Staff

Administration

Dr. Corrine Sanchez, Executive Director +

Corrine Oqua Pi Povi Sanchez, PhD, of San Ildefonso Pueblo is Tewa Women United’s Executive Director. She holds a doctorate in Justice Studies from Arizona State University.

Dr. Sanchez has contributed to building Indigenous Knowledge through her work with Tewa Women United for the past 30 years, including co-creation of TWU’s research methodology and the Theory of Opide, a braiding of practice to action. She has extensive training and experience in the fields of sexual assault prevention, educational awareness, advocacy, and trauma informed care. Dr. Sanchez has presented at many national conferences on Sexual Assault in Indian Country, Advocacy Needs of Native Sexual Assault Survivors, Forensic Interviewing of Native Children, and Child Witness to Violence.

Dr. Sanchez currently serves on the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s Advisory Council and is a Board member of the Attach Your Heart Foundation. Most recently, she has been selected to serve on the Governor of New Mexico’s Advisory Council on Racial Justice.

 

Nathana Bird, Associate Director +

Nathana Bird, M.A., is from Ohkay Owingeh and Kewa Pueblo, a life-partner to Ray Naranjo (a talented chef) and a mother of four. She enjoys taking care of her plants, spending time with family, road trips, and organizing.

Nathana first became involved with Tewa Women United as a board member in 2007. In 2014, she transitioned onto staff as the Coordinator of the A’Gin Healthy Sexuality & Body Sovereignty Project, and became the organization’s Associate Director in 2019.

Nathana began organizing in Northern New Mexico and regionally through various youth organizations and continued on this path for many years, focusing primarily on environmental justice issues and education. Her educational background includes an MA in Language, Literacy & Socio-Cultural Studies with a concentration in American Indian Education, and a BA in Integrated Studies in Psychology.

Nathana is passionate about continually connecting back to the teachings of her people and to embody the wisdom that has been passed down to her from the mothers and grandmothers in her life.

Email: nathana@tewawomenunited.org

Bernadette Trujillo, Finance Director +

Bernadette is an enrolled and active member of the Pueblo of Nambé and has resided there her entire life along with her daughter, Hayle Trujillo. Her work with Tewa Women United began in March of 2012 and she is pleased to be part of an organization committed to the well-being of women. She has completed many credit hours of study in accounting at Northern New Mexico College. Bernadette has fifteen years of finance experience working for Accounting Departments at Eight Northern Indian Pueblo Councils, Inc., and Nambé and Pojoaque Pueblos. In addition to her current work with Tewa Women United, she serves the Pueblo of Nambé as the Tribal Enrollment and Social Services Coordinator (2013-Present) and completed two consecutive terms (2012-2019) as a Board Member for the Nambé Pueblo Housing Entity. Her dedication to making the world a better place is evidenced in the depth of her service to community.

Email: bernadette@tewawomenunited.org
Main Office: 505-747-3259 x1205
Direct Line: 505-210-8143

Diana Halsey, Office Coordinator +

Diana is from Santa Clara Pueblo, a US Navy veteran, and mother. She is certified as an Infant Massage Instructor, Indigenous Breastfeeding Counselor, Technology of Participation facilitator, Care for Kids instructor, and International Center for Traditional Childbearing Doula. Diana is experienced in community outreach and collaboration, and completed a 40-hour course in Advocacy Training and Skills/Organizing for Healthy Native Communities. She is also trained in topics of Toxic Stress, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Brain Development, Shaken Baby Syndrome, and Pregnant Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse. She received doula assistance from the Yiya Vi Kagingdi Doula project and decided to become a Doula to give back that same help to other mothers and families.

Email: diana@tewawomenunited.org
Main Office: 505-747-3259 x1206
Direct Line: 505-210-8144

Environmental Justice Program

Talavi Cook, Program Manager +

Talavi Cook (she/hers) originally from Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, Hopi, and Dine, joined the Tewa Women United staff in March of 2022 as the Environmental Health & Justice Program Manager. She is a former student of Fort Lewis College and obtained a B.S in Environmental Biology in 2016. Talavi was introduced to Tewa Women United in 2018 to collaborate and host an environmental workshop while working closely with Santa Clara Forestry as the Reserved Treaty Rights Lands Program Coordinator. During her time working at Santa Clara Pueblo, she also became the only women wildland firefighter among a crew of 30 plus men. In 2020, she then completed a M.S in Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science from the University of Hawai’i at Hilo. She continues to hold passion for forestry, firefighting, natural resources, and conservation, and is committed to helping her communities to ensure the land and the people are healthy and resilient. On her off time, you can find her looking at plants, doing art, or adventuring in the desert.

