Member Education Session: Indigenous Tomorrows Fund

Madison Brown, A:ya’gah’ganö:s’ (she has beautiful eyes), Onöndowa’ga:’, is an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation, from the Allegany Territory. Madison is deeply rooted in leadership and advocacy, particularly within Indigenous youth organizations and community development initiatives. 

She served as Secretary (2022-2024) and subsequently, before her departure, served briefly as Co-President of the National Congress of American Indian Youth Commission, fostering her commitment to youth empowerment and tribal governance.  

Currently, Madison is pursuing a degree in Sociology at her local community college, which has expanded her understanding of societal structures and community dynamics. In 2024, she was appointed to the Seneca Nation 1365 Resettlement Committee, a critical role tasked with developing a comprehensive plan for the Seneca Nation's resettlement within the Kinzua Dam Area, lands from which they were forcibly removed in 1965. This appointment highlights her dedication to historical justice and tribal sovereignty.  

Beyond her more formal roles, Madison actively engages in community service and environmental stewardship, advocating for the land and more recently the Allegany River. Her recent internship with Congressman Langworthy (NY-23rd) provided valuable experience in intergovernmental coordination, fostering a keen interest in the intricate relationships between tribal nations and governmental entities, grounded in principles of sovereignty over their people and land. 

Outside of her professional and advocacy endeavors, Madison is an avid outdoorswoman, finding inspiration and connection to the "teachings in the soil" through activities such as fishing, hunting, and gathering.

Katie Lynch (Citizen Potawatomi Nation) is a Potawatomi researcher, engineer, and artist, passionate about building Indigenous-led systems of care. She is currently a Ph.D. Student in Health Infrastructures & Learning Systems at the University of Michigan Medical School and she graduated with a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University in May 2024.

With experience across federal, non-profit, and corporate policy spaces, Katie brings a multidisciplinary and relational lens to her work. Katie is a researcher studying Indigenous conceptualizations of learning health systems and food sovereignty, with particular interests in place-based healing and collective resurgence as forms of radical hope and vibrant Anishinaabe futurism. Her research centers reciprocity and aims to move science and scholarship towards collective liberation.

Outside of academics, she is a 2025 Champion for Change with the Center for Native American Youth, where she advocates for the inclusion of Native youth voices in governance and decision-making. She believes that Native youth must be in the rooms where decisions are being made, to speak truth to power, and to demand a better world. 

In the future, Katie hopes to pursue a career in academia focused on Indigenous food system restoration as a public health mechanism. She finds strength in community, collectivity, and the power of Indigenous people to exist in spaces designed to resist them. Her long-term professional goal, in simple terms, is to give back to her Indigenous community and make a difference in the lives of Indigenous people around the country and world.

Ksé:hahiyé Evynn Richardson is a proud citizen of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe of Hollister, NC. Being extremely dedicated to uplifting Native youth-based services and initiatives, she served on the National UNITY Council Executive Committee as both the Southeastern Representative and the Vice-President for 3 consecutive years, and the inaugural cohort for CNAY’s Remembering Our Sisters fellowship.

Through these communities, Evynn has been able to uplift culturally relevant wellness practices, encourage youth to take holistic-based approaches to problem-solving within their communities, and advocate for healing and justice when it comes to the MMIP epidemic.  

When she is not plugged into these spaces, Evynn is using her platform, The Medicine Kid, to provide artwork for individuals, tribes, and organizations across Indian Country.

By utilizing her artistic gifts, she has been able to build an MMIP art advocacy toolkit, donate funds towards Native youth scholarships, help generate revenue for her tribe, and is currently working on a free archive of MMIP artwork for public use. It is her hope that the work she does will inspire others to utilize their gifts to give back to their communities in whatever ways possible.  

“If you want to know what your purpose is, all you have to do is ask yourself how you will feed the people.”

Savannah Baber is from the Chickahominy Indian Tribe and the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. She grew up in Raleigh, NC, but her family frequently traveled up and down I-95 to stay connected to their tribal communities in Charles City, Virginia and Robeson County, North Carolina. 

Savannah earned her B.A. in English and Politics at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, and she remains a proud Demon Deacon even though she is currently pursuing a Master of Public Administration degree at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Go Deacs, always/Go Heels, sometimes! 

Savannah previously worked at Wake Forest as the Assistant Director for the university's Intercultural Center, and she loved producing co-curricular programming for students. Most recently, Savannah was the Virginia Indian Program Coordinator at Virginia Humanities; in that role, she enjoyed partnering with the tribal nations across the state to promote, preserve, and produce indigenous knowledge. 

Outside of work, Savannah enjoys traveling, going to brunch with friends, and watching bad (but really good) reality TV. She resides in Winston-Salem, NC and insists that it's the most underrated city in the state.

Shandiin was born and raised on Diné Bikeyah, filtering through many different towns on the Navajo Nation during her childhood. She currently lives on traditional Ohlone and Esselen lands, now recognized as the Monterey Bay in California.

Her community has guided her professional work, where she has focused on supporting Indigenous-led nonprofits in communication and development roles, working with grassroots organizations like Yee Há’olníi Dóo or larger legacy organizations like the Association on American Indian Affairs.

With a deep appreciation for traveling and learning from new perspectives, she is grateful to have spent three years studying in France for her Bachelor of Arts in journalism and global communications. She continues to freelance as a journalist with work published through Navajo Times, Peacock Plume, and Changing Womxn Collective.