Board of Directors

Melanie Benjamin was the Chief Executive/Tribal Chairwoman of Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians where she was responsible for conducting external relations on the Band’s behalf with all other governments. She was first elected to this position in 2000 and was re-elected for five consecutive terms. Benjamin led the tribe through rapid changes and challenges, and ushering in an era of prosperity for the next generation of Ojibwe.

Former Chief Benjamin earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Bemidji State University and her Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Levi is a Cohort 9 graduate of the Native Nation Rebuilders program, which helped him develop a civics course for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. (With Levi’s assistance, NGC built on this course to develop our Tribal Civics program.)  As the Director of Tribal Affairs at the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), his office strengthens Tribal Government to State Government relations by developing agreements and partnerships, directing and implementing policy, and providing the knowledge and ability to work effectively in Indian Country. Since 2012, Levi has also contributed to the Tribal State Relationship Training Program that helps develop collaboration and understanding between tribes and Minnesota state departments.

Levi has broad experience working with tribal nations, including roles working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency and American Council. He is a citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and a lifelong resident of the Leech Lake Indian reservation. He is active in his community and often represents the tribe with rights of way, permits, tribal lands and tribal sovereignty issues.

Caleb is an NGC Rebuilder (Cohort 9), and previously served as legal counsel to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. Mr. Dogeagle serves on the Minnesota Commission on Judicial Selection and the board of the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance. He earned a B.A. from Montana State University in Bozeman, MT. He also earned his J.D. and LL. M from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law in Tucson, AZ, focusing within the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program.

Frank is a former Tribal Chairman and a current Appellate Court Justice. He works on leadership development for Indian Country. His work includes local, regional, national and international efforts on Indigenous cultural property rights, treaty rights, environmental protection and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Megan Minoka Hill is from the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. She currently serves as the Program Director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development and the Director of Honoring Nations at the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University. Through applied research and service, the Harvard Project works to understand and foster the conditions under which sustained, self-determined social and economic development is achieved and sustained. Hill brings her leadership working with tribal nations to celebrate and disseminate governance successes and innovations to the Native Governance Board.

Danielle Hiraldo (Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina) is the Director of the American Indian Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Hiraldo received her Ph.D. in American Indian Studies with a minor in public administration at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. She holds a M.P.A. and a B.A. in Political Science with a concentration in Pre-Law from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

Before joining the American Indian Center, Dr. Hiraldo served as a researcher for the Native Nations Institute (NNI) situated in the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the University of Arizona where she remains an affiliate researcher. Her research explores governance under state recognition, tribal-state relationships (specifically in the Southeast), federal Indian law/policy, and Native Nation governance structures and practices.

Chris James is the President and CEO of the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development, the largest business development and technical assistance training organization in the country for American Indian and Alaska Native-owned businesses. He’s also a former Associate Administrator at the US Small Business Administration and a US Treasury official.

Mike Laverdure, Migizi Miigwan (Eagle Feather) is an Anishinaabe (People From Whence Lowered) from the Makwa Doodem (Bear Clan) and an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Mikinaak Wajiw, located in Belcourt, North Dakota.

Mike is a registered architect, a partner at DSGW Architects, and is president of the Indigenous-owned firm, First American Design Studio. Mike is the past President of the American Indian Council of Architects and Engineers and is also Chairman of the board member and Sequoyah Fellow of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. Mike is also a Cohort 10 graduate of NGC’s Rebuilders program.

His mission in life is to promote architecture and engineering as a valid and vital STEM career for tribal youth and to have Indigenous architecture create real change in Tribal communities.

Katrina Phillips, an enrolled member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, serves on the Macalester College faculty as an Assistant Professor of American Indian History. She spent two years as a Consortium for Faculty Diversity fellow at Macalester before moving to the tenure-track.

She earned her BA and Ph.D. in History from the University of Minnesota, where she served as a co-chair for the University’s interdisciplinary American Indian and Indigenous Studies Workshop. She is a past recipient of the U of M’s prestigious Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship as well as the Graduate Research Partnership Program grant. Professor Phillips teaches courses on American Indian and American history.

Her current research focuses on the role of American Indian historical pageants in the development of regional tourist economies in the 20th and 21st century.

Levi Rickert is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Levi won a 2021 National Native Media Award from the Native American Journalists Association for Best Column in the print/online category. He also serves on the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association.