Our Team of experts

---

Jennifer Wolf, MPH, (Ponca/Ojibwe/Santee), Owner and Founder of Project Mosaic LLC, has worked with dozens of nonprofit organizations

to define their needs and next steps. She is on the Racial Equity Board for the City and County of Denver. Her cornerstone clients include First Nations

Development Institute and Johns Hopkins University Center for American Indian Health. Jennifer has also has worked with 

Johnson Scholarship Foundation, Denver American Indian Commission, Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs COVID-19 Committee, National Native American Boarding School

Healing Coalition, Denver Indian Health and Family Services, Common Counsel, Buffalo Nations Grasslands Alliance, Native Movement, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, IllumiNatives, and other tribal and educational entities. She has also served as the Director of

Partnership and Business Development for Joining Vision and Action. Jennifer is currently working on her PhD in Indigenous Health at the University of North Dakota.

A member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe, Richard B. Williams holds the distinction of being the first American Indian student to earn a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska.  He earned master's in education administration from UW.  In May 2007, he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. From 1997-2012, he served as president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund, a national nonprofit organization that raises private support for all 32 tribal colleges and universities in the United States.  Throughout his career, he has lectured and presented for various organizations, including the Central Intelligence Agency, National Indian Education Association, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, and the National Council of Educational Opportunity Associations. In 1993 and 1994, he served as a consulting editor for the Discovery Channel series How the West Was Lost. From 1993 to 1997, Williams served as an instructor for the Indian Studies graduate program at the University of Denver. 

Ida Nelson (Oglala/Santee/Ojibwe) graduated from Gonzaga University with my MBA in American Indian Entrepreneurship and has worked at the Native American Bank, evaluating business plans and critically analyzing financial statements, auditor reports, and personal and business tax returns.  She was also responsible for reviewing and adhering to loan polices and regulatory compliance issues.

Nelson also worked for CRAFT3 with their Indian Country Initiatives program.  At CRAFT3, she provided technical assistance to Native CDFI’s and potential loan clients to foster future pipeline activity.  She helped her clients identify, profile, contact and manage potential partners, funders, and program supporters to support the ongoing success of the Indian Country Initiative. Nelson also assisted in grant research and the application process to encourage giving and community support, including assisting with grant compliance and objective completion to ensure future funding. 

Shatta Mejia, White Mountain Apache, has been an independent consultant, international presenter, and content developer for over 5 years. His focus is on Racial, Historic and Linguistic Justice. After spending years serving Indigenous communities in the southwest, Alaska, Caribbean, South America, and South Pacific, he understands that every collaboration starts with listening and putting himself in the shoes of stakeholders and end users. His style is practical and based on data. Shatta understands this because of his experience in education: 11 years as an Elementary and Middle School Teacher before becoming principal. He served as an Assistant Director of Curriculum for Colorado’s second largest district, supervising K-12 Instructional Coaches and leading Educational Equity efforts districtwide. Shatta’s parents met as migrant farmworkers and had 13 children while getting Master’s degrees themselves. When he was growing up in Denver, he was never taught traditions or ceremony, kept away from those extended family who had a lot to teach. In finding his cultural identity after high school, he discovered a passion for helping organizations and students find their collective direction. Across sectors, collective organization building is key to a high functioning culture and longevity! He believes all people are lifelong learners and must have passion for both parts of their job: Data-Gatherer and Artist. But more than that, Heart….

Tara McLain Manthey, MS, Osage Nation, is an experienced nonprofit leader and consultant with a demonstrated success in public policy and direct services sectors. Expert communicator, adept facilitator, and passionate advocate for children and families. Tara has served as the Executive Director of Denver Indian Family Resource Center, Senior Vice President of Advocacy, Communications and Development Senior Vice President of Advocacy, Communications and Development for 

Colorado Children's Campaign, and Communications and Marketing ManagerCommunications and Marketing Manager at 

The Kempe Foundation. She has a Master of Legal Studies in Indigenous Peoples Law from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. 

Eric is both Lakota and Dakota of the Oglala and Wakpa Ipaksan nations. Eric is a proud forth Generation Advocate

for his people. Eric has his Master’s of Public Administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, with a focus in

Tribal Management and Emergency Services.  Eric helped to design and develop the program and its curriculum. Eric Has worked with Tribes, FEMA, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to establish best practices for the tribes in requesting

emergency and disaster declarations.

Eric also worked with American Indian Tribes, Alaskan Native Corporations, and Native Hawaiian Organizations developing their economies. As the Director of Legislative Affairs for the Native American Contractors Association, Eric was a strong policy expert and advocate for the development of Native economies on Capital Hill. He regularly visited Congressional offices and held informational briefings for the Senate

Committee on Indian Affairs and the House of Representatives Committee on Small Business. Eric pairs his passion to serve Native peoples with his knowledge of federal regulations and laws as they

relate to Native populations, his desire is for Native voices to be heard and for action that leads to greater autonomy for indigenous people, globally.

