Final Reminder to Vote in the 2020 AISES Board of Directors Election!

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VOTE in the 2020 AISES Board of Directors Election!

Final Reminder to Vote:

2020 AISES Board of Directors Election

The 2020 AISES Board of Directors election is underway! The strength of the Board of Directors comes from different areas of expertise, and this year's slate of candidates offer diverse experiences and expertise important for the leadership and growth of AISES. Each member of the AISES Board of Directors serves a 3-year term.

The AISES Board election poll is now open. Electing new Board members is an important part of being an AISES member – please vote today! AISES conducts voting electronically. All AISES professional and college members in good standing are eligible to vote for a maximum of five nominees. Note* You must log into the AISES membership portal to vote. In some cases you may need to renew your membership.

All votes must be submitted by 11:59 MDT on August 1, 2020.


	Learn More and Submit Your Vote

2020 Nominees

Samuel Q. Brown

Kumeyaay

My name is Samuel Brown and I am currently the Viejas Tribal Treasurer. As Tribal Treasurer where I oversee tribal finances, coordinate tribal business and government budgets, and monitor all income and expenses. I also represent the tribe in the pursuit of economic development to ensure a sound financial future. I am eldest child of Samuel I. and Remie Brown, grandson of Ed and Eleanor Brown. I grew up and still reside on the Viejas Indian Reservation. I graduated from Granite Hills High School in 1991 and then attended Grossmont and Cuyamaca Community Colleges, transferring to SDSU where I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1996. While at SDSU, I tutored local Native American high school students in an after-school program. I served two years as President of the Native American Student Alliance and as Treasurer and the Mechanical Engineering Club. I also received a BS in Hospitality and Casino Management from Nation University.

Dr. Grace Bulltail

Crow

Dr. Grace Bulltail, P.E., is originally from Crow country in Montana, a member of the Crow Tribe and a descendant of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Tribes. Grace is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. Grace received an undergraduate degree in civil & environmental engineering from Stanford University and master’s degrees from Montana Tech and Columbia University. Grace received her doctoral degree in the department of Biological & Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. Grace has worked as an engineer developing water resources infrastructure projects and continues to work as a consulting engineer. Grace has also served as an engineering instructor at United Tribes Technical College. She is a recipient of the GEM Foundation Fellowship, Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership Fellowship, NSF IGERT Fellowship, and Cornell Colman Fellowship in completing her graduate studies. Grace returned to Stanford University as a California Alliance postdoctoral scholar in the department of Earth System Science. She is a professional civil engineer licensed in the state of California. Grace has participated in AISES programming for 25 years and is an AISES Sequoyah member. Dr. Bulltail is currently the AISES board of directors treasurer and finance committee chair.

Kristina J. Halona

Navajo

Kristina J. Halona is Navajo from Sawmill, Arizona. She is of the Black Streak Wood People Clan born for the Folded Arms People Clan. The Bitter Water Clan is her maternal grandfather’s clan and the Salt Clan is her paternal grandfather’s clan. Kristina received an Aerospace Engineering degree from Arizona State University and a master’s degree in Engineering Management from George Washington University. Kristina is a Systems Engineering Program Manager for the Antares Rocket Program at Northrop Grumman in Chandler, AZ. Antares delivers cargo to the International Space Station for NASA. In November 2019, Kristina had the unique opportunity to be the live commentary guest on NASA TV at Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX for the NG-12 Antares Launch. Kristina’s been an AISES member since middle school competing in AISES science fairs, which led to AISES scholarships, internships, and leadership opportunities like serving as the AISES National Student Representative. As a professional and a Sequoyah Fellow she has been part of the AISES Professional Chapters in the Bay Area, Tucson, and Phoenix. Kristina would love to continue to serve on the board to give back to an organization that has helped her become the successful professional she is today.

Kurt L. Hansen

Kurt Hansen recently retired from industry after 40 years in the aviation, energy and industrial sectors with GE Aviation, GE Energy, BEPC and then in his most recent role with Belcan.

He has held a broad range of technical, business and leadership roles in these companies, including 20 years of executive leadership experience in engineering, supply chain and business development at GE. During his career, he led or championed many of GE’s change initiatives, including new product introduction, model-based design, Six Sigma and Lean. He retired from GE in 2017 and joined Belcan where he worked for the past few years as VP of Operations.

Kurt holds a BSME from SDSU and an MSME from RPI. He was an active member of ASME, AIAA, the SDSU Engineering Advisory Council and the GE Aviation Community Service Fund Board. He represented GE on the AISES CAC, was Founder and National Hub President for the GE Native American Network, and is a Sequoyah Fellow of AISES.

Kurt and his wife, Dori, reside in Loveland, OH. They have five children and six grandchildren. Now in retirement, Kurt enjoys spending more time with his family, volunteering, and being outdoors.

Brendan Kinkade

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

Brendan was born in Oklahoma as a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and is a Sequoyah Fellow of AISES. On the local level Brendan serves as Chair of the Los Angeles Unified Schools District’s Title VI Indian Education Program and is father to two wonderful high school age daughters who are also members of AISES. On the national level he serves on IBM’s Executive Native American Diversity and Inclusion council, leading initiatives around societal impact and IBM employee engagement. He serves as Vice President, Strategic Partners, Cloud and Cognitive Software at IBM and is also the executive champion of the Native American Council’s Societal Impact and Engagement Squad. The Squad engages in community outreach activities to advance STEM, proposes Impact Grants, and helps build STEM equity in the Native community. Brendan consistently strives to improve current programs and propose thoughtful opportunities for the council to expand. In addition to leading efforts for the Native American community within IBM, Brendan’s global organization is a testament to the values of diversity and inclusion, with 50% of his managers and 45% of his organization being women and/or minorities.

