Dr. Flyswithhawks 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.
Dr. Flyswithhawks retired in December 2019 and returned as Associate Professor of Psychology in the Behavioral Sciences Department Summer 2020. Her years of service to the college include, but not limited to, serving as Department Chair, Department Chair Council Chair, President of the Academic Senate, and Executive Councilor member for the All Faculty Association Union (AFA). She is Founder of the Native American Center, Emeritus Faculty Advisor, and Emeritus Faculty Director of the SRJC Native American Summer Bridge Program. She also Founded the Native American Faculty and Staff Association and served in the role of President for three years.
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 as President 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.