Jason Wolf, MS, has spent the last 25 years as a finance and strategy professional within large enterprise organizations. He recently retired as the Director of Global Mergers & Acquisitions for a fortune 150 publicly traded telecommunications company.  His expertise lies in corporate business development, minority equity investments in start-up companies, market analysis, and business case development.  Jason has spent the majority of his career focused on the growth and innovation of start up to large companies which he now applies to the non profit sector.  He is now focused on data driven fundraising strategies and methods for the nonprofit sector.  Jason has two children that are (Ponca/Ojibwe/Santee) and enrolled as the Ponca Tribe members.  

Brad Krueger, MPH, is a passionate, equity-focused, relationship-centric evaluator. He thrives on building systems to collect, review, and present data. His years of experience, working with county health departments, large and small nonprofits, tribal and urban AI/AN organizations, as well as state agencies, has allowed him to interact with diverse stakeholders and audiences. He humbly embraces opportunities leverage data to support the mission and impact of

organizations he is privileged to support. He received his Masters of Public Health from Des Moines University in 2017 after completing his Bachelor of Science in Biology from Bethel University. Since, he has worked as an evaluation partner alongside organizations such as the American Indian Cancer Foundation, Great Plain’s Tribal Leaders Health Board, Minnesota Department of Health, and the Hmong American Partnership.

Walt Pourier is Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He resides in the Denver Colorado area with his family. Father of three amazing daughters and a beautiful granddaughter and grandson. He is owner and Creative Director of Nakota Designs and Executive Director of the Stronghold Society a nonprofit dedicated to instilling hope and supporting youth movements through Live Life Call To Action Campaigns. Walt has worked with Project Mosaic on health messaging campaigns, branding strategies and logos for Native organizations.

"My focus, through my fine art and graphics and through the many creative movements I support, is to share messages of hope, inspiration and of healthy way of life outlooks. My outreach work, through youth movements, language revitalization, Live Life Campaigns, ending domestic violence, defending childhood initiatives, healthy food initiatives, support of feminine energy outlooks, etc, has reached many, many communities."

Robin Carufel (Ojibwe), has expertise in tribal clinics, Indian Health Service, IHS, healthcare systems, and tribal self-governance.  He has managed tribal health clinics, Peter Christensen Health Center -Lac du Flambeau, WI,  
Mille Lacs Ojibwe Nay Ah Shing Health Center- Onamia, MN, Little River Band of Odawa Indians Tribal Health Center-Manistee, MI, and was the Senior Advisor for the Gerald L.Ignace Health Center-Milwaukee, WI.  He was the lead Self-Governance consultant for the Spirit Lake Nation of North Dakota, guiding them to become the first P.L. 93-638 Title V-Self-Governance Compact tribe in the Great Plains Area of the Indian Health Service.  As part of this process, Carufel assisted the tribe in assuming total control over the IHS Service Unit located at Fort Totten, ND.  He also provided guidance to the Gun Lake Tribe of Potawatomi Indians in Michigan in converting to Title V-Self Governance Compact.  Carufel was the IHS National Budget Formulation Co-Chair during the George H. Bush Administration, representing the Bemidji Area. Carufel has also provided consultation services for the Great Lakes EPI Center, working with tribal clinics to teach them how to apply EPI Center data to tribal clinical settings and translate the information to make organizational decisions.  Having managed four tribal clinics, Carufel has experience using EPI center data in conjunction with community health profiles to expand or redesign health services.  He is also adept at forming partnerships between tribal clinics, between sister agencies of IHS, and with the Centers for Disease Control, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Health and Human Services, state level partners, referral networks and healthcare institutions, and other national organizations that work in the healthcare arena in Indian Country.  

Armando Martinez has worked with Project Mosaic on Public Service Announcement (PSA) projects for the Native American community.  Together Project Mosaic and Armando delivered a PSA to encourage Native Americans to get tested for COVID-19 and another PSA to spread the word on COVID-19 vaccine information.  In addition to being a skilled video creator, he specializes in aerial photography & video, is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop,

and is an FAA Pilot - Sport Pilot PPC Rating, UAS Certificate.  Please visit his website for more examples of his work.  Armando brings a high degree of professionalism to his projects, as well as respect for the communities he serves.  

https://www.armando.photography/

Sally Carufel-Williams (Santee/Ojibwe) has decades of experience organizing and coordinating national conferences, board meetings, and summer youth programs.  She has also helped organizations get off the ground with strategic planning processes.  As an elder advisor, she brings a wealth of knowledge earned from working with national Native American nonprofit organizations including Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, Native American Rights Fund, and Colorado Indian Upward Bound.  She brings considerable life wisdom and insights, and is well respected and known throughout Indian Country.   

Sally co-facilitates the Project Mosaic process by connecting the obstacles your organization is facing to solutions she has seen work.  She also presents the 7-Rs curriculum to ground your team with the principles of:

• Respect
• Relations
• Responsibility
• Reason
• Reciprocity
• Resiliency
• Revolution