Georgia Blackwood
Georgia, Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas, Prairie Potawatomi Tribe of Kansas, and Cherokee Tribe of Oklahoma, is from Kansas. She enjoys writing and playing her viola; she loves working with other Natives and journaling at the Native Storytelling Workshop.
Alexandra Blye
Alexandra, Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, is from Tennessee. She enjoys writing and telling stories and says the Native Storytelling Workshop offers a valuable opportunity to practice those skills while working with top Native journalists from across the country.
Jillian Burk
Jillian, Ioway Tribe of Nebraska, is from Nebraska. She enjoys writing stories about herself and journaling. Jillian says the Native Storytelling Workshop teaches a lot about journalism and is very fun.
Grace Cramblett
Grace, Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska, is from Kansas. She enjoys writing and says the Native Storytelling Workshop provides an opportunity to learn more about careers in journalism and the importance of Indigenous voices in all aspects of media.
Kacyn Harlan
Kacyn, Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, is from Nebraska. She enjoys taking pictures and writing and says the Native Storytelling Workshop offers an opportunity to learn about editing software and the importance of Indigenous people going into the field of journalism.
Haden Johnson
Haden, Navajo Nation and Comanche Tribe of Oklahoma, is from Oklahoma. He enjoys creative writing and drawing and says the Native Storytelling Workshop offers opportunities to exercise his writing skills.
Karen Middleton
Karen, Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas, is from Kansas. She enjoys making content and says the Native Storytelling Workshop offers a way to learn more about Native journalism and how podcasts are made.
Lucius Ridge
Lucius, Cherokee Tribe of Oklahoma and Creek Tribe of Oklahoma, is from Oklahoma. He enjoys being creative and says the Native Storytelling Workshop offers a way to obtain more hands-on experience and reporting features of journalism.
Memphis Ridge
Memphis, Cherokee Tribe of Oklahoma and Creek Tribe of Oklahoma, is from Oklahoma. He enjoys creating with video and says the Native Storytelling Workshop offers fun opportunities to work in front of and behind the camera.
2022 NSW Instructors
Melissa Greene-Blye
University of Kansas
Melissa Greene-Blye, Ph.D., Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, examines journalistic representations and negotiations of American Indian identity past and present. Most recently, her work has been published in Journalism History. She has presented research at the American Journalism Historians Association annual conference as well as the Joint Journalism Conference held in New York City each year. Greene-Blye worked as an anchor and reporter during 20 years in the news business covering local news in television markets big and small. She enjoys using her knowledge and experience to educate the newest generation of journalists.
Rebekka Schlichting
University of Kansas
An enrolled member of the loway Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, Rebekka Schlichting is a documentary filmmaker for public television and owner of Native Storytelling Nation, LLC. She is also an assistant professor of the practice at the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications and an adjunct for Nebraska Indian Community College. Rebekka served as the assistant director and interim director at Vision Maker Media. Before her professional documentary work, she was an adjunct professor and graduate teaching assistant at the University of Nebraska’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications. She also taught Native leadership workshops and skills at the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, SNYL Academy. She is the chair of the powwow committee and member of the Language and Culture committee for the loway Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. She is a member of the City of Lawrence Arts and Culture Committee and serves on the Lawrence Free State Film Festival board.
Kevin Abourezk
Indianz.com
Kevin Abourezk is an award-winning journalist who spent 18 years as a reporter and editor for the Lincoln Journal Star, where he wrote thousands of stories and produced numerous news videos. He is the winner of the Associated Press’s Best Enterprise Story Award in 2006 and the prestigious Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism from the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families for his reporting on the impact of alcohol sales in Whiteclay, Nebraska to residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. A member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Abourezk has spent his career documenting the lives, accomplishments and tragedies of Native American people and in 2017 joined Indianz.com, a Native American news website owned and operated by the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. He hosts a bi-weekly podcast for Indianz.com called “Indian Times” that focuses on Native American news. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of South Dakota and a Master of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Valerie Vande Panne
Native News Online, Managing Editor
Valerie Vande Panne, who refers to herself as a mixed-race woman and a descendant of several Southwest tribes, is Managing Editor for Native News Online. Vande Panne previously served as editor-in-chief of Metro Times in Detroit, Mich. A longtime journalist, Vande Panne also worked as a reporter at WGCU, an NPR member station in Southwest Florida, where she contributed environmental stories to Florida Public Radio Network and the Florida Climate Change Reporting Network. Vande Panne had been a contributor to Native News Online since August 2020. Vande Panne has been a stringer for The New York Times and Reuters. During her career, she has contributed to Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, The Guardian, Politico and Salon.
Sheena Roetman
Native Education Manager, Native American Journalists Association
Sheena Roetman, Lakota, is the education manager for the Native American Journalists Association. Previously, Roetman spent six years as director of membership and programs at the Atlanta Press Club, as well as nearly 10 years as a freelance journalist. Her work can be found at Indian Country Today, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Native Peoples Magazine, Vice Sports and more. Roetman holds a degree in Journalism with a research specialty in American Indian Media from Georgia State University. She is currently based in Atlanta, Ga.
Jared Nally
Indian Leader, Past Editor
Jared Nally (Miami Tribe of Oklahoma) is a graduate student at Miami University studying Environmental Science. He received his bachelors degree in Indigenous and American Indian Studies at Haskell Indian Nations University where he served as the editor-in-chief of the Indian Leader, the oldest Native American student newspaper. During his time at Haskell, Nally received several awards for his work including the 2021 NAJA Elias Boudinot Free Press Award. Nally has since worked as a freelance editor and writer for KANSAS! Magazine and has had his work published in Indian Country Today and The Lawrence Times. Nally hopes to unite his academic passions with his writing career to continue to serve his community.