Victor Douville is a highly accomplished and dedicated educator with a profound commitment to preserving and promoting Lakota history and culture. Graduating as Valedictorian from St. Francis Mission in St. Francis, SD, in 1961, he continued his education at Regis College in Denver, Colorado, majoring in Liberal Arts. Victor’s educational journey also led him to the United States Army, where he graduated from the United States Military Intelligence School in Fort Holabird, Maryland, in 1964. Serving in the Army until 1966 with active reserve status until 1970, he earned advanced credit hours in Military Science in 1977.

Victor’s dedication to education extended beyond traditional classrooms, as he attended the Indian Management Institute at Idaho State University, earning credits in Community Development and Tribal Government. Throughout the years, he held various positions, including Education Coordinator for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s Community Action Program and teaching roles at St. Francis Mission and Sinte Gleska University (SGU). Victor played a pivotal role in developing Lakota Studies programs at SGU, creating associate and bachelor’s degree programs, as well as a master’s program in Lakota History and Culture. His contributions to Lakota education and culture go beyond the classroom, as evidenced by his involvement in numerous committees, museums, and cultural resource management projects.

Victor’s extensive publications, including Lakota language textbooks and monographs on Lakota history, showcase his dedication to preserving and sharing the rich cultural heritage of the Lakota people. In addition to his academic achievements, Victor Douville has actively participated in legislative and resolution drafting for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. His memberships in professional organizations and numerous awards and honors, such as the 25-Year Service Award from SGU, highlight his significant impact and leadership in the field of Lakota education and cultural preservation.

Photo by Binesikwe Means of the Global Press Journal

Gregory Cajete is a Native American educator whose work is dedicated to honoring the foundations of Indigenous knowledge in education. Dr. Cajete is a Tewa Indian from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. Dr. Cajete is a practicing ceramic, pastel and metal artist. He is extensively involved with art and its application to education. He is also a scholar of herbalism and holistic health. Dr. Cajete also designs culturally-responsive curricula geared to the special needs and learning styles of Native American students.

He worked at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico for 21 years. While at the Institute, he served as Dean of the Center for Research and Cultural Exchange, Chair of Native American Studies and Professor of Ethno- Science. He is the former Director of Native American Studies (18 years) and is Professor Emeritus in the Division of Language, Literacy and Socio Cultural Studies in the College of Education at the University of New Mexico. In addition, he has lectured at colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Italy, Japan, Russia, Taiwan, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, England, France and Germany.

Dr. Cajete has authored 10 books: “Look to the Mountain: An Ecology of Indigenous Education,” (Kivaki Press, 1994); “Ignite the Sparkle: An Indigenous Science Education Curriculum Model”, (Kivaki Press, 1999); “Spirit of the Game: Indigenous Wellsprings (2004),” “A People’s Ecology: Explorations in Sustainable Living,” and “Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence” (Clear Light Publishers, 1999 and 2000). “Critical Neurophilosophy and Indigenous Wisdom,” Don Jacobs (Four Arrows), Gregory Cajete and Jongmin Lee) Sense Publishers, 2010. “Indigenous Community: Teachings of the Seventh Fire,” (Living Justice Press, 2015). His most recent books are edited volumes entitled: “Native Minds Rising” and “Sacred Journeys” (John Charlton Publications, 2020). Dr. Cajete also has chapters in 36 other books along with numerous articles and over 350 national and international presentations.

Chris joined the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute as a research social scientist in March of 2020. His research background focuses on wildlands management and planning through an interdisciplinary, social-ecological systems lens. More specifically, his research includes qualitative and quantitative approaches to understand how human well-being is supported by the variety of benefits flowing from our public lands, social vulnerability to environmental and land use change, and methods for integrating science into public engagement efforts for large planning processes (Forest Plan revision, comprehensive river management planning). Chris’ desire to work in support of effective stewardship of wilderness and wildlands stems from years spent working on the Yellowstone River and exploring the wild places surrounding Yellowstone National Park.

Steve is Professor of Rewilding and Wilderness Science in the School of Geography, University of Leeds where he has been based since 1993. He is co-chair of the IUCN CEM Rewilding Thematic Group and is Director of the Wildland Research Institute. His research interests include application of GIS and environmental modelling to wilderness mapping, ecological connectivity and opportunity for rewilding. Steve has long standing interests in landscape assessment and participatory processes in spatial planning. He has worked extensively in North America, Europe and China and is a keen hiker and backcountry skier.

Bob is a Professor in the Department of Recreation, Parks, and Leisure Services Administration at Central Michigan University. He received his PhD in Forestry from the University of Montana in 2007 where his research focused on visitor use trends in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. This culminated in the USDA Forest Service station publication The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness: Examining changes in use, users, and management challenges. Res. Pap. RMRS-RP-91. (Dvorak et al, 2012) that received the National Wilderness Award for Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship Research. Bob’s professional teaching and research interests include wilderness and protected area management, examining visitor use issues in parks and wilderness, and understanding the relationships and attachments people form with wilderness and protected areas. He has also been a scientific reviewer for the Interagency Visitor Use Management Framework, Visitor Capacity Guidebook, and Monitoring Guidebook, and is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Wilderness (www.ijw.org).

