OUR TEAM
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.
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
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.
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 documented languages, including native languages of California, the Pacific, and Russia.
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.
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
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".
Pila Wilson
Emeritus Board Member
Professor of Hawaiian Languages, Founding Member of the 'Aha Pūnana Leo (Hawaiian Immersion Preschool).
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.
Walter Winshall
Board Member
Walter A. Winshall is a private investor with substantial experience in business strategy and startup organizations.
