Kayla (Anishinaabe/Shawnee) spent most of her life on Chestnut Ridge in the Laurel Highlands. Her grandmother (bimá sání) was a storyteller, harmonicist, and square dancer who founded Thyme for Herbs, an educational program for stressing environmental conservation and sharing her extensive knowledge of Appalachian native plants and traditional medicines. From her grandparents, Kayla learned to love performing dance and music, gather and grow food, and make herbal remedies. An avid reader as a child, she would sit in trees with a bag of seeds and draw the species that came to eat. She learned to hunt and fish from her father. In the summers, she would swim in the Youghiogheny River with her little brother, Kyle. Through numerous environmental and sportsmen camps, she learned about the acid mine drainage that stained the local creeks a thick orange color. Fast forward 10 years and Kayla is pursuing her Masters in Engineering at ASU in alternative energy and tribal policy. Her passion is combining environmental conservation with traditional wisdom and culturally-relevant paradigms. She was a 2015 White House Tribal Youth Gathering participant and spoke as an indigenous rights representative with the US Human Network at the United Nations Headquarters. Inspired by holistic programs she worked with in India and Cameroon, she co-founded a STEM-based project initiative through the American Indian Science & Engineering Society where she was recently inducted as a Sequoyah Fellow. In 2016, she was appointed to the NEJAC/EPA Youth Perspectives on Climate Working Group. She is currently studying Navajo language at Diné College while working for and living on the Navajo Nation.
COP22 Creative Challenge Entries
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