Gwen Bridge, a member of the Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Alberta, Canada, works on developing relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to support better natural resource management and indigenous equity. Generating a deeper understanding of Indigenous knowledge and legislative frameworks by non-Indigenous peoples underlies all of Gwen’s work. She has worked with Indigenous nations in the US and Canada on natural resources management and indigenous rights protection, including as a hydrologist for the Mescalero Apache Tribe and a Restoration Ecology Manager at the Makah Tribe, and Natural Resources Manager for the Okanagan Nation. Gwen has run her consulting firm since 2010 and has worked with many Indigenous nations in Canada. Gwen supports municipal and provincial governments, non-profits, universities, and the corporate sector on Indigenous relations and engagement management, including the Cascadia Partner Forum on including Indigenous knowledge in the international climate change adaptation strategy. Gwen is currently negotiating trilateral governmental agreements to establish a National Park Reserve in the Lower Similkameen Indian Band territory and Caribou Recovery in the Okanagan Nation Territory. Gwen has a Master of Science in Renewable Resources from the University of Alberta, in Alberta, Canada.

 James Rattling Leaf is a Global Indigenous Consultant and principal of the Wolakota Lab LLC who works to support Indigenous people’s nation rebuilding efforts through the effective and respective application of traditional ecological knowledge and western science. He has over 25 years of experience working with the U.S. federal government, higher education institutions and non-profits to develop and maintain effective working relationships with federally and non-federally recognized American Indian tribes, tribal colleges and universities and tribal communities. He specializes in developing programs that utilize the interface between Indigenous people’s traditional knowledge and western science. He sees a greater vision of human knowledge that incorporates the many insights of human cultures and provides a context for our better understanding of the planet and the worlds. Currently, he has projects with the University of Colorado-Boulder; North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center; Rosebud Sioux Tribe; GEO Indigenous Alliance; TerrAdapt and the Ecological Society of America Traditional Ecological Knowledge Section. He is a citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. 

 Sarah believes in the power of conversation and common ground to build a world where people and nature thrive together. She connects people to each other and to the ideas, skills, and opportunities that can make change possible. Sarah has spent over ten years exploring the many ways people communicate about the environment – facilitating conversations that bring people together, developing new workshops on challenging topics, capturing the heart of a discussion through graphic recording, and distilling the essence of our work on the COMPASS Blog. Sarah has worked across the full suite of COMPASS activities, from leading trainings to writing grant proposals. 

Sarah’s curiosity drives her to look for the story behind the story; an avid and omnivorous curator of information, she balances her drive to learn with critical thinking and compassion. She loves supporting people to come together in prosocial ways. Sarah earned a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an M.E.M. in coastal ecosystems from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. She lives in Seattle, Washington, on the lands and waters of the Coast Salish Peoples, who have cared for this place since time immemorial and continue to do so today.