BOARD OF DIRECTORS

LESLIE JONAS

Board President

Leslie Jonas is an eel clan member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe who has served as an NLC board officer since the founding of the organization in 2012. She is socially, culturally, and politically engaged in her tribe and has served formerly as Tribal Administrator and Powwow Director. As a former student of the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project, and graduate of the 5 yr curriculum, Leslie participates in the ongoing work of our tribal language. Leslie is an avid gardener, and lives a "green" life daily, utilizing solar power, driving a hybrid vehicle, and reducing water waste. She became passionate about land conservation and the health and wellness of the environment as a teenager when she worked for the New Alchemy Institute in Falmouth. More recently Leslie has been researching and focusing on Climate Change from the Indigenous Perspective. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Conservation Law Foundation for the state of MA and is co- teaching and co-advising indigenous environmental planning courses in social/environmental justice at MIT. Leslie currently works as the Sea Grant Fiscal Officer for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and lives in Falmouth, MA.

SHARMAN BROWN

Clerk

Wunee Keesuq, Nutus8wees 8nôusuwee anâhs. Nutômas Mâseepeeut, kah nutây Mâseepeeut. Good day, my name is Sharman Brown, I am Mashpee Wampanoag from the unceded Wampanoag territory. I also live and work in Mashpee as a primary lead teacher at the Tribe’s Weetumuw School. I am a certified Child Development Associate in Early Childhood Education and a graduate of the Montessori Early Childhood Education Program from the North American Montessori Center. Before working in education, I was a video producer and a development officer in fundraising. I look forward to serving on the  board of Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers!
 

STEPHEN BETZ

Treasurer

Steve Betz started his career in the culinary arts participating in a 2-year apprenticeship program and trained in classical French cooking. He still enjoys cooking and baking, experimenting with flavors.
He eventually transitioned into finance starting at State Street Bank and Trust in 1999 as a fund accountant and has worked in several different departments through the years. He is currently working as an officer in operations for International Fund Services North America, servicing a diverse set of clients.

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KITTY HENDRICKS-MILLER

Director

Kitty Hendricks Miller (Nenaweeta) is a Mashpee Wampanoag tribal citizen and Elder and is currently the Indian Education Coordinator for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s Education Department. Kitty recently served as a writer on the Truth In Harvest  episode of PBS’s Molly of Denali and has appeared in The Mayflower episode of We Shall Remain and the feature film Crooked Arrows. For over thirty years, Kitty has managed and performed with the Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers, using her musical gifts to share traditional Eastern songs with audiences all over New England and the UK. 
She has extensive experience in the museum sector, as she demonstrates traditional cooking and gardening techniques, helping to ensure accurate representation of Wampanoag ancestral life ways. Kitty currently serves on the boards of the Indigenous Resource Collaborative and the Native Land Conservancy. She is honored to be a part of the We Are the Land creative and production team.

MICHELLE ST. JOHN

Director

Michelle St. John is the Managing Director of Content and Production for We Are the Seeds, an Indigenous non-profit arts organization based in Philadelphia and the Executive Producer of From Here, With a View - a podcast, centering Indigenous perspectives on life, art and everything in between. Michelle is also a two-time Gemini Award winning actor and filmmaker and has more than forty years of experience in theater, radio, film, television and voice. Her film Colonization Road garnered a Golden Sheaf Award from the Yorkton Film Festival and a Canadian Screen Award nomination for the Donald Brittain Award — Best Social/Political Documentary. Michelle currently performs with the Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers and is is founding member of Nutahkeemun Artist Collective. In 2025, Michelle and Paula Peters, co-curated All Our Relations: Art of the Wampanoag Nation, the largest collection of Wampanoag art ever gathered—for a one-month exhibit at Cotuit Center for the Arts. She also directed the premiere of Siobhan Brown’s one-woman show A Piece of Silver in the Black Box and she serves on the Board of Directors for Cotuit Center for the Arts.

KERINA SILVA, Esq.

Director

Kerina is a tribal citizen of the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe located in Plymouth, MA and serves as Secretary for her Tribal Council. She has a passion for the protection of her people’s traditional homeland and sacred sites and helped start the Sacred Earth Land Conservancy in conjunction with her Tribe to advocate for the conservation of tribal land, protection of local natural resources, and the preservation of sacred sites in our traditional Wampanoag homelands. Through her service to these and other initiatives she hopes to help promote education, the protection of resources, and protect access to important cultural traditions with the Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers.

Kerina is also an attorney in Massachusetts with offices in Falmouth and Taunton, where she primarily practices in the areas of family law and guardianship. She provides pro bono legal services to the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe, and recently worked with Tribal Chair, Mellissa Ferretti and Tribal Citizen Jaime Hoctor, Esq. to achieve state recognition of her Tribe via Executive Order 637. Teaching has always been a passion she wished to pursue, and she currently teaches as an adjunct at UMASS School of Law, where she graduated with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 2019.
 

MARIA WILKINS

Director

Wunee keesuq!  Nutus8ees Maria Wilkins, kah nutômas Mâsseepeeut.  Hello, my name is Maria Wilkins and I am a citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. I live in the Merrimac Valley on the northern border of lands that were historically part of the Wampanoag confederacy. 
My career has taken me from project management to a start up to financial planning.  I am currently pursuing passion projects in the creative arts as an actor both on and off camera appearing in stage productions, commercials, short films and independent projects.
I am honored to join the board of the Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers. I hope that my range of experiences will be beneficial to its mission and continued growth and am excited to serve my community in this capacity!
 
 

JODI KEEGAN

Director

bio coming soon
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