manager, Ft. Totten Children and DayCare Council,Chr., past SL. TERO Chair.

Virginia Mas, Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribal Council mbr, Elder advisor and Dakota language teacher, Agency Villiage, South Dakota

Frank McKay, historian, former Chief, Sioux Valley Dakota Tribal Council, current Police Chief of Dakota/Ojibwe joint Police Department, Manitoba, Canada.

Eva McKay, Sioux Valley Reserve, Manitoba, Elder Education Advisor to the Canadian Government

Billy Mills, motivational speaker, Los Angeles, CA; legendary Oglala Lakota 1964 Olympic distance running champion, one of first athletes honored on a General Mills Wheaties box

Elizabeth Morgan, Cultural Resource Management Director, Spirit Lake Reservation, Fort Totten, ND

Myra Pearson, financial accountant, Little Hoop Tribal College; former Chair, Spirit Lake DakotaTribal Council, Fort Totten, ND
Mark Peterson, Director, Winona County Historic Society

Doris Pratt, Dakota language and Cultural teacher, Sioux Valley Dakota Reserve, Manitoba

Chief Oliver Red Cloud, Chair, Laramie Treaty Commission, Pine Ridge, SD

Ed Red Owl, Dakota advisor/ historian, Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribal planner and grant writer/consultant

Mike Selvage, Dakota advisor/ historian, former Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribal Council member, current SWST Gaming Commisoner

Rodney Steiner, Wabasha descendant, family/ Native American Historian from Santee Dakota Reservation, Nebraska; Independent Businessman, now Kansas City, KS

Albert Taylor, historian, Dakota language teacher, Sioux Valley Reserve, Manitoba

Jake Thompson, Vice Chr. Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribal Council, Historian and educator @ SWST Schools, Agency Villiage, South Dakota

Ernest and Vernell Wabasha (Wapasha VII), Lower Sioux Reservation, Morton, MN

Leonard Wabasha (Wapasha VIII), Dakota language & Cultural Educator, former Computer Specialist, Honeywell, Mpls, Lower Sioux Res, Morton, Mn.

Tom Wilson, Executive Producer, KSTP-TV, St. Paul, MN.

http://www.diversityfoundation.org