Josephine McKay (Treasurer) is a descendent of the Dry Creek Pomo/Wappo and Northern Sierra Miwok People of Northern California and an enrolled member of the Ione Band of Miwok Indians. She is extremely fortunate to have been raised in a very traditional home where she was taught to speak her Indigenous languages, to weave baskets, gather basketry materials and ancestral foods, hunt wild game, dive for abalone, and hear the stories and histories of her People from her elders. It is vital to Josephine that she pass these traditions on to the children in her family so that her people’s ways continue for generations to come.

Josephine graduated from Sonoma State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Minor in Native American Studies and from UC Berkeley with a Master’s Degree in Social Welfare. Her focus as psychology instructor is connecting how the history of Native people impacts the psyche of who we are as Native people today. She enjoys teaching in the Native American Studies Department at Sonoma State University as it allows her, as a Native Woman, to give voice to the history, traditions, and current existence of Native People in California, which is essential in the education of students.

Prior to SRJC, Josephine was a Department Section Manager at the County of Sonoma Human Services, Family Youth and Children Services Department, in Santa Rosa since 2004. She has been a Professor of Psychology in the Behavioral Sciences Department since 2015 and accepted a Tenure-Track position beginning Fall 2024.