Dr. Adrienne D. Laverdure

Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians

Dr. Adrienne Laverdure is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota. She is a board-certified Family practice physician at Ascension Health in Wisconsin. She previously served the Lac du Flambeau community for almost 20 years, working at the Peter Christensen Health Center. Dr. Laverdure graduated from the Indians into Medicine program at the University of North Dakota in the late ’80s, where she was an AISES member in the college chapter. Dr. Laverdure has helped raise two boys in the medical field, one a doctor in Flagstaff, Arizona, and the other a psychologist working for the Minneapolis Indian Health Board. Her daughter recently graduated from

the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Dr. Laverdure volunteers at the Native American Center for Health Professions (NACHIP) program, mentoring and supporting Native STEM students interested in health professions. Dr. Laverdure became a Sequoyah fellow and renewed her commitment to give back and promote health careers and professions in our younger generation. Dr. Laverdure hopes to contribute a perspective of a practicing family physician to the AISES Board of Directors.

Dr. Traci L. Morris

Chickasaw Nation

Dr. Morris, the Director of the American Indian Policy (AIPI) Institute at Arizona State University is a member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma. Under her leadership, the AIPI has grown and diversified its service to Indian Country providing policy analysis, tribally driven research, and economic development capacity building and working with such Indian Country partners as NAFOA, AISES, and the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative.

Morris’s research and publications on the digital divide is focused on Internet use, digital inclusion, network neutrality, and development of broadband networks in Indian Country. Morris spearheaded the groundbreaking Tribal Technology Assessment: The State of Internet Service on Tribal Lands in 2019. Her book, Native American Voices: A Reader, continues to be a primary teaching tool in colleges throughout the country.

Dr. Morris is Affiliated Faculty at ASU's School for the Future of Innovation in Society, an Affiliate of ASU's Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology, President of the Board of the Phoenix Indian Center, and on the Advisory Council of the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums. Formerly, Morris served a two-year appointment (2014-2016 and 2010-2012) to the Federal Communications Commission's Consumer Advisory Committee.

Bryanson Sells

Navajo

It’s a privilege and honor to introduce myself, Bryanson Sells, am of the Salt clan, born for the Water Flowing Together clan, maternal grandfather is of the Red House clan, and paternal grandfather is born for One Who Walks Around clan; affiliated Navajo tribal member from Rough Rock, Arizona. Received master’s degree in Quality & Reliability Engineering and bachelor’s degree in Engineering Mathematics from the University of Arizona.

Holds position of Common Factory Test Platform Manager at Raytheon Missile & Defense as Manager III Electrical Engineering; responsible for leading Engineering and Operation teams to provide common test architectures and processes across production factories; responsible for overseeing cost and schedule management of team products with strong emphasis on anticipating, understanding, and solving problems through delivery of timely, cost effective test solutions. Prior to CFTP role, spent 14 years serving various leadership positions (cross product team lead, integrated product team lead, and section head) within reliability engineering.

Highlights of AISES portfolio involvement include: AISES Sequoyah Fellow, AISES Corporate Advisory Council member, AISES member, and AISES Leadership Summit & National Conference (workshops, judge, mentor).

Highly motivated and results oriented leader with 15+ years of experience in the aerospace & defense industry.

Dr. Wendy F. Smythe

Haida

Wendy F. Smythe (K’ah Skaahluwaa) Ph.D. Alaska Native Xáadas, of the Eagle moiety of Sdast’ aas clan, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth with appointments in the Departments of American Indian Studies and Earth Sciences. Prior to joining UMD, she was a American Association for the Advancement of Science ST&P Fellow hosted by NSF where she worked across the Directorates for Education & Human Resources and Geoscience, she created a workshop series providing foundational knowledge around tribal sovereignty and best practices for evaluating Indigenous proposals. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Michigan State University, co-founding the Native American – Alaska Native Institute for increasing representation of Native students, develop cultural curriculum, and build partnerships with tribal communities.

Dr. Smythe is a geoscientist whose research examines microbial ecology in metalliferious groundwater ecosystems, in addition, she examines attitudes of geoscience professionals towards diversity. She is an Assistant Editor for the Journal of Geoscience Education. Dr. Smythe founded the Geoscience Education Program in her home community coupling science with Traditional Knowledge, language, and culture. She serves on the Board of Directors for Xáadas Kil Kuyáas Foundation a 501 (C)3, non-profit for language reclamation program of the Northern Haida language.

Shaun Tsabetsaye

Zuni Pueblo

Shaun Tsabetsaye is a born-and-raised enrolled tribal member of the Zuni Pueblo. He earned an MBA, a BS in Electrical Engineering, and completed all coursework for a Masters of Manufacturing Engineering in Semiconductors. Shaun is a lifetime Sequoyah Fellow, serves on the AISES Corporate Advisory Council and the AISES Board of Directors. He is currently employed as a Tribal Relations Sr. Project Manager for NextEra Energy Resources and is a Co-Founder & Chief of Marketing and Development for Major Market, Inc. a family business. Since 1998, Shaun has been a servant leader of AISES. He has returned the gift of being sponsored by supporting numerous students and professionals to help them become inspired members of AISES. While employed at Intel Corp from 2006-2016, Shaun worked as an engineer and led Intel’s Native American employee resource group and championed the substantial increase in support for AISES. In 2016, Shaun joined NextEra Energy Resources and elevated the company’s presence as a major sponsor of AISES and earn the company a spot as a “Top 50 Employer for Native Americans in STEM” for 4 consecutive years.

American Indian Science and Engineering Society

4263 Montgomery Blvd NE, Suite 200

Albuquerque, NM 87109

(505) 765-1052 | www.aises.org

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