IJA Board of Directors
To learn more about responsibilities of our board or to review our Board Guidelines Manual, visit here.
Christine Trudeau
Christine Trudeau, Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, is an independent investigative journalist and editor, whose work can be found in High Country News, National Native News, Alaska Public Media, and NPR. She is the current president of the Indigenous Journalists…
Angel Ellis
Angel Ellis is a Citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and has lived, worked, and played within the tribes’ reservation boundaries most of her life. Growing up, her heroes had press passes rather than capes and inspired her to…
Jourdan Bennett-Begaye
Jourdan Bennett-Begaye is the editor and vice president of digital at ICT, formerly Indian Country Today. She is the first woman to be the chief news executive and top editor of the 42-year-old newspaper. She is a Diné citizen…
Savannah Maher
Savannah is an Albuquerque-based reporter with the national public radio show Marketplace where she covers rural and Indigenous economies. She got her start reporting for Wyoming Public Radio and the Mountain West News bureau. Her work has also appeared…
Shondiin Silversmith
Shondiin Silversmith is an award-winning Native journalist based on the Navajo Nation. Silversmith has covered Indigenous communities for more than 10 years, and covers Arizona’s 22 federally recognized sovereign tribal nations, as well as national and international Indigenous issues.…
Angel Moore
Angel’s community is the Peguis First Nation, is a video journalist with APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) the world’s first Indigenous owned and operated network, covering the Atlantic region including Labrador, Angel is based in Kjipuktuk (Halifax) Nova Scotia,…
Jodi Rave Spotted Bear
Jodi Rave Spotted Bear (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation / Lakota) serves as a board member for the SPJ Foundation and at-large director for SPJ, where she chairs the SPJ FOI Committee. After 15 years in mainstream press, she…
Sunnie Clahchischiligi
Sunnie R. Clahchischiligi is Tł’ízíłání, born for To’aheedlíínii, her maternal grandparents are Áshįįhí, and her paternal grandparents are Bit’ahnii. She is Diné from Goat Springs, Arizona within the better known community of Teec Nos Pos. She is a multi-award-winning…
Joseph Lee
He was previously the Senior Indigenous Affairs Fellow at Grist. His work has also been published by ICT, The Guardian, High Country News, BuzzFeed News, Outside Magazine, and others. He is currently working on a book about Indigenous identity,…
IJA Staff
Rebecca Landsberry-Baker
Rebecca Landsberry-Baker is the executive director of the Indigenous Journalists Association, which advocates for accurate representations of Indigenous people in media and press freedom throughout Indian Country. She is a former tribal media editor for the Muscogee Nation News…
Francine Compton
Francine Compton joins IJA from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where she served as a producer for CBC Indigenous in Winnipeg. Before CBC, Compton served as executive producer for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, APTN National News for eastern Canada…
Sheena Roetman
Sheena Roetman, Lakota, is the education manager for the Indigenous Journalists Association. Previously, Roetman spent six years as director of membership and programs at the Atlanta Press Club, as well as nearly 10 years as a freelance journalist. Her…
Justine Medina
Justine Medina (she/hers) is Navajo, Winnebago, Menominee and is from Tongva and Acjachemen Territory (Long Beach, CA). Justine is committed and passionate about serving her Native American community. At the age of 15 years old her community service began…