Meet the Team
Staff
Fellows + Interns
Previous Fellows + Interns
Nizhoni Tallas
Nizhoni began her work at the Climate Science Alliance in 2022 as a Climate Resilience Intern, then returned to the team in 2024 as an Indigenous Stewardship Fellow. In Fall 2024, she transitioned to Climate Science Alliance staff as the Community Resilience Specialist.
Learn about Nizhoni's 2022 internship here.
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Yá’át’ééh (Hello). Nizhoni is a proud member of the Navajo Nation and grew up in Rough Rock, Arizona. After high school, she attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and graduated with her B.S. in natural resources with an emphasis on outdoor recreation management. She recently graduated with her master’s in natural resources. Her master’s work focused on understanding interpretative signage throughout the Southwest region's parks, national monuments, and recreational areas. She analyzed language usage in interpretive signage to see how various outdoor locations shared Indigenous histories and stories.
She has worked on projects that span Indigenous food, water, climate, and energy systems. She is also passionate about increasing Native representation in outdoor recreation and STEM fields. She was a Udall, Gliman scholar and a Sequoyah Fellow of the American Indian Science Engineering Society (AISES).
Levi Hill
As the 2023 Climate Media Fellow, Levi Hill worked with both the Climate Science Alliance and Condor Visual Media teams to promote Tribal resilience and stewardship.
Levi Hill is a proud member of the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel. Having studied and graduated from Palomar Community College, he majored in Digital Broadcasting Arts. He is passionate about media in all aspects as well as bringing awareness to all the needs of local tribal communities. Levi plans to bring awareness to how local indigenous tribes are taking steps to help preserve the environment and bring forth the cultural revitalization through media documentation.
Levi served in a collaborative capacity for both the Alliance and its media partners at Condor Visual Media, sharing knowledge systems and uplifting community-led actions that advance Indigenous stories and voices to the forefront of media communications in southern California. The priority focus of this position was to assist production of CVM's Tribal Nations News network, an independent reporting platform specifically focused on the Tribal Nations and people of the Southern California region.
Kat Schroeder Mora
Kat Schroeder Mora (they/them) grew up on Kumeyaay land in San Diego. They have always been an artist, playing with art-making since they were big enough to hold a pencil. As a creative professional, Kat has experience teaching art, live painting, leading community workshops, and graphic designing in corporate, non-profit, and grassroots spaces. They earned their BFA in Art & Design with a concentration in Studio Art from California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo. Their studio practice has become about healing, exploring the process of making paintings as a way to ground the body after trauma and to connect with other survivors. Their creative freelance work is focused on supporting marginalized people who are working towards a better world for their communities.
Originally a Graphic and Web Design fellow, Kat is grateful to continue working with the Climate Science Alliance as the Visual Communications Designer where they feel privileged to be adding their creative energy to the Alliance’s efforts and honored to have the opportunity to build relationships with the Alliance’s many community partners.
Advisors
Technical Advisors
Previous Advisors
Althea Walker
Althea Walker is a descendant of the Nez Perce, Hopi, and Gila River people and is an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community. As the Director of Community Resilience for the Climate Science Alliance, Althea convenes the Tribal Working Group on a monthly basis to identify priority management needs and strategies that fosters dialogue and partnership building for climate adaptation and resiliency. Althea is a Certified Public Manager. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental & Resource Management and Master of Science in Environmental Technology Management from Arizona State University.
Althea has deep roots and experience working with Tribal and Indigenous communities across the southwest and nation, with specific expertise in weaving together Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge and climate adaptation to contribute to the scientific, technical, social, and economic advancements of Tribal and non-Tribal communities.
She is a Sequoyah Fellow (lifetime member) of the American Indian Science & Engineering Society (AISES) and a former editorial board member of the AISES magazine, Winds of Change. She is a contributing author for the first and second iteration of the Status of Tribes and Climate Change Report. She is a former steering committee member for the Indigenous Foods Knowledges Network, and a board member for the hipéexnu’ kíi’u núun wisíix Inc., whose mission is to promote, protect, and revitalize the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) language and cultural ways of life. Althea previously worked for the American Indian Higher Education Consortium at the Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center as the Tribal Climate Science Liaison.