Director of the All Our Kin Collective

Rachael Nez is a documentary filmmaker and educator who resides in the Southwest. Born and raised on the Navajo Reservation, maintaining heritage languages and working with Native communities are her core passions. Her work centers on utilizing media tools, art, and sensory learning for Native languages, cultural sharing, and language preservation. An Elouise Cobell scholar, Rachael has been an associate professor at the Institute of American Indian Arts, teaching video production, cinema history, and storytelling courses. She strongly believes in Indigenous language reclamation and supports those efforts through her knowledge of multi-media technology. Rachael holds a Ph.D. in Native American Studies from the University of California, Davis, with a Designated Emphasis in Performance and Practice. Rachael is the Post Doc for the All Our Kin Language Collective at Fort Lewis College, sharing and contributing to Native language reclamation.

Email: rnez5@fortlewis.edu

Principle Investigator

Janine Fitzgerald has taught in the Sociology Department at Fort Lewis College for many years.  She has always been interested in socio-linguistics and the importance of bilingualism and language revitalization. Teaching Indigenous students at Fort Lewis College has opened her eyes to the urgency of language revitalization. She was awarded a grant from the Andrew C. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities  to create an Indigenous Language Revitalization Collective.  She speaks Spanish, studies Irish and lives on a farm in Southwest Colorado. 

Email: fitzgerald_j@fortlewis.edu

Project Support Specialist

Trish Hamilton (she/her) is the project support specialist for the All Our Kin Collective. She is an alumna of Fort Lewis College, graduating in 2013 with her BA in Environmental Studies. Trish is Diné and was raised on the Navajo Nation. Durango has been her home for the last 14 years. She believes preserving Indigenous languages and cultures can help strengthen our ability to address social and environmental issues within our communities.

Email: phamilton@fortlewis.edu 

Language Pedagogy Support

Carolina is a Latina scholar from the Mexico-USA border. She works as an Associate Professor in the Borders and Languages program at Fort Lewis College. Carolina has a background in language pedagogies, Latine literature and culture, and she is dedicated to language teaching and working with diverse student populations. She is a member of the team focused on developing language teaching strategies and courses that support the Collective's efforts in language revitalization. She resides in Durango with her spouse, Brenda.

Email: cealonso@fortlewis.edu

Mukurtu Administrator

Rosalinda (they/them) manages the digital collection for the All our Kin Collective, housed on Mukurtu, a content management platform designed for indigenous cultural heritage items. Rosalinda is the Collections and Research Services Librarian at Fort Lewis College is passionate about working with BIPOC students and campus communities. Rosalinda earned a BA in Classical Civilizations from Wellesley College and an MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh. As a third generation immigrant from Mexico, Rosalinda has experienced the profound effects of language loss on cultural understanding of self, identity, and community, and is proud to support initiatives that aim to combat these effects and uplift Indigenous communities.

Email: rhlinaresgray@fortlewis.edu

Digital Media Specialist

Laurel Grimes is the digital media specialist for the All Our Kin Collective. She was born and raised in Austin, Texas, and has been an artist and designer for over eight years. She belongs to the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and is Vietnamese, Chikasha, and of Chahta and Irish descent. Coming from multiple ethnic and cultural backgrounds, Laurel has seen the way different languages shape community and worldview. She is excited about the Collective's potential to contribute to reviving Indigenous ways of knowing through language revitalization. Laurel is currently a PhD student in Native American Art History at the University of Oklahoma.

Email: lagrimes@fortlewis.edu

Restorative Justice Program Coordinator

Sarah is from Chicago and has a background in community organizing and ethnographic research. She is deeply committed to children and their families, and has worked for many years at the intersection of law, justice, and education. Sarah is excited to work with the amazing fellows at AOKC, learning from and alongside them as they work to shape the possibilities of what restorative justice can look like at Fort Lewis College. 

Email: ssilins@fortlewis.edu