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Our team

The Indigenous Agroforestry Network organizers includes many partners in addition to our core team.

Amanda Squiemphen-Yazzie

  • Community Outreach Coordinator

    Amanda, Wasco, Navajo, Yakama, and Citizen of Warm Springs Nation, supports project and partnership coordination and outreach for the Indigenous Agroforestry Network.

Alexi Lovechio


  • Forests & Ecosystem Services Program Manager, Ecotrust

    Alexi coordinates the planning and implementation for projects that support tribal forestry, agroforestry, and climate-smart forestry at Ecotrust.


  • Associate Professor, Environmental Science Management

    Dr. Lipe is a registered Western Band Cherokee tribal member and an Associate Professor at Cal Poly Humboldt in the environmental science management department.

Frank Lake


  • Research Ecologist

    Dr. Lake is a researcher of restoration ecology and incorporation of Indigenous knowledge into landscape management at the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station.

Don Motanic


  • Tribal Forestry Consultant (retired)

    Don, Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation, is self-employed after retiring from a 44-year tribal forestry career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Intertribal Timber Council.


  • Forest & Ecosystem Services GWA Fellow

    As a Forest and Ecosystem Services GWA Fellow at Ecotrust, I work at the intersection of climate resilience and health equity, with a focus on how environmental change impacts BIPOC communities. With over a decade working in Western medicine and as a current nursing student at Nightingale College, I bring a health justice lens to ecosystem work. I also carry experience as an herbalist, milpas/polycultural gardener, and forager, drawing on land-based knowledge to inform my approach. I’m a disconnected mixed-race Native (Coahuiltecan, Pueblo) and Ashkenazi Jewish person, and my work centers anti-oppressive frameworks rooted in social justice. I’m a W.E.B. Du Bois Scholar, a graduate of Bard College at Simon’s Rock, and a proud alum of the Atabey Medicine Program.

Jessica Black


  • Director of the Center for Indigenous Health, Culture & the Environment

    Dr. Black is the Director of the Center for Indigenous Health, Culture & the Environment, an Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Studies, and the Chair of the Science Department at Heritage University.

Kate MacFarland


  • Research Ecologist

    Kate is an agroforester for the USDA National Agroforestry Center.


  • Courtesy Faculty, Forest Ecosystems & Society

    Dr. Bishaw focuses in the areas of agroforestry, international forestry, and sustainable natural resources at Oregon State University.

Patrick Shultz


  • Extension Forester, Washington State University Extension

    Patrick develops agroforestry pilot projects to benefit land managers in Washington State.