Jennifer Chadwick is a community development advisor for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and works out of the Oklahoma City Branch.

Chadwick’s emphasis is on mutually meaningful engagement with tribal nations and communities on collaborative economic-focused opportunities.

Chadwick has more than 20 years’ experience working within the field of community-focused research and health initiatives. In her previous role as the Native American research coordinator with the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, she served as a liaison between study investigators and tribal nations, communities, and health boards. Her efforts focused on fostering mutually meaningful collaborations. This work lent itself to many research partnerships. These resulted in cooperative publications that focused on community engagement in clinical trials related to diabetes prevention and treatment in youth.

Chadwick, a life-long Oklahoman, is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and a graduate of Phillips University previously in Enid, Oklahoma.

Danielle DeLong is a citizen of the Ho-Chunk Nation and a member of the Deer Clan. She has spent much of her career in education, including developing the St. Paul Ho-Chunk Nation Youth Center to support and uplift Native youth.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and a desire to serve her nation in a broader capacity, DeLong ran for a tribal legislator position and was elected in 2021 to represent District 4, which at the time served Ho-Chunk members living outside the state of Wisconsin. During her final year in office, she was elected by the legislature to serve as vice president of the Ho-Chunk Nation. Former Vice President DeLong completed four years of service, grounded in a passion for education and women’s advocacy.

She continues her service to American Indian communities in her current role with the Minnesota Department of Human Services as a tribal relations specialist for Region 1, where she works closely with the four Dakota communities and urban American Indian community.

Former Vice President DeLong earned her bachelor’s degree in language arts with a minor in Spanish from Eastern Michigan University in 2002 and her master’s degree in tribal administration and governance from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2024.

Matthew Gregg is a senior economist in Community Development and Engagement at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, where he focuses on research for the Center for Indian Country Development (CICD). Before joining the Bank, Gregg was an associate professor of economics at Roger Williams University and, prior to that, a visiting economics professor at Grinnell College. He has conducted research on a wide range of topics within tribal economic development and published work on historical development, Indian removal, land rights, and agricultural productivity. Gregg is a member of the Association for Economic Research of Indigenous People.

Gregg received his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia, where he specialized in applied microeconomics and economic history.

Zechariah Harjo is a citizen of Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Beginning in March 2022, Harjo was named the secretary of the nation and commerce, and he has since been confirmed by tribal resolution as the secretary of the nation. In this role, Secretary Harjo serves as the chief officer for all activities associated with Muscogee Nation’s uniform commercial code, economic development, financial literacy, policy development, project management, technical assistance, and more. Within the Secretary of the Nation division, Secretary Harjo oversees the offices of Planning, Grants, Self-Governance, and Government Relations, as well as the Muscogee Creek Nation Tribal Utility Authority and the Contracting and Employment Support Office. Secretary Harjo’s governmental division has been awarded, funded, and deployed more than $200 million in economic development and infrastructure projects since 2022.

As secretary of the nation, he has received a number of local and national distinctions, including being named to the 2025 Journal Record’s Power List for Native American Leaders in the state of Oklahoma and receiving a 2025 40 Under 40 Award from the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development.

Secretary Harjo has formal education, training, and experience in grant financial management, public administration, policy development, economic development, taxation and tax law, and project management for tribal and federal agencies. He holds a master’s degree in legal studies from the University of Oklahoma College of Law and a bachelor’s degree in public administration and public policy from the University of Kansas. Secretary Harjo has also completed several graduate certificate programs for tribal government and tribal business leaders at Harvard Business School and Dartmouth College.

Ava LaPlante is an associate data scientist for the Center for Indian Country Development (CICD) at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, where she contributes to CICD’s research and policy work by compiling data, conducting analysis, and developing data tools that advance the economic self-determination and prosperity of Native nations and Indigenous communities. LaPlante started with CICD as an intern while she completed her bachelor’s degree in economics and public policy from St. Catherine University. In 2022, she was a scholar in the American Economic Association’s Summer Program.

Mike Lettig joined Huntington Bank in December 2023 and is senior managing director and group head of Native American Financial Services. In this role, Lettig leads efforts to establish integrated financial relationships with federally recognized tribes across the United States. Lettig has held numerous leadership roles during his 47-year career in banking, including serving as commercial executive for Washington, Oregon, and Alaska and national executive for Native American financial services and agribusiness for KeyBank and its predecessors.

