Stefanie O’Connor has a double major in History and Geology along with an Associate Degree in Science. She graduated in May 2014 and is currently applying for Grad School to obtain her Masters in History. Stefanie completed her Senior Honors Thesis in Native Indian Dance in 2014; during her process in writing her Senior Honors Thesis she was adopted by Leonard Little Finger a Lakota Elder, whom now she calls grandfather. Stefanie participated in the Undergraduate Conference in 2014, held the position of Geology Club President from 2009-2013, is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, participated in the Leadership Program in 2009-2010, a member of Student Government 2009-2010, Honors Program Membership from 2011-2014 In her free time she enjoys reading, researching, golf, swimming, spending time with her 10 year old son, being outdoors hiking and fossil collecting.

Nell Orndorf holds a Bachelors degree in psychology from the University of Akron (1985) and a Masters degree in Family Ecology from the University of Akron (1990.) She also served as a board member for the Native American Indian and Veterans Center of Summit County. Nell's native American heritage is Ojibwe and Blackfoot from the Turtle Clan on her father's side. Her husband, Jim is Lakota. Nell provides consultation to several universities on Native American issues and pow wows. In addition, she teaches sewing, crochet, tatting, quilting, Native American beading, card making and scrapbooking as a way to help and encourage others in honoring and preserving their culture, customs, and heritage. Nell has proudly sewn and presented ceremonial regalia and quilts for many friends and dignitaries in the northeast Ohio area.

Mona Polacca is a Havasupai, Hopi, and Tewa member of the Colorado River Indian Tribes of Parker, Arizona. She is one of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers – a group of spiritual elders, and wisdom keepers. Promoting a call of basic consciousness that we are all related.

She is an author in social sciences, has served as Treasurer for her tribe, and is known for her social and spiritual activism and leadership.

Her work includes the drafting of Water Declarations, as a “call for protection of the cultural and sacred waters” on the lands and territories of the Indigenous peoples of the world, and planning the Indigenous World Forum on Water.

Laura Fong is an award-winning photojournalist; her photos have been published nationally and internationally. Her heartfelt and sensitive documentary work about women’s issues, and military service members and the transition to civilian life have been featured on NPR and in national media.

She holds a Master’s Degree in Journalism from Kent State University, where she was awarded a scholarship from the Women’s Center in 2010 and served as a member of the board.

Currently, she teaches Digital Science and Multimedia Journalism at Kent State University in addition to her freelance documentary film-making career, while raising her 9-year-old daughter, Lily.

Kimberlee Medicine Horn Jackson, Yankton Sioux, is an emerging Native American poet and writer. She studied for and received her MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry at Ashland University. Her current study if for an Master of Arts in Intercultural Studies with George Fox University and in partnership with the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies with an expected graduation date in 2015. Recent publications of her poetry are in The Prairie Wolf Press Review and The Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art and Thought. She has been invited to share her writing at Bowling Green University, Firelands Campus and Ashland Theological Seminary for the Created in God’s Image: Walking Holy Ground Together conference. As an adjunct English professor at Kent State University Geauga Campus, she teaches the Native American Boarding School Era to College Writing II classes because it is still a hidden layer in American history. Her passion is writing and researching past and present concerns for Native Americans, writing about life as a Native American adopted off the reservation under false pretenses and the intersection between traditional ways and Christianity.

Karen Hillman is the Director of Marketing & Communications for Kent State University Libraries. The Libraries' Communication Office actively promotes library services, resources and events. On behalf of the University Libraries, she attended The 13th Gathering of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers held in Spearfish, South Dakota. Her personal interest in the symposium lies in two things: helping women feel confident and comfortable in leadership roles; and furthering a welcoming acceptance of cultural diversity. The University Libraries support and embrace diversity, learning and the pursuit of information. They are also a sponsor of the exhibit and symposium.

Heather Haden is the Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Massillon Museum. Soon to be a double alumnus of Kent State University, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Design and will receive her Master of Arts in Art History degree in May 2015. Her masters thesis, “The Aesthetics of Unease: Anthropomorphic Telepresence Installations and the Technological Identity,” explores new media installations of telepresence art within the genealogy of Surrealism, namely Surrealist photographer Hans Bellmer. Prior to her current position, Haden taught art history and fashion illustration as an adjunct at Kent State University and served various roles at the Kent State University Museum from 2007-2013

She has presented independent art historical research to regional, national, and international audiences at the conferences held through the Midwest Art Historical Society and the College Art Association. In 2015 she will present at The Image Knowledge Community Conference in Berkeley, California and will represent the Massillon Museum at the Ohio Museums Association Conference.

Dr. Dianne Kerr is currently an Associate Professor of Health Education and Promotion and Provost’s Faculty Associate for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Kent State University. She is affiliate faculty for the College of Public Health, Women’s Studies and LGBT Studies at Kent State University. Dr. Kerr received her PhD from The Ohio State University in 1992. Prior to that she was the HIV/AIDS Project Director for the American School Health Association. There she wrote an AIDS Update column for the Journal of School Health and directed a CDC cooperative agreement which enabled her to travel the U.S. training school personnel to teach about HIV/AIDS during the early years of the epidemic. Dr. Kerr is a 2-time recipient of the Ohio AIDS Service Award in the category of education and prevention and was recently named a Distinguished Alumna of Slippery Rock University, her undergraduate alma mater. She has published and presented extensively on diversity issues and health disparities. A few pieces of Dr. Kerr’s Hopi pottery collection are featured in our exhibit.

Denise A. Harrison has an English Literature degree from Miami of Ohio. She has taught at Kent State University for the past eight years. In addition, Denise holds a cognate in Women’s Studies and actively teaches about the intersections of race, class, gender, sexual orientation and sexual minorities in her college writing courses. She has a background in African American women writers. Her rising interest and scholarship is informed by questions of reproduction equity in the lives of women of color. Ms. Harrison teaches an Honors Colloquium—Shakespeare: Revisited, Early Modern Mirroring the Post-Modern World. As a social activist instructor, Ms. Harrison includes experiential learning in all her courses. In the past two years, she has been instrumental in developing a project that allows students to travel to Seneca Falls, New York to walk in the footsteps of American’s first feminist, Africans seeking freedom and the Indigenous populations calling for basic human and sovereign rights. The project will become a course in Spring 2016.

Denise Bedford is currently the Goodyear Professor of Knowledge Management at Kent State University and is adjunct faculty at Georgetown University’s Communication Culture and Technology program. She teaches a range of course s in knowledge management and enterprise architecture. Her current research interests include communities of practice, use of semantic analysis methods and technologies, knowledge economy, knowledge cities, intellectual capital representation and investments, and knowledge sharing behaviors. Dr. Bedford has a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from the U niversity of Michigan. In 2010. Dr. Bedford retired from the World Bank as Senior Information Officer. Her experience also includes NASA, Intel Corporation, Stanford University, as well as a variety of consulting engagements.