Nanette Kelley M.Ed.

Recently, Nanette received a commendation from the

California Legislature for "her participation in helping to create and preserve the cultural identities of all Californians."

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A lifelong traveler on the roads in between, Nanette Kelley 𐓐𐓎𐓍𐒰 𐓈𐓂̄, M.Ed. is an enrolled citizen of both the Osage and Cherokee Nations. Through community-based participatory collaboration, her focus is land and its connection to art and culture. An Arts & Culture Administrator, contributor to Indigenous publications, a documentary filmmaker, and a Native American Studies model curriculum writer. Nanette resides part time on the Osage Reservation in Oklahoma and also calls the California Redwood Coast (unceded Wiyot land) home. She likes to tell people, “My family never stopped migrating.”

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Her life’s foundation in the arts predates her birth by generations of craftspeople who lived off the land from time immemorial including land stewards, leathercrafters, woodworkers, and metalsmiths. She attributes her values, work ethics, and attention to detail to her grandparents and spending her childhood assisting her Grandfather in his workshop.

Nanette's work includes community collaboration and communication through an Indigenous Knowledge lens.

Nanette enjoys networking and working with diverse cultures: Mentors such as China-born artist Hung Liu (social realism), Switzerland-born fine artist Lucienne Bloch (Diego Rivera’s assistant and paint specialist), and Vietnam-born multimedia/transdisciplinary artist, Anh-Thuy Nguyen (whose work highlights human relationships and cultural conflicts) gave her an appreciation for art as a language of cultural history and contemporary stories, and not mere aesthetics.

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     "I believe art and a connection to the land are good, universal

       catalysts for peoples to tell their own stories."

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Nanette facilitates resources for present and future culture bearers.

Working strategically as an Arts Administrator, Project Director, Program Coordinator, Offices Manager, and Business owner, she is experienced in managing/hiring staff and contractors, grants/grant reporting, and collaborating with elders, cultural leaders, artists, scientists, non-profits and businesses including tribal, educational, NGOs, city, county, state, and federal agencies.​

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M.Ed. Indigenous Education, B.A. Corporate Communications, and B.A. Art Studio (printmaking & painting) with emphasis in interpretation.

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Within the context of Tribal Critical Race Theory, Nanette's Indigenous Education M.A. studies, School of Social Transformation, Center for Indian Education program studies at Arizona State University emphasized equity, research, and community engagement: Educational narratives for curriculum and community outreach.

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An only-generation college student, Nanette completed her B.A. in Art with a Studio emphasis at Humboldt State University, California during the redwood timber conflicts and the tribal land and water battles. Immersed in a cultural conflict zone and working as the publicity chair for local nonprofits provided her with a solid understanding of political, cultural, and environmental Public Relations and community engagement.

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Located in the town named after Osage Chief GRAH MOIE (Claremore) within her ancestral Osage territory, and where the Cherokee side of her family settled after they walked the Trail of Tears, she completed a B.A. in Corporate Communications at Rogers State University. Under the direction of Juliet Evusa Ph.D., her study pertained to research and interpretation through a Critical Race Theory lens including community collaboration and outreach through social media, radio, TV & video, and the creation of regional multimedia curriculum for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.​

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Nanette was one of 10 cultural artists selected for the 2021-2022 inaugural California Arts Council Administrators of Color Fellowship cohort.

In 2022, Nanette received a commendation from the California Legislature for "her participation in helping to create and preserve the cultural identities of all Californians."

Currently, Nanette is coordinating two college programs, managing offices while securing opportunities for several programs and creating Native American Studies Model Curriculum for the State of California.​

I find viable long-term collaborations, funding sources, and opportunities including internships, scholarships, grant sources, and build community relations while managing the Cal Poly Humboldt INRSEP/COMPASS offices. Serving Native and diverse underrepresented populations, over two hundred students, I monitor trust and state funding sources and provide outreach to sustain and expand COMPASS’s suite of programs and affiliations including INRSEP, Native FEWS (Food, Energy and Water Systems) Alliance, the Geoscience Alliance, Ecological Forecasting Initiative, California State University-STEM Pathways Alliance (CSU-SPA), and McNair Scholars. supervise a team of undergraduate employees.

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Valuing connection of people to their lands through culture and arts, Nanette created units for the very first Native American Studies Model Curriculum (NASMC) project for California school content, 2026 scheduled release.

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Affiliations:

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• Board of Directors: Ink People Center for the Arts & Culture, Interim Treasurer & JEDI Committee

• CSU Recruitment/Hiring Search Committee voting member, Cal Poly Humboldt

• Equity in Hiring Committee and Equity in Advising Committee, Cal Poly Humboldt

  • DEI curriculum for faculty & staff certificate program;

  • "Equity Advocate in the Hiring Process" member to enable awareness and address the structural impact of implicit and unconscious bias while promoting institutional structural change toward diversity, equity, and inclusion

• Member, Cal Poly Humboldt Council of American Indian Faculty and Staff (CAIFS)

• ​ Professional member of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA)

• Contributing writer to Indian Country Today, Native News Online, and First American Art Magazine