Speakers

Sophia Madrigal

Sophia Madrigal is an enrolled member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians and is of Turtle Mountain Chippewa descent. Sophia is an actor, writer, and director whose work centers on Indigenous storytelling and cultural preservation. Her plays and films have reached national audiences, with performances at Yale University, the California State Capitol, and the United Nations. She is a Junior at Harvard University studying English, Psychology, and Storytelling. A graduate of the Orange County School of the Arts, Sophia was a member of the El-Erian Acting Conservatory, earning recognition as the finalist for the 2022 Orange County Artist of the Year in Theater. Her talents were further acknowledged with the Misty Upham Award for Young Native Actors from Yale University in 2023.

Sophia is the founder and co-director of the Luke Madrigal Indigenous Storytelling Nonprofit, through which she has brought powerful stories to life, including the original Cahuilla play Menil and Her Heart, which has been performed at over 20 venues. Wildflower: Indigenous Spirit, a film rooted in Anishinaabe storytelling, garnered her the Inaugural GSUSA Gold Award and the Rupert Costo Medal in American Indian Affairs at UCR Writers Week. 

In addition to her artistic work, Sophia is a dedicated advocate for Indigenous rights. She has collaborated with Assemblyman James Ramos and serves as a California Native Youth Gen-I Ambassador, a program established by the Obama White House. In 2025, she will also serve as a CNAY Remembering Our Sisters Fellow. For her leadership in Indigenous arts advocacy, she was honored with the Ms. Foundation Free to Be You and Me Award, presented on behalf of Gloria Steinem.

Isabella Madrigal

Isabella Madrigal is an enrolled member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians and is of Turtle Mountain Chippewa descent. Isabella is a recent graduate of Harvard College where she majored in English and won the Harvard Hoopes Thesis Prize for her screenplay, Menil and Her Heart. Isabella and her sister Sophia are the Co-Directors of the Luke Madrigal Indigenous Storytelling Nonprofit, which produces and creates films, theater performances, and workshops dedicated to uplifting Indigenous voices. Isabella’s play Menil and Her Heart was a winner of the Yale Young Native Storytellers Contest and has been featured at 16 venues across the nation, including the United Nations and the California State Capitol in 2022 for legislators voting on issues surrounding Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. Isabella currently sits on the Youth Advisory Board for the Center for Native American Youth (where she was previously named a Champion for Change). As an actress, Isabella is best known for Menil and Heart, Rutherford Falls, and Marvel’s Echo. Isabella is also featured in the fifth issue of the bestselling series Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls: Inspiring Young Changemakers. Currently, Isabella is a filmmaking recipient of the Center for Cultural Power’s Culture Bearer Award.

Renda Dionne Madrigal, Ph.D

Renda Dionne Madrigal, Ph.D., is  Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Registered Drama Therapist, and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. She was featured on the cover of the February 2018 edition of Mindful Magazine and is featured as a 2022 Powerful Woman of Mindfulness (August edition). She is a mentor for the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Mindfulness Awareness Research Center Teacher Training Program, and Stanford Certified Applied Compassion Educator/Consultant.  She also has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts and is faculty at the Drama Therapy Institute of Los Angeles and California Indian Nations College, President of Mindful Practice Inc. and works with story medicine (embodied mindfulness, narrative and drama/creative arts).  Dr. Dionne Madrigal has been a Licensed Clinical Psychologist for over twenty years. She combines mindfulness, somatic (body-based) therapies, and story in much of the work she does. She is enrolled Turtle Mountain Chippewa. Her heritage informs her work. She is involved in healing theatre and has appeared in indigenous plays written by her daughters, Menil and Her Heart and Wildflower: Indigenous Spirit and Dragonfly. In her spare time, she enjoys writing fiction featuring Indigenous female protagonists who save the world. Her book The Mindful Family Guidebook  is available through Parallax Press and Penguin Random House and was listed as a Best Book of Mindfulness 2021 by Mindful Magazine. She is currently working on her next book Story Medicine and fiction book Silenced. 

Martha Guzman, Regional Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9

Martha Guzman was sworn in as EPA Regional Administrator for the nation’s Pacific Southwest Region (Region 9) on December 20, 2021. In this role she is leading EPA efforts to protect public health and the environment for the region spanning Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, the U.S. Pacific Islands territories, and 148 Tribal Nations. Her focus is on advancing President Biden and Administrator Regan’s priorities in the areas of climate change, environmental justice and scientific integrity, and more broadly on achieving progress in making the air, land and water cleaner and safer for the residents of the Pacific Southwest. Notable in a region with a significant Hispanic/Latino population, Guzman is the first Latina to serve as Regional Administrator.

Martha Guzman came to this EPA position after having served as a Commissioner at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for the previous five years. Her portfolio included fiscal oversight of utilities, broadband for all, water affordability, access to clean energy programs for disadvantaged communities, and prevention of disconnections of basic utilities. She spearheaded the Interagency Solar Consumer Protection Taskforce, the Tribal Land Policy, and COVID Arrears Response. She also represented the CPUC on the California Broadband Council and the Lithium Valley Commission.

