Our Mission
Working primarily with both American Indian communities and rural areas to develop capacity and mentor individuals and work towards equitable policy change.
Our Vision
We have changed systems that had perpetuated environmental and health disparities related to the impacts of institutional racism and multi-generational trauma. We have healthy communities in which the following elements are increasingly evident:
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Community Wellness
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Cultural Respect
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Educational Quality
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Access to Services
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Individual and Family Wellness
Our Team
Board
Our board members have worked with tribal, municipal, county, state, and federal partners on projects such as the impact assessment on uranium mining, wage theft in Gallup, and the systemic racism issues and alcoholism targeting the Native American population.
Our board members have coalesced around volunteerism, leadership development, fundraising, and various other activities to engage members of our growing community. Volunteer today & work with our board members!
Larry Foster
Board President
Larry was born and raised as Kinyaa’a’a’nii-Towering House and Dzil’ta’ahnii-Mountain Cove Clans, his Grandfather is: Tab’baaha-Water Edge and Kinlichi’nil-Red House Clans, and married to Bitahnii-Leaf Under His Cover People Clan and To’d’chi’ii-Bitter Water Clans. Larry was educated and graduated from the Window Rock Unified School District. He is the son of a Navajo Code Talker, and his great grandfather is Narbona Tso-Ta’chi’I’n’I and Kinlich’l’nii Clans, involved with the 1864-1868 Long Walk and Navajo Treaty negotiations. Larry practices the Traditional Dine Navajo orientation, gaining knowledge of being a bilingual speaker. Larry's western education includes a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA); a Public Health Certificate from Dine College.Larry and his wife adopted two Dine Navajo children through the American Indian Child Welfare Act; our participation in the Federal Repatriation Act; the American Indian Religious Freedom Act-Public Law 103-344 with the Native Inmate Spirituality. In closing, Larry has supported and participated in the Trail of Broken Treaties, Occupation of PHS 6; the Longest Walk; the Big Mountain Resistance; Supporter of Wounded Knee II Liberation; active at the Standing Rock Movement; Save Oak Flat Apache Strong Hold.
The activism to rebuild Dine Sovereignty doo Ahiyihe.
Tammi Moe
Vice President
Tammi Moe is the Director of the Octavia Fellin Public Library in Gallup, New Mexico. She oversees all library operations and stewardship of the City of Gallup’s historical materials and strategic planning for the City’s museums. Tammi holds a Masters in Library & Information Sciences from the University of Denver and brings more than 20 years of international experience working in museums, archives, and libraries. She is widely published on different facets related to information and cultural heritage in physical and digital environments. Tammi was honored as a Qatar Foundation Achiever for her work developing one of the largest visual archives documenting cultural transmission in the Islamic world and creating the first documentation of Qatar’s primary sources. Her professional accomplishments are a manifestation of believing in and following a personal vision. Tammi’s strength lies in contextualization, social intelligence, and active communication. Combining a passion for experiencing and understanding culture and her collaborative process enhances her ability to develop information pathways within any community. Tammi strives for equity and empowerment as a mentor and educator. Applying those tenets, she has successfully trained and managed international research teams in the methodologies of library and archival sciences, while overcoming barriers of language, culture, and ideology. She brings a community-focused perspective to her work. She currently serves as a Trustee for the New Mexico Library Foundation and as a board member for the New Mexico Social Justice and Equity Institute.
Percy Byron Anderson
Secretary/Treasurer
Percy was born during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Percy’s childhood was between Manuelito, New Mexico (Navajo Nation), and Gallup, New Mexico. Post education after graduating from Gallup High School has always been with the University of New Mexico in Gallup and Albuquerque.
The majority of work history has been with the Navajo Nation government since the early 1990s starting with the Manuelito Navajo Chapter community and ending with the Navajo Nation Washington DC Office in 2014. Post-education continued with the University of New Mexico from 2015 to 2019.
Since 2018, Percy became involved with the nonprofit sector beginning as a board member of the New Mexico Social Justice Equity Institute. Today, Percy is combining his experience within the government sector as the Vice-Chair of the Manuelito Chapter Land Use Planning Committee and working part-time for the Conservation Voters New Mexico. Percy currently resides in Gallup and is planning on moving back to Manuelito for permanent residence within Surrender Canyon. Being a community advocate and organizer is setting the stage for a bright future. “Through unselfish ambition, the people will benefit."
Sherry Bellson
Board Member
My name is Sherry Bellson. I am from the Pueblo of Zuni in New Mexico. My clans are Sandhill Crane (maternal) and Child of the Eagle (paternal). From our Navajo grandfather, Grover Bellson, we are Towering House. I am a parent, daughter, sister and auntie. I am a lifelong learner who is teachable during challenging moments.
Entrepreneurship is the base of my career. As a sole proprietor it was my pleasure to have run a small business for 11 years on my reservation. This gave me the ability to meet my community members on their home turf. Your Style was my Mane Event. Three children later, transforming into an Independent Contractor for the past 7 years in community organizing has been empowering. As an organizer my primary objective is to bridge the gap between leadership and the communities they represent through supporting indigenous voting rights. The youth need to be included for positive outcomes 7 generations and beyond.
