Taylor is a documentary filmmaker, National Geographic Explorer, and current law student at UC Berkeley School of Law. As a filmmaker, he focuses on the nexus of water justice and climate change in the American Southwest. In 2017, Taylor led a 350-mile, sea-kayak-based exploration of Lake Powell and the Colorado River to produce a film about the impacts of climate change and water development on the Colorado River Basin. He is a former Fulbright Scholar and served as the Water and Environmental Journalist for the Utah-based nonprofit, Utah Rivers Council. Taylor grew up in Durango, Colorado, where he developed an appreciation for the complex environmental justice issues affecting the Colorado Plateau. This fall, Taylor will work for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, and he plans to return to the Four Corners after completing law school to embark on a career addressing the complex social and environmental challenges the region faces.
As former Executive Director for the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs (CCIA) for over 11 years, Ernest maintained the communication between the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe, and other American Indian organizations, state agencies and affiliated groups. In that position, Ernest worked closely with Governor Hickenlooper, Lieutenant Governor Donna Lynne, and the CCIA members to maintain a government-to-government relationship between the State of Colorado and tribal governments. The CCIA is a twenty-six member commission, chaired by the Lt. Governor Lynne and comprised of both Ute Tribes, their appointees and several state and federal department representatives and ex-officio members. Ernest represented the State of Colorado and the CCIA at various federal and state public policy meetings and provided legislative and government-related information to community stakeholders. Currently, as Senior Policy Director for the Keystone Policy Center, Ernest is working with various stakeholders in the areas of tribal consultation, energy, healthcare, and education. Ernest is an enrolled member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in Towaoc, Colorado. He previously held the position of Executive Director under Governor Bill Owens and Governor Bill Ritter from 2005-2010. Ernest is a 2012 American Marshall Memorial Fellow, 2013 Denver Business Journal Forty under 40 awardee, 2015 President’s Award recipient from History Colorado, and 2018 Gates Family Foundation Public Leadership Fellow. Ernest currently serves on the Fort Lewis College Board of Trustees and advisor to the Mesa Verde Foundation and Global Livingston Institute. He holds a rich tradition in his position as son of the late Ernest House, Sr., a long time tribal leader for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and great-grandson of Chief Jack House, the last hereditary chief of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.
Colleen grew up wandering the washes, mesas, and sandstones in Shą́ą́ʼtóhí, a small community located on the Navajo Nation in northeast Arizona. Her curious mind and innate connection to the lands and waters led her to earning a Master's Degree in Climate Science & Solutions from Northern Arizona University in 2012. Colleen is passionate about the protection and conservation of the diverse landscapes, cultures, and waters that she is surrounded by because it is part of who she is and where she comes from. She is an advocate and raft guide on the San Juan River & Green River, a community organizer, a skilled facilitator, an amateur photographer, a volunteer with Navajo YES, a board member with the Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival, and a Running with Purpose athlete advocate.
Joseph Kerski is a geographer with a focus on the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in education. He has served as the President of the National Council for Geographic Education and has given 2 TED Talks on “The Whys of Where”. He holds 3 degrees in geography and has served as geographer in 4 sectors of society, including government (NOAA, US Census Bureau, USGS), academia (Penn State, Sinte Gleska University, University of Denver, others), private industry (as Education Manager for Esri), and nonprofit organizations (with roles in geography and education associations). Joseph authored over 75 chapters and articles on GIS, education, and related topics, and visits 35 universities annually. He conducts professional development for educators. He has created over 5,000 videos, 750 lessons, 1,000 blog essays, and authored 8 books, including Interpreting Our World, Essentials of Environment, Spatial Mathematics, Tribal GIS, International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning, and the GIS Guide to Public Domain Data. But as a lifelong learner, he feels as though he’s just getting started and thus actively seeks mentors, partners, and collaborators.
Brigitta is a program developer and video producer for the We are Water project. She has a background in paleoclimate and paleoceanography and is passionate about making climate change science accessible to everyone. Through her work, she strives to elevate the voices and knowledge of people who have been historically excluded from STEM fields and to put community perspectives at the center of the program design process. Brigitta has PhD in geological sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder. She spent time as a graduate student searching for and developing unique, hands-on activities to teach students about how climate data is extracted from the geologic record and volunteering with a variety of informal STEM education programs. Brigitta also works with the CIRES communications team, creating and posting content for social media and writing news stories.
Joseluis M. Ortiz y Muniz is an indigenous, land based, native New Mexican from the Genizaro land grant (La Merced de Santo Tomas el Apostol de Rio de Las Trampas) village of Llano De La Yegua and currently lives with his daughter Corina and his life partner Luzero in his maternal village of San Antonio Del Rio Embudo in the high desert of Northern New Mexico where together they tend to their crops, care for their livestock and steward his ancestral lands. He has roots in traditional agriculture that was passed on inter-generationally through his family, and maintains a traditional land and acequia based way of life on land his family has cared for since time immemorial. He was born and raised in and grew up farming the High Llanos of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains and the low valleys of the Embudo River Valley. He, his family and his community grow corn, beans, squash, chile, legumes, fruit trees, wheat, sheep, horses, hogs, pasture as well as hundreds of varieties of fruits and vegetables.
For 10 years Joseluis worked with the volunteer and grassroots-community based Evironmental and Economic Justice organization called Los Jardines Institute in the South Valley of Atrisco in Albuquerque, NM. There he volunteered and interned with community leaders Sofia Martinez and Richard Moore supporting them in building and developing land based socially sustainable systems, and transforming community by creating healthy realities where we live, work, play, pray, and go to school. For many years he directed programs at La Plazita Institute, working with adjudicated, struggling, addicted, incarcerated, and traumatized youth, families and elders supporting them to transform their lives through cultural and traditional healing and land based ways of living and knowing. His work and learning in community were part of a journey of self-transformation and self-discovery to overcome the hardships young people face in occupied Northern New Mexico. Today, he is the Community Liaison and Visiting Research Scientist at Sostenga for the Greenroots Institute at the Northern New Mexico College where he works with world renowned traditional farmer, water rights advocate, and community leader and elder Don Bustos to help coordinate the development of grassroots community-driven processes to determine and implement environmentally, economically, and culturally sustainable plans, rooted in water, food, and economic security, for the future of Northern New Mexico Culture. A proud father rooted in community, Joseluis is a trainer for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Anti-Racism, and is a very active community member. He is a board member of the Biodynamic Demeter Alliance (BDA), The Board President for the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance, a Board member of the Espanola Famers Market, a member of La Cosecha del Norte “a growing coop”, and is the community elected Mayordomo for the Acequia Del Llano del Rio Embudo.