THE CULTURAL CONSERVANCY
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
AND STAFF

Kimla McDonald, Secretary, M.A. University of California at Berkeley (Landscape Architecture). Kimla is a former consultant to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Department and Associate Producer of the Sacred Land Film Project. She is currently training as a Midwife. Kimla is an excellent grant writer and organizational development consultant. She has decades of experience protecting sacred sites and working with Native nations in the desert Southwest and serves as a special advisor to our indigenous health projects.

Melissa Nelson (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) President, Ph.D. University of California at Davis (Cultural Ecology).
Melissa serves as the president and executive director of the Cultural Conservancy and teaches American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University. She is a writer, project manager, and consultant to tribes on environmental planning and cultural restoration. Her specialty areas are Native American ecology, indigenous environmental knowledge, and cultural restoration.

Otis Parrish (Kashaya Pomo) Treasurer, MA Archeology, Ph.D. Candidate UC Berkeley (anthropology). Cultural Attaché, Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology, UC Berkeley, and former Educational Director of The Cultural Conservancy. Otis as a nationally recognized California Indian leader in the fields of repatriation, archeology, and Indian education. He is one of ten remaining fluent speakers of the Kashaya Pomo language and is a respected elder and counselor for Native American communities in northern California. Otis is the son of the famous Essie Parrish, a Kashaya Pomo healer.

Robert Uhrle (Samoan), Robert is an activist, educator, and founder of AIGA (Advocate Initiatives for Grassroots Access), which focuses on building capacity and empowering Pacific Islanders communities in promoting and preserving the languages and culture of the Pacific Islands. He also serves on the board of the Gates Millennium Scholars Program.

Claire Cummings - our founder

STAFF AND CONSULTANT TEAM

Melissa Nelson (Ojibwe) -- Executive Director.

Padma Holland (Mexican-American) -- Acountant. Padma is a bookkeeper for non-profit organizations and small businesses around the San Francisco Bay Area.

Tsering Wangmo (Tibetan) -- Tibetan Project Director

Philip Klasky -- Storyscape Project Director. Phil is an environmental and indigenous rights activist. He is the co-director of the Bay Area Nuclear Waste Coalition and has worked for eight years to fight the proposed radioactive waste dump at Ward Valley, California. Phil holds a Master’s degree in Cultural Geography from San Francisco State University

Colin Farish -- composer, musician, producer, sound engineer. Colin is the owner of Stillwater Sound Studios at the Presidio Main Post Chapel in San Francisco www.stillwatersound.com. He does audio work for our Storyscape Project, is an instructor for our Ethnographic Audio Recording workshops, and assists us with producing musical concerts and cultural events at the Main Post Chapel.

Celeste Levy -- web designer