In 2005 Lettig established one of the first comprehensive financial services delivery models dedicated to Indian Country. Under his leadership, billions of dollars have been raised for tribes and their business enterprises, over $4 billion of asset management solutions have been established, and municipal debt placements have raised capital for critical infrastructure projects across Indian Country.

Lettig has testified in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs encouraging investment in Indian Country. He has served as a member of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency task force on homeownership solutions for Indian Country and the Community Reinvestment Act task force. He also serves on advisory councils for NAFOA and the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development and has previously served on Junior Achievement of Washington’s Executive Board and Finance Committee. In 2023 Lettig received a NAFOA Lifetime Achievement Award for his service to all of Indian Country.

Lettig is a descendent of the Navajo Nation and a proud veteran of the United States Marine Corps.

Casey Lozar is a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and director of the Center for Indian Country Development (CICD), a research and policy institute that works to advance the economic self-determination and prosperity of Native nations and Indigenous communities.

Before assuming leadership of CICD, Lozar was assistant vice president/outreach executive in the Bank’s department of Public Affairs, and the leader of our Helena Branch.

Prior to joining the Minneapolis Fed in 2018, Lozar served in economic development and higher education roles for the State of Montana. Additionally, he held executive leadership positions in national Native American nonprofits, including the American Indian College Fund and the Notah Begay III Foundation.

Lozar received degrees from Dartmouth College and Harvard University and an MBA from the University of Colorado-Denver.

Lozar is the 2021 recipient of the Janet L. Yellen Award for Excellence in Community Development and a 2022 recipient of the Honorary Leadership Award from the Native American Finance Officers Association.

A Montana native, Lozar was raised on the Flathead Indian Reservation and is an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Maria Morin McCoy has worked in the American Indian community since 1995. Her work supports collective healing from the imprint of historical and intergenerational trauma. She uses Indigenous wellness practices to support well-being, living life to the fullest each day (bimaadiziwin), and a balance of spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental parts of self. McCoy also gathers community to heal through spirit doll-making, providing the opportunity to connect on a deeper level to the teachings of past, present, and future generations (aanikobijigan).

McCoy’s family comes from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota, and she is a member of the Bear Clan. Her spirit name is Mooshkenay Waase Binesikwe Indigo (Filling Up With Light Thunderbird Woman). McCoy lives and works in St. Paul.

Traci Morris is the executive director of the American Indian Policy Institute and a research professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University (ASU). She is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Morris is nationally recognized as a leading scholar in tribal digital sovereignty, with her research focusing on data governance and artificial intelligence in Indian Country as critical components of tribal self-determination. She is a leading expert on tribal broadband access, digital equity, and telecommunications policy, and has provided expert testimony on these issues before the Federal Communications Commission and on Capitol Hill.

Before joining ASU, Morris founded Homahota Consulting, a Native woman-owned firm serving tribal nations and Indigenous organizations nationwide. She is a sustainability scholar and is affiliated with several ASU centers, including American Indian Studies; the School for the Future of Innovation in Society; and the Center on Technology, Data, and Society. Morris holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in American Indian studies from the University of Arizona and a B.A. from Colorado State University.

Vanessa Palmer is the division data director for Community Development and Engagement (CDE), which includes the Center for Indian Country Development (CICD), at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

In support of CDE’s work to advance the economic well-being of Indian Country and low- to moderate-income individuals, households, and communities, Palmer leads the division’s data practices, including CICD’s efforts to collect, harmonize, and sustainably manage research-ready data.

Palmer joined the Minneapolis Fed in 2020 as a data scientist. Her prior professional roles focused on supporting a range of private and nonprofit organizations in designing systems and building data products to enable evidence-based decisions. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and a master’s degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and is a proud former science teacher.

Ted Piccolo is currently the senior director of Indigenous futures at Mission Driven Finance. He was the founding executive director of the Northwest Native Development Fund, the first Native Community Development Financial Institution in eastern Washington. He grew the organization to be a cornerstone employer in his community, managing over $16 million in assets.

Piccolo has served on various boards throughout Indian Country, including for the Oregon Native American Business and Entrepreneurial Network, the Native CDFI Network, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians Economic Development Corporation, and the Opportunity Finance Network, among others.

