Meet the Unkitawa Staff

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Edna Wyena is an accomplished, results-driven executive director. She is passionate about serving Indigenous communities through higher education, mentorship, training, cultural preservation, traditions, and the arts. With a solid foundation in public administration, education, and community development, she creates success through effective leadership and strategic planning. She has over a decade of experience providing comprehensive support to senior-level executives.

Areas of Focus

• Spearheading initiatives to preserve and restore Indigenous knowledge through culturally rich ceremonies, arts, and cultural programs
• Leading a team in developing and implementing programs that support the community’s educational and cultural needs
• Tribal community engagement, events, and grant management

Education

• Harvard Business School, Boston, MA
  Certificate in Leading People and Investing to Build Sustainable Communities (May 2022)
  Program Topics: Investment Governance, Entrepreneurial Finance, Negotiations, and Change Management
• Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
  Master of Public Administration (MPA), Public Policy Analysis

Key Competencies

• Expertise in supervision, training, mentorship, and academic support
• Proven ability to lead complex and dynamic organizations
• Devoted advocate for Indigenous communities and cultural preservation
• Effective in community outreach and engagement
• Skilled in grant management and budget oversight

Jeremy Garretson, a Northern Arapaho tribal member with lived experience and previous incarceration, directs and oversees Unkitawa’s Reentry program.

Jeremy was born in Tacoma, Washington, and spent most of his youth in Yelm, Washington, a small town just outside the Nisqually Reservation. Unfortunately, Jeremy was incarcerated at an early age, during his formative years, and consequently began a cycle of incarceration that led him from the juvenile justice system to the state prison system. His recidivism continued until his final release from prison in 2017.

Jeremy earned his GED, college credits, and educational certificates during his incarceration. After his release, Jeremy enrolled in Northwest Indian College and is studying part-time to earn an associate degree.

Due to incarceration and other life choices, Jeremy lacked extensive work experience before his release and reentry. His incarceration, recidivism, and additional life choices made Jeremy the ideal candidate to work in the reentry field. In 2020, Jeremy began doing just that as the Reentry Case Manager at Chief Seattle Club. He poured his lived experience and life skills into helping others navigate the community, their life changes, and society as a whole while they re-entered their families and communities. He helped create and build the program, supporting supervisors, and an amazing team, and was promoted to Reentry Program Manager. Jeremy will always be grateful for the responsibilities they entrusted him with, and proud of the reentry work he accomplished and that continues at Chief Seattle Club.

In 2022, Jeremy joined the Unkitawa team to manage the Reentry program and oversee a contract with the Washington State Department of Corrections to provide Native American Services to all our relatives within the state’s prison system. Jeremy expanded the program beyond helping our relatives re-enter the community to going inside prisons to help individuals prepare for their release and reentry. He further expanded the program to include youth. Jeremy oversees Unkitawa’s contract with the Washington State Division of Children, Youth, and Families to provide Native American Services to youth with a history or risk of incarceration, gang or drug involvement, or affected by gun violence.

Jeremy applies his first-hand knowledge of incarceration, the justice and prison systems, and rebuilding his life to help others discover how to build the life they want. He is relatable and passionate about helping others.

Brenda regularly brings new and exciting groups to our monthly Women’s Wellness gatherings and the Unkitawa Community.

Brenda has two decades of outreach and case management experience. She helps people connect to needed services and encourages changes for a healthier life. She enjoys working with her community, fostering connections, and sharing traditional knowledge and skills she has learned throughout her life and those she has learned from community members.

Since 2016, Marne has been deeply involved in forming Unkitawa and its many changes. Working at Unkitawa enables her to embrace her passion for helping people and being of service.

Born and raised in Washington, Marne has always been passionate about numbers. Honoring this passion, Marne earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance from Central Washington University. She worked many years in residential home lending for some of the largest national lenders, then her own small company, helping many achieve their dream of home ownership. Then, Marne went in a completely different direction, working eight years in the Highline School district as an elementary school para-educator and with the 2010 and 2020 Census.

In her free time, Marne enjoys spending time with family and friends.

Before working at nonprofits, Megan and her family spent years engaged in service work in their community. She feels grateful and blessed to do nonprofit work full-time. In addition to being Unkitawa’s Human Resource Specialist, Megan offers her time to go into both Washington State Correction Centers for Women to help our incarcerated indigenous relatives through our Reentry Program. She provides services for sweat lodge, Ceremony, beading classes, drumming lessons, and regalia making. Helping women in cultural learning and healing helps us all throughout our daily struggles and brings meaning to what we do.

One of Megan’s hopes and goals is to help rebuild our communities. By helping all those around us to find balance and stability, we can ensure our children and yours will have a healthy environment to grow and excel in.

Work Experience

• Management – 8 years
• Administrative Assistant – 2 years
• Nonprofit – 3 years
• Service work – 5 years

Education

• South Puget Sound Community College, Associate Degree
• Spokane Community College – various programs and certificates
• PRYOR Learning – human resources (2 years)

Megan was born in Olympia, Washington, lived in Spokane, Washington, for most of her youth, then moved back to the Olympia area. She is a wife and a mother to a beautiful family that fills her life with meaning and adventure.

Han mitakúyapi, Chloe Schierbeck emaciyapi. Hunkpapa lakota hemacha. Inyan Woslal Han ematahan.
Hello relatives, my name is Chloe Schierbeck. I am Hunkpapa Lakota. I am from Standing Rock.

Chloe is passionate about helping the Indigenous community and has been involved in the Native nonprofit world since 2016. She is an artist and owns Igmuthanka Ihanble LLC. She earned an Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts from Haskell Indian Nations University.