Community Advisory Board Members

Pascua Yaqui & Tohono O’odham

Mr. Flores is a Licensed Independent Substance Abuse Counselor in the State of Arizona, a Certified Sex Offender Treatment Specialist, and certified by National Board of Forensic Counselors. He is a proud member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and Tohono O'odham Nation, a husband, father, artist, traditional healer, counselor, teacher, community leader and advocate. He is Chairman for The Arizona Partnership for Native American Cancer Prevention (University of Arizona/Northern Arizona University) and a member of the Community Advisory Board for Arizona Cancer Center.

Pascua Yaqui

Ms. Herminia “Minnie” Frias was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona. She is a first generation college graduate, and the first of her family to graduate college with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biochemistry in 1999 and Master of Public Health in 2008, both from the University of Arizona. When she is not working she loves to unwind by spending time with her family, hiking, riding her bike, taking long walks with her dog Petri, and reading.

Lakota

Dr. Joe Hiller served over 34 years on the faculty of the Universities of Wyoming, Alaska and Arizona. He served as head of two different academic departments; and provided national leadership for the Federally Recognized Tribal Extension Program (FRTEP). He managed federal agricultural research funding through the Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station. He trained over two dozen master’s and doctoral students in agriculture and natural resources and American Indian Studies. He retired in 2012 and holds professor emeritus status at UA.

Pueblo of Islata

Dr. Jojola has a distinguished career as an educator and practitioner in urban and regional planning and other related subjects, with particular specialty in indigenous planning. Since 1980, he has taught at the University of New Mexico. He served as director of Native American Studies from 1980 to 1996, acting director of the Community and Regional Planning Program in 1995-96 and director in 2004-05.

Tohono O'odham

Amy R. Juan comes from the communities of Comobabi, Ali Cukson, and Wecij Oidag on the Tohono O’odham Nation. Raised by her grandmothers, Amy was instilled with the knowledge of plants by her grandmothers, learning how to gather and use traditional medicines and harvest, process and cook traditional foods. Her passion continued through youth leadership development and revitalizing traditional foods on the Tohono O’odham Nation with Tohono O’odham Community Action where she was co-coordinator of the Young O’odham United Through Health (YOUTH) program and Project Oidag.

Marti Lindsey, PhD, was the Director of the Community Engagement Core of the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center from 2002 to 2021. She collaborated with basic and public health scientists, integrating community engagement with environmental health sciences research. The audiences for many SWEHSC environmental health outreach activities were professionals and public members of tribal communities. Lindsey shared her experience living in tribal communities and working with tribes with others doing similar work.

Hopi

Monica is Omaw’wungwa (Water Cloud) Clan from the Village of Songoopavi and lives on the Hopi reservation in Northeastern Arizona. She was raised in a traditional farming family of multigenerational dry farmers, orchard keepers, food foragers and seed savers. She believes the value of observation and data collection of both the farming experience and seed preservation are a natural part of Hopi agricultural stewardship.

Apache, Pueblo, & Yaqui

Roman Orona is Apache, Pueblo, and Yaqui. Roman has worked in the environmental field for over 16 years. Roman has extensive practical experience and expertise in short-and long-range environmental and natural resources conservation planning, development and implementation. He has been involved in designing and conducting a wide range of activities, including impact studies, policy reviews, and mitigation processes and providing services in fiscal management, conflict management and dispute resolution.