Zdenka received her Ph.D. in population biology of endangered species from the University of South Bohemia in 2001. In 2003, she worked as a post-doc position at UCLA, California. Together with Prof. Rudi Mattoni from UCLA and his colleagues, she involved in conservation projects focusing on Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly, an endemic species of LA County.

In years 2004-2010, she worked for the Šumava National Park Administration as a Head of Department of Research and Nature Protection and has served as Deputy Director of NP from May 2007. Currently, she is a head of Department of Biodiversity, Global Change Research Institute, Czech Academy of Science. Her research is focused on conservation biology, biodiversity and climate change, management of protected areas and rare species. She is a Natura 2000 expert and interested in wilderness conservation and management.

She is teaching several conservation biology courses at the Charles University in Prague and the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice.

Vicki is the Knowledge and Research Manager, Lands and Resources, Mushkegowuk Council. She has been immersed in protected areas and wildlife management her entire career. Working in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, coastal British Columbia, and currently in northern Ontario she supports Indigenous management of protected areas. She broke gender barriers in the 1990s to become the first woman Chief Park Warden in Canada at Ivvavik National Park an Inuvialuit created protected area located on the Arctic Beaufort Sea coast. Her academic interests include remote sensing, spatial ecology, and braiding knowledge systems. When not at her desk, she explores wild places on foot, skis, kayak, boat, or skidoo, and forages for meat, fish, and berries. Vicki is Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Wahta First Nation.

Fernando is the Director of the Elouise Cobell Land and Culture Institute and an assistant professor in the departments of Native American Studies and Environmental Studies at the University of Montana. As a quantitative researcher with academic interests in both the STEM and the social sciences, his scientific approach is diverse but fundamentally founded on data science and geographical thinking, which he leverages to characterize environmental dynamics and their impacts on coupled human-nature systems, inform climate change adaptation, and communicate indigenous perspectives on conservation.

Jason is a Landscape Ecologist and Director of the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute. Collectively, he has served in local, regional, and national positions with the USDA Forest Service, National Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management. In addition to many years of leading protected areas management and science programs, Jason has co-developed local, national, and international ecosystem-based monitoring programs. In the recent past, he provided seven years of international, inter-governmental leadership representing the United States, and working alongside people—scientists, managers, and indigenous and other community members—in support of conservation and effective decision making. Jason’s work has spanned the American West, Alaska, and circumpolar Arctic.

Tina is a member of the Wildland Research Institute and the IUCN French Committee’s Working Group on Wilderness and Feral Nature. She caught the wilderness bug while conducting fieldwork in Antarctica for her doctoral research and being based out of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Nothing in her upbringing in the metropolis of Hong Kong prepared her for the mind-blowing immensity of polar wilderness. Since then, she has worked for different environmental NGOs including the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) and WWF to advocate for the protection of Antarctica’s wilderness through outreach and participation at scientific and diplomatic meetings. She continues to teach and conduct qualitative and quantitative research around perceptions, ethics, and the physicality of the Antarctic wilderness.

Bob is a Professor in the Department of Recreation, Parks, and Leisure Services Administration at Central Michigan University. He received his PhD in Forestry from the University of Montana in 2007 where his research focused on visitor use trends in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. This culminated in the USDA Forest Service station publication The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness: Examining changes in use, users, and management challenges. Res. Pap. RMRS-RP-91. (Dvorak et al, 2012) that received the National Wilderness Award for Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship Research. Bob’s professional teaching and research interests include wilderness and protected area management, examining visitor use issues in parks and wilderness, and understanding the relationships and attachments people form with wilderness and protected areas. He has also been a scientific reviewer for the Interagency Visitor Use Management Framework, Visitor Capacity Guidebook, and Monitoring Guidebook, and is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Wilderness (www.ijw.org).

Chris joined the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute as a research social scientist in March of 2020. His research background focuses on wildlands management and planning through an interdisciplinary, social-ecological systems lens. More specifically, his research includes qualitative and quantitative approaches to understand how human well-being is supported by the variety of benefits flowing from our public lands, social vulnerability to environmental and land use change, and methods for integrating science into public engagement efforts for large planning processes (Forest Plan revision, comprehensive river management planning). Chris’ desire to work in support of effective stewardship of wilderness and wildlands stems from years spent working on the Yellowstone River and exploring the wild places surrounding Yellowstone National Park.

Wilderness advocate, Cherryl Curry was brought into the Wilderness Leadership School by the founder and iconic conservationist, Dr Ian Player, in 2005.

