Staff & Board

Directors

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Staff

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Advisors

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Darcie Houck

(Mohawk and Ottowa) — Darcie is an attorney specializing in environment, water, and Indigenous land use and is the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) chief counsel. She served as an administrative law judge for the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), presiding over proceedings concerning nuclear decommissioning, affordable energy for low-income customers in the San Joaquin Valley, and utility maintenance/wildfires. Before joining the CPUC, she represented Native American tribes throughout the country on matters involving energy, natural resources, land claims, taxation, water rights, international human rights, and self-determination matters. She also worked at the CEC as a staff counsel and as an advisor to Vice Chair James Boyd. She graduated from the University of California, Davis, School of Law and holds a Master of Science in community development. 

Board of Directors 

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Dr. Beth Rose Middleton Manning

(Afro-Caribbean, Eastern European) — Beth Rose is an Assistant Professor and Department Chair of Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis. Beth Rose is of Afro-Caribbean (Belizean, Jamaican, and Honduran) and Eastern European (Russian, Lithuanian) heritage, and was born and raised in rural northern California, specifically the Mokulumne watershed of the central Sierra Nevada foothills, Miwok country. Beth Rose’s research centers on Native environmental policy and Native activism for site protection using conservation tools. She is also the author of Trust in the Land, an analysis of Indigenous land trusts. She is engaged in participatory action research on Maidu land rights history and contemporary land claims in northeastern California. Beth Rose applies theories from coloniality of power, indigeneity, community development, political ecology, participatory methodologies, and geography. She has received research support from the National Science Foundation, the UC Berkeley Center for Race and Gender, the UC Office of the President, and the Community Forestry and Environmental Research Partnerships program. Beth Rose’s ongoing and future research directions include California Native green entrepreneurship, using environmental statutes for cultural preservation, qualitative GIS mapping of Indian allotment lands, Afro-indigenous populations, the effects of hydropower development on Native lands, tribal resource conservation districts, and indigenizing natural resource policy and planning.

Dr. Joanne Barker

(Lenape/Delaware Tribe of Indians) — Joanne is a professor and chair of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University where she has worked since 2003. She is the author of numerous books including  Native Acts: Law, Recognition, and Cultural Authenticity, published by Duke University Press, and the editor of Sovereignty Matters: Locations of Contestation and Possibility in Indigenous Struggles for Self-Determination, published by University of Nebraska Press. She is currently serving on The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust Board and The Critical Ethnic Studies Journal Board. 

Kim DeOcampo

(Tuolumne Mewuk, Houma-Choctaw) — Kim is Tuolumne Miwok and grew up in the Vallejo area and has worked extensively with the American Indian Bay Area community for over 30 years. She currently is the Director for the Sacred Sites Protection & Rights of Indigenous Tribes, SSP&RIT and is leading the fight for the erasure of Indian Mascots in local schools. Kim has worked for many years supporting the protection of sacred sites and Shellmounds in the Bay Area with Indian People Organizing for Change. She currently works for the local Scotts Valley TANF program, providing resources and training programs for Native people.  

Dr. Melissa Nelson

(Anishinaabe/Métis [Turtle Mountain Chippewa]) Melissa K. Nelson, PhD, is an ecologist, writer, editor, media-maker and indigenous scholar-activist. She has served as a Professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University since 2002 and as President of The Cultural Conservancy since 1993. Her work is dedicated to indigenous rights and revitalization, biocultural heritage protection and environmental justice, intercultural solidarity, and the renewal and celebration of community health and cultural arts.  She actively advocates for Indigenous Peoples rights and sustainable lifeways in higher education, nonprofits, and philanthropy and is particularly passionate about Indigenous food sovereignty at local, regional and global levels. She is the editor of and a contributor to Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future (2008), and co-editor of and contributor to Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Learning From the Indigenous Practices for Environmental Sustainability (2018).  Melissa is also the writer and host of the Native Seed Pod, a podcast dedicated to Indigenous science and Native foods. Melissa serves on the boards of directors of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, and Slow Food Indigenous Terra Madre. 

Julia Hernandez: In Memoriam

(Lumbee/French Canadian) — Julia is a long-time activist on issues of social justice, environmental justice, defending the rights of our youth, and honoring and preserving our Native cultures. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology as well as a BA degree in Criminology with a minor in Ethnic Studies from University of California, Berkeley. She has a Master’s degree in Counseling from California State University, Hayward and an advanced degree in Education Administration. Julia established Nueva Vista High School in the Mount Diablo Unified School District for students at risk of not graduating. She has been involved in Shellmound issues, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, AIM, IPOC, INMSF, Silver Buffalo Consortium, as well as working with significant others of Combat veterans with PTSD over many years. Julia is happily a great-grandmother of five.