Dr. Flyswithhawks (President) is a citizen of the Tsalági Eastern Cherokee Nation, Qualla Boundary Reservation, Cherokee, North Carolina and currently makes her home in Santa Rosa on the territorial land of the Southern Pomo people. She is Bird Clan by birth and is a traditional dancer, singer, drummer, and storyteller. Dr. Flyswithhawks adheres to her traditional Tsalági teachings and believes that all Native people are in a coming home process…a coming home to their traditional way of life.
She is Professor of Psychology, Past Department Chair of the Behavioral Sciences Department, and Past Academic Senate President at Santa Rosa Junior College. Dr. Flyswithhawks retired in December 2019 and currently serves as Adjunct Professor, Past President of the Academic Senate, and Executive Councilor for the All Faculty Association Union. She is Founder and Emeritus Faculty Director of the SRJC Native American Summer Bridge Program.
Dr. Flyswithhawks served as a consultant to the National S.E.E.D. Project (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) at Wellesley College for 30 years, becoming one of its three Co-Directors in 1998. She established the SRJC S.E.E.D. Program and is a national consultant regarding American Indian clinical, legal, and tribal matters and lives her life as an Indigenous activist addressing structural systemic racism and other forms of oppression, advocating for the rights of all First Nations people.
Dr. Flyswithhawks is a cultural bearer, water protector, and environmental cultural educator working to bridge western and traditional science. She served on the Native Advisory Council for Pepperwood Preserve as founding member for 10 years, serves on LandPaths Board of Directors, and is currently partnering with a team of local western wildfire biologist and scientist to educate and assist in the rethinking of wildfire, science, and climate through an Indigenous lens. She reminds us that we come from the land and works daily to educate all on how to be in relationship and better stewards of the land we inhabit.