Having spent her formative years in the corporate world, Cherryl was ripe for the challenge of bridging the gap between building a viable resource model and retaining the legacy of a 55 year old non-profit conservation institution, with the founder still very much a part of the evolving organisation.

Cherryl was brought in ostensibly to deal with fund raising and marketing however the dynamics of a lean non-profit organisation soon saw to her development in dealing with the many aspects of management of the renowned conservation NGO.

With no experience in the realm of conservation and NGO mechanics, much less the benchmark work of the elite band of wilderness guides, she soon realised that outside of the business aspects of the day-to-day running of the organisation, she was hopelessly out of her depth. This led to many years of learning by osmosis, being guided and mentored by Ian Player and Andrew Muir and the wilderness guides, research and the observation of the rich environment in which she now found herself. She became CEO in 2017 and navigated the multiplicity of the Covid challenges and came out the other side to ensure that the heritage of wilderness trails in Southern Africa endures to further its legacy founded on the prescient vision of Ian Player and Magqubu Ntombela in founding the Wilderness Leadership School.

“I could not have been prepared for the transformation that occurred to me on my first trail in the wilderness area of Isimangaliso” says Curry and that, for the first time in her life, she became aware of the power that the wilderness exerts on the human psyche and the evolution of spirit that this brings about. This has led to profound joy in discovery of the land and the spirit of the people of it and the wilderness areas that the network of the Wilderness Foundation Global seeks to protect.

It was at her first World Wilderness Congress in Alaska in 2005, that Cherryl appreciated the global reach and imperative of the need to protect wilderness areas around the world. As Ian Player addressed an audience of some 1200 delegates and one could hear a pin drop, the enormity of the challenge of the work ahead became apparent and is testament to the impact that these Congresses have had over their decades long existence.

Ilarion Kuuyux Merculieff has over 50 years of experience serving his people, the Unangan (Aleuts) of the Pribilof Islands and other Indigenous peoples locally, nationally, and internationally in a number of leadership capacities. He speaks about issues related to cultural and community wellness, traditional ways of living, Elder wisdom, climate change and the environment. Having had a traditional upbringing, Merculieff has been, and continues to be, a strong voice and activist calling for the meaningful application of traditional knowledge and wisdom obtained from Elders in Alaska and throughout the world in dealing with modern day challenges.

“As are many Indigenous peoples, I am hopeful that we will successfully tackle the toughest issues Indigenous peoples face with regard to the human role in protecting Mother Earth and successfully implement the proposed solutions. It is also my prayer that the non-Indigenous participants come away with a deeper understanding of the value of Indigenous ways of knowing for protecting Mother Earth.”

Jo is a Master NLP Practitioner, Advanced Psychotherapeutic Counsellor and Qualified Clinical Supervisor. She uses her skills in behaviour change facilitation and motivation across the board, with a particular focus on the outdoors and wilderness therapy and believes in the philosophy ‘we help nature and nature helps us’.

South African by birth, Jo has enjoyed a rich life of wild places in many parts of Africa as she grew up. She trained and worked as a Social Anthropologist during the time of Apartheid, working mainly with rural communities. Understanding and measuring the effects of value on wellbeing and encouraging people to respect and understand the value of wilderness and nature lies at the heart of her passion in her work.

Jo has been Chief Executive of the Wilderness Foundation since 2004, and was previously involved as Projects Director and Project Coordinator since 1998, and has recently taken on a role as a commissioner for the Essex Climate Action Commission and is working with the team to ensure that the protection of nature and biodiversity shares the same energy and passion as human wellbeing and this is woven through all the work of the Foundation.

Using the extensive wilderness network and her close link to South Africa and Europe, she merges best practice from around the world into creative programmes for nature and people that suit varying climates and cultures. Jo focuses on the effects of wilderness on positive change for people and nature to empower environmental awareness and ethics. She specialised in wellbeing, behavioural issues, and mental health improvements through nature immersion.

Shay (she/her) is a community steward committed to nurturing communities and communities of practice. She is a white American of Ulster Irish descent—from northeastern Ireland where the land meets the sea. Shay has been a student of justice and equity for as long as she can remember and has especially learned from Indigenous Peoples, people of color and white settlers committed to healing, repair and co-liberation. She is co-editor of the book Protecting Wild Nature on Native Lands and co-author of the report “Cross-Cultural Protocols in Rites of Passage: Guiding Principles, Themes and Inquiry.” Shay’s work for social and environmental transformation has focused on building bridges between the movements for wilderness conservation and Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. Her professional roles have included Program Manager for Native Oceans, Founding Director of the Indigenous & Community Lands & Seas program for The WILD Foundation and World Wilderness Congress, Executive Co-Director of The Ojai Foundation, and Executive Director for the Global Center for Indigenous Leadership & Lifeways. When not working, Shay can be found exploring the Big Chico Creek tributary of the Sacramento River Watershed in the unceded traditional homelands of the Mechoopda peoples, where she currently resides, in Northern California.