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OUR TEAM

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Vivien Fröhlich

Project Coordinator

Vivien Fröhlich is a linguistics and computational linguistics student with experience in teaching German, English, French and Spanish. She did research on the endangered creole language Palenquero in different university projects.

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Sheila Bong

Board President

Sheila is a Blackfeet Tribal member who gained an appreciation for Native language preservation transcribing oral traditions from Tribal Elders in her hometown of Browning, Montana. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Northwest Indian Language Institute at the University of Oregon and is also a Co-Founder of Avant Assessment, a language assessment company that delivers a test of Yup’ik and is developing additional Indigenous language tests. 

Board Member

Board Member

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Susan Bronson

Board Secretary

Executive Director, Yiddish Book Center.

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Dr. William Rivers

John Strauss

Board Treasurer

William Rivers has 20 years of experience in culture and language for economic development and national security, with expertise in research, assessment, program evaluation, and policy development and advocacy. Dr. Rivers received his Ph.D. in Russian from Bryn Mawr College and his MA, BA, and BS from the University of Maryland. He speaks Russian and French.

John Strauss is a business consultant with extensive experience founding and supporting early-stage organizations, both commercial and charitable. He has more than 10 years’ experience serving as an officer or director to 501(c)(3) organizations, some of which he helped establish.

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Stephanie Witkowski

Executive Director

Stephanie Witkowski has over 10 years of experience in both language revitalization and the non-profit sector. She holds an MA in Linguistics from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa with an emphasis in Language Documentation and Conservation, and has worked with speakers of multiple under resourced languages, including Indigenous languages of California, the Pacific, and Russia.

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Ajuawak Kapashesit

Director of Development

Ajuawak Kapashesit has a BA in Linguistics from Macalester College where he focused on Language Revitalization and Hispanic Studies. He has worked in Indigenous communities across North America on language revitalization projects including documentation and materials development. In the nonprofit sector, he specializes in development and project development.

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Kayleigh Jeannette

Project Coordinator

Kayleigh Jeannette has a MA in Applied Linguistics from Boston University. Her research there focused on language documentation and revitalization in endangered and dormant language contexts. She is also TEFL certified and enjoys teaching English to international students. Throughout her work her goal is to use linguistics to support the individuals and communities around her.

Board Member

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X̱ʼunei Lance Twitchell

Board Member

Xʼunei Lance Twitchell (Lingít, Haida, Yupʼik, Sami) is an Associate Professor of Alaska Native Languages at the University of Alaska Southeast, and lives in Juneau with his wife and bilingual children. He speaks & studies the Lingít language, and advocates for indigenous language revitalization through teaching, program development, and legislative changes. Twitchell is an author of poems, stories, and screenplays, and is a filmmaker, musician, and Northwest Coast Artist. X'unei hosts a podcast about language revitalization titled, "Tongue Unbroken".

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Pila Wilson

Emeritus Board Member

Professor of Hawaiian Languages, Founding Member of the 'Aha Pūnana Leo (Hawaiian Immersion Preschool).

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Jennifer Weston

Board Member

Pte San Win (Jennifer Weston) is a public health professional, community organizer, and writer with nearly three decades of service-learning experiences working alongside brilliant and generous Tribal mentors, grassroots, spiritual, and policy leaders among hundreds of diverse Native-led environmental justice projects and culturally-based Indigenous language programs. Currently she serves as a health equity project manager with a national public health foundation and is an active volunteer with community-based emergency medicine and education projects in her home communities on Standing Rock – the Lakota Well-Being Project, Mni Wiconi Nakicizin Wounspe, and the Lakota Language Reclamation Project in McLaughlin, SD. 

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Walter Winshall

Board Member

Walter A. Winshall is a private investor with substantial experience in business strategy and startup organizations.

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