Email: talavi@tewawomenunited.org
Phone: 505-210-8142
505-747-3259  ext 1204

Kayleigh Warren, Program Coordinator +

Kayleigh Warren (she/her) is Tewa and Tiwa from the Pueblos of Santa Clara and Isleta. She was raised in the traditional Pueblo farming lifeway in Santa Clara Pueblo. From her land-based upbringing as well as through community and professional mentorship, she has focused on becoming an advocate for ancestral lands protection and the preservation of Pueblo land-based lifeways, especially farming and ethnobotanical traditions. She has worked in native plants preservation, monitoring and cultivating threatened and endangered plant species in western Oregon and southern New Mexico, and in supporting Indigenous food sovereignty initiatives in communities across the country. Her undergraduate studies are focused on botany and ecology. Outside of the office, Kayleigh spends her time preparing and promoting traditional foods, seedkeeping, tending her family’s fields and gardens in Santa Clara Pueblo, and continually learning about and loving on the flora of her homelands.

Email: kayleigh@tewawomenunited.org
Phone: 505-210-8146
505-747-3259 ext 1203

Pilar Trujillo, Wellness Coordinator +

Pilar Trujillo is a land-based Chicana who was born and raised in Española and now lives on ancestral farmland in Chimayo. An acequia farmer at heart, Pilar is passionate about traditional and regenerative agriculture, natural healing modalities, and making herbal remedios for her family and community. She is a strong believer in the beautiful possibilities to heal generational trauma through caretaking of the land, water, and seeds. Pilar graduated with a B.A. in Environmental Studies through Prescott College in 2007, and worked for 10 years in the acequia community as an advocate and project coordinator. Pilar joined TWU as staff in 2019, and is very grateful to have the opportunity to deepen her life skills and knowledge of traditional birthing practices through coordination of the YVK doula training. She is the mother of a beautiful home-birthed daughter and a proud recipient of YVK Doula Services for her homebirth. Pilar happily volunteers her energy for two local organizations in Chimayo: Barrios Unidos for the development of a community remedios project for families suffering with grief, pain and substance use disorder; and the Chimayo Museum for implementation of cultural programming for youth and the community. Tewa Women United is now a partner in the remedios project as it expands.

Email: pilar@tewawomenunited.org
Main Office: 505-747-3259 x1207
Direct Line: 505-210-8145

Reproductive Justice Program

Wendolyne Omaña, Program Manager +

Wendolyne Omaña was born and raised in Mexico, by strong women. She is indigenous to the Mixteca tradition, doing her best to intertwine her grandmother’s teachings on Indigenous ways of healing with Western sciences. In addition to lifelong studies in healing arts, she has permission from her elders to provide Maya abdominal massage therapy, “cerradas” (forty-day postpartum care), and herbalism for “susto” (fear).
A mother of a beautiful baby named Tenoch, and a partner to a great human, Luis, she enjoys reading, cooking, practicing the imperishable science of Yoga from India, and studying Ayurveda and Nutrition.
Wendolyne carries with her training, certifications, and licensures in Yoga, Massage Therapy, Racial Justice, Family Support Services, Legal Observer, Survivors of Violence First Response Support, Stress and Anxiety Management, Grief Support, Event’s for POC planning, and Trauma-informed advocacy.
Currently, she is on the path to becoming a certified Functional Nutrition practitioner and a Dietitian with the University of New Mexico’s curriculum.
As a former journalist, executive director of a non-profit, and board member of CIRC, she uses the skills that she gained in those positions to volunteer as an advisor and grant writer with the organization Construyendo Poder, a grassroots organization serving the Latine community in Durango, Colorado.
phone: (505) 210-8140

Heaven Kim, Reproductive Justice Coordinator +

Heaven is Korean American and moved to New Mexico in 2002 from southern California. What was originally meant to be a temporary stay became permanent when Heaven fell in love with the singular beauty of New Mexico. Heaven has a diverse background from early childhood development to community organizing in partnership with the local Indigenous communities in Gallup, NM. Heaven’s personal journey navigating the reproductive healthcare system has given her an understanding of the difficulties people in marginalized communities face; particularly Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, the youth, immigrants, and people with disabilities due to economic, social, gender, and racial inequalities. She has a passion for reproductive justice work so that one day people in these communities will have full autonomy and access to unbiased resources to make well-informed healthy decisions about their bodies in all areas of their lives.

Email: heaven@tewawomenunited.org
Direct Line: 505-210-8138
Main Office: 505-747-3259 x1207

Aspen Mirabal, Yiya Vi Kagingdi Doula Project Coordinator +

Aspen is an Indigenous birth-worker for the people of northern New Mexico. Her formal training as a doula began in 2018 after having spent some months in Guatemala as a midwife assistant for a traditional community midwife. Since, Aspen has worked as a doula for the Yiya Vi Kagingdi Doula Program though Tewa Women United, as an Indigenous breastfeeding counselor, Indigenous midwife assistant, a home visitor for Tiwa Babies, and offering free doula services to her tribal community members of Taos Pueblo.