Prior to joining the CPUC Guzman served as Deputy Legislative Affairs Secretary in the Office of the Governor of California, where she worked on the legislative passage of the Human Right to Water and the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, reorganized the Safe Drinking Water Program, and advanced climate goals related to short-lived climate pollutants and renewable energy legislation. Earlier in her career, she was Sustainable Communities program director for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation. She also worked for Swanton Berry Farm on human resource issues, and before that, she was the legislative coordinator for United Farm Workers.

Guzman earned a Master of Science degree in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis, and a Bachelor of Science in International Economics from Georgetown University.

Dr. Samantha Chisholm Hatfield, Assistant Professor Senior Research at Oregon State University

Dr. Samantha Chisholm Hatfield is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, from the Tututni and Chinook Bands. Dr. Chisholm Hatfield is also Cherokee.

Dr. Chisholm Hatfield is currently an Assistant Professor Senior Research at Oregon State University in the Fisheries Wildlife and Conservations Sciences department. She teaches various courses focused in TEK including: Intro to TEK, TEK Applications, Native American Agriculture, Ecosystems of Pacific Northwest Indians.

Dr. Chisholm Hatfield has earned an American Sign Language Interpretation certification, a Bachelor of Science in Ethnic Studies with a concentration in Native American studies and a minor in Cultural Anthropology from Oregon State University. She holds her Doctorate in Environmental Sciences from Oregon State University. Her revolutionary dissertation work has been considered groundbreaking research and heralded for the way she has melded physical and social science, combining empirical research with social science methodology. She was the lead author for the Tribal Cultural Resources chapter for the state’s fifth Oregon Climate Assessment Report, and is a current author for the current Fifth National Climate Assessment report.

Dr. Chisholm Hatfield’s specializations include: Indigenous TEK, Tribal adaptations in response to climate change, and Native culture issues. She’s worked with Oregon Climate Change Research Institute as a Tribal liaison an researcher, and successfully completed a Post-Doctoral Research position with Northwest Climate Science Center. She’s spoken on national and international levels for such events as the First Stewards International Symposium, National Congress of American Indians, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, Korean Broadcasting System, and UNESCO Intangible Culture Heritage Haenyeo commemoration, and TEDx. She’s helped coordinate Tribal participation for the Northwest Climate Science Center and USGS Climate Boot Camp workshops. Her dissertation has been heralded nationally by scholars as a pioneering template for TEK research, and remains a staple conversation item for academics and at workshops. She is a Native American Longhouse Advisory Board member at Oregon State, was selected as an H.J. Andrews Forest Visiting Scholar, repeatedly a featured blogger for Union of Concerned Scientists, and chosen as a Korean Foundation Fellowship Field Research Scholar to study TEK in South Korea. Samantha is a photographer, author in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, is currently learning Tolowa, Korean, as well as continuing her study of Chinook, and actively participates in her traditional cultural practices utilizing TEK.

Dr. Stan Rodriguez, Heritage Commissioner

Dr. Stan Rodriguez, member of the Santa Ysabel Band of the Iipay Nation, is a mentor to students of all ages and advocate for cultural preservation. Serving in a number of advising and teaching roles in universities and organizations across southern California, he is dedicated to educating about Kumeyaay history, culture, and language revitalization. Dr. Rodriguez was appointed to the California Native American Heritage Commission in 2021. Dr. Rodriguez served in the U.S. Navy from 1985 to 1991, earned a Master of Arts degree in Human Behavior, and Doctorate in Education from the University of California, San Diego.

Stacey Montooth, Executive Director of the Nevada Department of Native American Affairs

Stacey Montooth, a citizen of the Walker River Paiute Nation, is the Executive Director of the Nevada Department of Native American Affairs. Appointed in 2019, Montooth is a member of Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo’s cabinet and serves as the liaison between 28 federally recognized Tribal Nations, Bands, Colonies, and 62,000+ Urban Indians who choose to make Nevada their second home.

Created by statute in 1965 to “study matters affecting the social and economic welfare and well-being of American Indians residing in Nevada” the agency recently became a standalone department. Working with a 5-person board of commissioners, Montooth oversees the day-to-day operations of the Department of Native American Affairs which includes the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center & Museum. The cultural center outlines the history of Indian boarding schools in America through first hand accounts.

A direct descendent of a survivor of the Stewart Indian School, Montooth is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. She has spent over a decade in service to Nevada Tribes. From 2012-2019, Montooth worked at the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony as that Tribe’s first public relations/ community information officer. During her six-year tenure, she organized community events and implemented communications plans and campaigns on behalf of tribes and thousands of Native Americans. Montooth also served as a crucial liaison for press inquiries as well as legislation involving key tribal issues, including health care and taxation.

Meyo Marrufo

Meyo Marrufo is Eastern Pomo from the Clear Lake basin. While her tribe is from Robinson Rancheria, she has lived and learned from other California tribes. When she started coming of age, she began to learn traditional Pomo regalia and food preparation from the ground up. As she deepened her art practice, she began sharing her knowledge in cultural arts, regalia making and traditional foods with others. Her digital artwork shows examples of basket patterns, traditional dancing, and Pomo life, and is shown throughout California. Because of her interests and feelings about California Tribal Lifeways, she is a contributing editor for News from Native California, board member of the California Indian Environmental Alliance and member of the Pomo Weavers Society. Meyo also works in a conscious and direct way towards curating artwork and representing tribes throughout Indian country.