Lillian Sparks Robinson
Lillian Sparks Robinson is CEO and Owner of Wopila Consulting, LLC, an American Indian and woman-owned firm providing consulting and strategic development services to federal, state, and tribal government clients.
A member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, she spent over 20 years in Washington, D.C. supporting Native American students and empowering tribal communities. In 2010, President Obama appointed her as Commissioner for the Administration for Native Americans. She previously led the National Indian Education Association and served as a staff attorney at the National Congress of American Indians. Her honors include USA Today’s Native American Leaders list and American Indian Woman of the Year. She serves on several boards, including the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development.
A graduate of Morgan State University and Georgetown University Law Center, she lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
Lee Francis IV
Lee Francis IV, Ph.D. (Pueblo of Laguna), aka Dr. IndigiNerd, is Founder and Chief Imagination Officer of the Indigenous Imagination Workshop. He is an educator and entrepreneur who founded the Indigenous Comic Con, the Indigenous Futurisms Festival, Native Realities, and Red Planet Books and Comics.
Dr. Francis has led organizational development work nationwide, including for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, approaching design through an Indigenous framework centered on sovereignty and self-determination.
An award-winning writer, his comics Sixkiller and Ghost River earned wide acclaim, and his latest work, Mapping Lenapehoking, was developed with the University of Pennsylvania and Lenape/Delaware elders.
He hosted IndigiGenius on New Mexico PBS and created the puppetry show Sovereignty Gardens.
He remains a strong advocate for Native youth and creative entrepreneurship, and lives in North Carolina with his family.
Daniel H. Wilson
Daniel H. Wilson is a Cherokee citizen and author of the New York Times bestselling Robopocalypse, its sequel Robogenesis, and many other books, including How to Survive a Robot Uprising, Amped, and The Clockwork Dynasty. He earned a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as master’s degrees in Artificial Intelligence and robotics. Wilson lives in Portland, Oregon.
Josh Hammonds
Josh Hammonds is a multi-dimensional leader at Cisco Systems across technical, organizational, and volunteer areas. Leading nearly 200 global co-workers, Hammonds oversees the Cisco TAC (CX Centers) organization, based in the Research Triangle Park North Carolina office. He is a highly regarded thought leader and Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert. Joining the company in 2007, the Lumbee tribal member is global co-lead for the Native American Network, Cisco’s Native employee resource group, championing technical support of tribes and recruiting of Native talent.
Stephanie Craig
anqati təmtəm tənas siyaxus
Stephanie Craig is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, with Santiam, Yoncalla Kalapuya, Takelma Rogue River, Cow Creek Umpqua, Clackamas Chinook, Upper Chinook, Mohawk, and Métis heritage.
She is a seventh-generation traditional basket weaver, culture keeper, and teacher, carrying the teachings passed down by generations of master weavers in her family.
She holds a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies focused on anthropology and museum studies, and is founder of Kalapuya Weaving and Consulting and co-executive director of Rooted Ways: An Indigenous Cultural & Ecological Initiative, restoring land and lifeways for future generations.
A mother, wife, daughter, and community leader, she creates regalia and beadwork, gathers medicines, and teaches youth, connecting people to the land and ancestral knowledge.
She carries her ancestors’ teachings with humility, honesty, and heart.
DJ Element
DJ Element is an eclectic DJ from Phoenix, Arizona, spanning hip-hop, funk, soul, neo-soul, reggae, EDM, moombahton, trap, twerk, 80’s, and electro. He has performed at events worldwide, including Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy, and has opened for James Brown, A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Krs-One, De La Soul, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Slick Rick, The Roots, Jane’s Addiction, Incubus, and Audioslave. He was named B-Boy City King of Scratch Champion in 2019 and was recognized in 2015 by the Native American Heard Museum in Phoenix for his contributions to music. DJ Element served as the official 2020-2021 tour DJ for Supaman. He is a member of the Salt River Indian Community and began his career in 1996.
Weaving Innovation: Voices of the Columbia River Plateau
Presented by Nez Perce Tourism
Step into an immersive cultural journey honoring the deep relationship between Indigenous heritage, homelands, and the dynamic knowledge that continues to weave innovation. Gathered in Portland along our sacred Columbia River—an ancient highway and trade center shared by the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) and neighboring Pacific Northwest Tribes—this special presentation welcomes AISES through ceremonial protocol, beginning with a shared traditional song invocation and explanation. A Grand Entry will initiate the dance exhibition, demonstrating our dances and the textile engineering woven into traditional regalia. Through storytelling highlighting regional seasonal lifeways, intertribal trade, and ancestral stewardship of the Columbia River basin, we celebrate the generations of knowledge that have sustained the Plateau peoples since time immemorial. The presentation concludes with an Honor Song dedicated to all AISES attendees who are weaving innovation for their communities and collective homelands.