Aspen is passionate about educating aspiring birth workers, or those who have heard “the call,” guiding them along their journey as they navigate how to be of service to others—while recognizing the truths of obstetric violence, toxic birth spaces, and the affects of colonialism. Most recently Aspen has enjoyed mentoring other Indigenous people who have dreams to reintroduce birth-work into their tribal communities, and is currently working on an Indigenous-based childbirth education course.

Email: aspen@tewawomenunited.org

Gender Justice Program

Jamie Allbach, Program Manager +

Meet Jamie Allbach (she/her), M.A., an educator hailing from the Appalachian mountains of Western North Carolina. With a playful spirit and a heart committed to safety for all, Jamie has worn many hats over the years, but spent the first ten years of her career as an elementary school teacher and librarian.

Jamie’s journey took a profound turn when she moved to New Mexico in 2017. Her passion for education collided with a deep concern for the health impacts of trauma on survivors of sexual violence. Drawing strength from her own experiences, Jamie embarked on a personal quest for resilience, intertwining it with her decision to help others uncover their innate ability to heal.

This led to work as a community prevention educator, and then several positions for nonprofits dedicated to the health of youth and survivors of all forms of gender-based violence.

In 2020, Jamie spent time deepening her professional commitments by working for Women’s Economic Freedom and Leadership with Tewa Women United, only to circle back in 2023 as the Gender Justice Program Manager. Jamie brings her rich background and unwavering commitment to the organization’s impactful initiatives

Beyond her professional endeavors, Jamie finds joy in family life with her partner, Ryan, and their two kids. Their dinner table conversations are a lively exploration of the intersections of gender, race, ability, sexuality, and environmental health—topics that reflect her family’s broader commitment to inclusivity and the redistribution of safety.

Jamie’s passion for healing, resilience, and creating consent culture is always at the forefront.

Email: jamie@tewawomenunited.org

Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez, Sayain Coordinator +

Elder Kathy, a fluent Tewa language speaker, is a native spirit-rooted social activist, community educator, and traditional black ware potter from San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico. She is inspirational in doing presentations, trainings, and program development in her many roles for Tewa Women United for more than twenty years. Her work includes developing transformative tools such as the “Two-World Harmony, Butterfly Model” and “Trauma Healing Rocks” which address integrative wisdom of healing colonial trauma of mind, body, heart and spirit all from Native women’s lived perspectives.

Email: kathy@tewawomenunited.org
Main Office: 505-747-3259 x1203
Direct Line: 505-210-8141

Alex Rose Gutierrez Jaramillo, Community Well-being Coordinator +

My name is Alex Rose Gutierrez Jaramillo I am 26 years old and a mother.

One of the most humanistic acts we can do is to willingly take part in nurturing committed relationships with others. Relations with others offers insight for individual and collective growth. The reciprocal sacredness of life is shown through the interactions of relationships human and non-human. I have learned through my process that we need to feel safe enough in order to stop running and fighting and begin healing.

Non-duality unfolding into duality: creation. When we are truly present with life we are content not needing or asking for anything else, no longer does a thought come from the past or future, there is no need to balance or rest from people or life because we are already in homeostasis-the neutral observer and unconditional lover.

Email: alexa@tewawomenunited.org
Phone: 505-747-3259

Kevin Beltran, Prevention/Policy Coordinator +

Kevin is a member of the Pueblo of Zuni/half Salvadoran and currently residing in Tewa Territory. Outside of his role at Tewa Women United, Kevin’s a successful photographer, skateboarder, farmer, loves the outdoors/camping and spending time with loved ones!

Kevin holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Intercultural Communications from the University of New Mexico. Over the last 6 years, he has held positions that focused around Farming, Cultural Education, Policy work and Youth Organizing. Prior to joining TWU, Kevin held the position of Policy Coordinator for the All Pueblo Council of Governors. As a Policy Coordinator, he worked to provide assistance to statewide Pueblo Governors in their efforts to engage with state, local and federal level governance and policy issues. Recently the Farm to School Program Coordinator at the Santa Fe Indian School. Kevin supported the implementation of the Farm to School Program that focused on the creation of educational programming around Indigenous Food Sovereignty for the community of SFIS.
Kevin is extremely honored and excited to be a part of TWU. He looks forward to working and creating with the amazing TWU staff!
Phone: (505) 501-9530

Felysha Aragon, Youth Organizer and Program Assistant +

Felysha Aragon is Tewa and Apache and resides on her homelands of Nambé Pueblo. She was raised on the Big Island of Hawai’i, and spent her early years learning about Hawaiian culture and issues while maintaining her traditional Tewa relationship. Through her cultural and environmentally observant upbringing, Felysha has developed a passion for teaching and empowering youth through creativity and activism. She believes that the youth are the future and need to be encouraged to mold the world they are inheriting.
Alongside Felysha’s dedication to supporting youth, she is also a professional photographer, videographer, and amateur seamstress. She uses these skills and services to support Indigenous communities. She aspires to help give voice to those from the largest reservations to the smallest communities.