I believe we can have a high impact by welcoming those who have been marginalized and disenfranchised. Helping to build people's capacity through awareness, education, and the right to vote on issues which impact our families.
Staff
The Staff are a dedicated and passionate group committed to advancing social justice and equity by empowering marginalized communities and addressing systemic inequalities in New Mexico. Each team member brings a wealth of knowledge, traditional cultural knowledge, and a deep personal commitment to community. NMSJEI promotes equity, inclusion, and justice for all. We work to eliminate all forms of discrimination, oppression, and violence against individuals or groups.
Anna Rondon
Project Director
Anna is Kinya’aa’aanii Clan and born for Nakai Dineh and whose grandparents are Tabaaha and Nakai Dine. She is a dedicated lifetime advocate for the rights of Indigenous people, which began from her late mother, who is Kinya’aa’aanii. She was involved in many community events and Indigenous gathering in the California Bay Area because like so many other Dine’ people, her mother left her home community of Chichiltah, New Mexico, to seek work on the railroad in 1943, which resulted in the family traveling each summer to Two Wells, the place where her mother and siblings were born. Anna Rondon experienced first-hand this diaspora of Indigenous women and their families from their ancestral homelands to urban cities to work for the railroad, which naturally resulted in negative cultural impacts but which also strengthened the endurance of the Indigenous people to continue successful nurturing of the survival of their cultural roots.
For the past 50 years, Anna Rondon has worked alongside many influential Indigenous leaders and her own spiritual advisors, which has deeply rooted her, educated her in how to navigate movement-building at the various levels of organizing for change and justice. And for the past 40 years, she has worked in various leadership positions.
She has also worked for the Navajo Nation government as a Navajo Nation, Land Use planner across the vast Navajo reservation and for the Eastern Navajo Agency-Local Governance Office and as an office manager for the Navajo Nation Chichiltah Chapter, New Mexico. Her work with the Navajo government also involved employment with the Navajo Nation Department of Health, where she was the Project Director and Co-Principal Investigator for the Navajo Birth Cohort Study, which was conducted in partnership with the University of New Mexico-Community Environmental Health, the Navajo Area U.S. Indian Health Services, and the Southwest Research and Information Center. And since the focus of her work is Indigenous rights, she has also worked as the Native Outreach Director for the Southwest Research and Information Center and with New Energy Economy, the New Mexico, Installation of Solar unit at the Crownpoint, New Mexico, Chapter, as an advocacy for the closure of San Juan Generating Station, and supporting environmental public health protections through pressuring the New Mexico Public Regulatory Commission and Public Service Company of New Mexico.
Zunneh-bah Jim
Co-Director
Zunneh-bah advocates for nonviolent social change, Indigenous/civil rights, environmental rights, socio natural healing/justice, animal rescue/protection, health/wellness, zero waste eco-friendly sustainable lifestyle, Indigenous gardening, Indigenous food/culinary arts, Indigenous language/culture revitalization, reproductive justice and birth/doula work, and more. She also advocates for the awareness and prevention of domestic violence, gun violence, substance abuse, child/elder abuse, bullying,missing and murdered Indigenous Peoples, and more. She founded an online initiative called U NSPIR “you inspire” (United Natives Striving for the Protection of Indigenous Rights) in 2015 to promote the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. She also manages her family’s animal rescue, Rez Animal Protectors, to help take in stray animals.
Jonathan Hale
Community Outreach Associate
Jonathan is from Oak Springs, AZ, Navajo Nation. He is a past member of the 22nd and 23rd Navajo Nation Council as the Chair of the Health and Education Human Services Committee with an objective to serve the constituency of the chapters and the Navajo Nation. The constituencies of both Oak Springs and St. Michaels chapters implemented some changes in their current capital assets, as they are anxious in completing their chapter building projects and to align the community to zoning and community mapping with road infrastructures. Economically St. Michael’s chapter is developed however their community assessment is not in line to further grow economically than they already are. The basics such as chapter certification needs to be accomplished to further sustain the chapter finances to develop community infrastructure.
Akeemi Martinez
Communications HUB Coordinator
Akeemi Martinez yinishyé. Tsi'naajinii nishłį́. Tódich'ii'nii bashishchiin. Táchii'nii e’da shi cheii. Chishi Haltsooí dashinalí. Ákót’éego Diné Asdzáán nishłį́.
Akeemi Martinez is from the Baahaali chapter area, south of Gallup, New Mexico. Akeemi is an interdisciplinary artist. In her creative process she is inspired by problem solving and finding her ideas come to life through experimentation, trial and error and self-learning. She lives on the Rez currently working on her Art practice and being a community advocate. With her past experience in public health advocacy, youth outreach, and media production, she joins NMSJEI as the Communications HUB Coordinator.