He is a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes and resides on the Colville Indian Reservation in eastern Washington.

Michael Running Wolf (Lakota, Cheyenne) was raised in a village in Montana with intermittent water and electricity. Today, he uses AI to reclaim Indigenous languages and is passionate about the ethical application of AI in respect of Indigenous data sovereignty.

Running Wolf is co-founder and lead architect of First Languages AI Reality (FLAIR). He was an engineer for Amazon’s Alexa, served as vice-president of software at an agentic AI startup, and taught at Northeastern University. He holds a Master of Science in computer science.

Alene Tchourumoff serves as senior vice president leading three divisions: Talent and Engagement, the Learning Management Support Office, and Community Development and Engagement, which includes the Center for Indian Country Development. In these roles she leads the Bank’s internal human resources as well as the Bank’s external engagement with communities throughout the Ninth District, with an emphasis on low- and moderate-income people and those living in Indian Country.

Prior to joining the Bank in December 2018, Tchourumoff served as chair of Minnesota’s Metropolitan Council, where she built strong partnerships with local governments and community groups to advance transit, housing, and other critical infrastructure. She has also held leadership roles in the executive branch of the State of Minnesota and Hennepin County.

Tchourumoff holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from George Washington University School of Business and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Tchourumoff was named a 2020 Women in Business honoree by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal and is a member of the Minneapolis Foundation Board and a trustee of the Minnesota Science Museum.

H Trostle (they/them) is a senior policy analyst for the Minneapolis Fed’s Center for Indian Country Development (CICD), where they are a leader of the Survey of Native Nations and work with tribes and regional Native organizations to provide research insights related to tribal public finance. Trostle’s areas of expertise include economic development and infrastructure on tribal lands. Prior to joining the Bank, they worked at the American Indian Policy Institute at Arizona State University and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Minneapolis.

Trostle studied Indigenous planning and holds a master’s degree in urban and environmental planning from Arizona State University. In 2025, they completed a graduate certificate in tribal sovereignty and federal Indian law at the University of Minnesota Duluth. They also hold a bachelor's degree in political science and classical language from Macalester College.

Trostle is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

Howard D. Valandra, a Sicangu Lakota and enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, returned to the Indian Land Tenure Foundation (ILTF) in 2025 to serve as president. Valandra previously served as vice president of grants and programs at ILTF from its inception in 2002 until 2009.

Raised on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, Valandra is a graduate of the St. Francis Mission and the University of South Dakota. He began his career in banking with Northwestern National Bank in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, before returning home to support his family’s business ventures. He later served the tribe as a senior accountant and was an education specialist with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

In 1983, Valandra launched a technology company on the Rosebud Reservation which grew to have locations across the country. After selling the business in 1995, Valandra transitioned into tribal land management as executive director of Tribal Land Enterprises at Rosebud. In 1999, he became a community liaison with the Northwest Area Foundation in St. Paul, which played a key role in the founding of ILTF. In 2010, Valandra joined the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI’s) Office of Special Trustee for American Indians. Since 2019 he has served as a senior consultant for Jorja and Partners LLC, where he works with tribes and organizations on strategic planning, land use, and economic development.

Valandra serves on several boards and committees, including the DOI Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names.

Lakota Vogel is the executive director at Four Bands Community Fund, an organization that serves the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation and the greater state of South Dakota in the areas of small business development, business lending, financial literacy, and youth entrepreneurship. Vogel has led Four Bands through a myriad of accomplishments. Most recently, she played a key leadership role in the Mountain | Plains Regional Native CDFI Coalition that led to a $45 million Build Back Better Award from the Economic Development Administration. It has been the largest single investment into the Native CDFI field to date.

In recognition of her leadership, initiative, and dedication, the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development named Vogel as part of its 2018 “Native American 40 under 40” class. She was the first-ever recipient of Oweesta’s Wičháhpi (Star) Award for her exemplary leadership at Four Bands, spearheading new initiatives, fostering strategic partnerships, and driving the organization toward its ambitious goals. Currently, Vogel serves on several boards, including for the South Dakota Native Homeownership Coalition, the Great Plains Housing Initiative, Akiptan, and Change Labs. She also serves on Augustana University’s board of trustees.

Vogel holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree in social work from the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. Vogel is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and was born and raised on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.