The Going Home Fund is administered by the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums. It is guided by a volunteer Council made up of museum professionals, attorneys, and cultural experts.
Laura Eliff Cruz is the Collections Manager for the School of Advanced Research. Laura was head of the collection management department at the Denver Art Museum for nearly six years overseeing the daily care, including a major collection move project and numerous grant storage upgrades during her time there. Previous experience includes working as a collection consultant, as an on-line teacher through Northern States Conservation Center, four years at Fort Lewis College, Center of Southwest Studies, and she was a former Americorps VISTA volunteer. She has a BA in Anthropology from Illinois State University, a graduate certificate in Museum Collections Management and Care from George Washington University, and an MA in American Studies from the University of New Mexico.
Joe Horse Capture is Vice President of Native Collections and the Ahmanson Curator of Native American History and Culture at the Autry Museum of the West. His previous appointment was as the first Director of Native American Initiatives at the Minnesota Historical Society in Saint Paul, MN. He is an enrolled member of the A'aniiih Tribe of Montana and has more than 25 years of museum experience. Horse Capture also served as an Associate Curator of Research and Documentation for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian and served for 15 years as a curator of Native American Arts at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Dr. Sven Haakanson is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington and Curator of Native American Anthropology at the Burke Museum. Dr. Haakanson was previously executive director of the Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, Alaska, and received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2007. His interests have focused on supporting the revitalization of Indigenous language, culture, and customs within the Kodiak archipelago. Under his leadership for 13 years, the Alutiiq Museum brought heritage innovation and international attention to the Alutiiq community for their model programs and facility. Haakanson received a PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University.
Honor Keeler (Cherokee Nation) is a legal scholar and author. She co-edited The Routledge Companion to Indigenous Repatriation (2020) and most recently taught at Brown University. Keeler is a former member of the NAGPRA Review Committee. She works on international repatriation, sacred places protection, Indigenous human rights, and Indigenous entrepreneurship.
Laura Lott is the President & CEO of the American Alliance of Museums. Laura led the 2012 re-launch of the Alliance, including rebranding the organization and redesigning its membership and excellence programs to be more inclusive, leading to a 70% growth in membership and the organization’s first five profitable years in a decade. Prior to joining AAM, Laura was chief financial officer and chief operating officer of The JASON Project, an international nonprofit education program at the National Geographic Society with a mission to inspire and motivate students to learn science through great explorers. In the late 90s, Laura helped launch the MarcoPolo: Internet Content for the Classroom program at the former MCI Foundation and managed its partnerships with 50 state departments of education, as well as MCI’s community relations programs.
Patsy Phillips is the Director of the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) based in Santa Fe, New Mexico (2008 to present). Before joining MoCNA, Phillips worked at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian (2000 to 2008) and Atlatl, Inc., a national service organization for Native Arts (1996 to 2000). Phillips holds an MA in Writing from Johns Hopkins University, a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from Harvard University, and a BA in Anthropology from Southern Methodist University. She is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
Jennifer Shannon is a Curator and Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History where she teaches cultural anthropology and museum studies. She is the author of Our Lives: Collaboration, Native Voice, and the Making of the National Museum of the American Indian (2014), and a co-producer of NAGPRA Comics.
Tessa Shultz works on the Community Loans program at NMAI, a partnership-based effort to expand collections access collaboration between communities and cultural institutions. She holds a double BA in English Rhetoric and Art from University of Puget Sound. She is passionate about contemporary art, intangible cultural heritage, and stewardship of Indigenous material culture.
Rick West, ATALM Board Member, is the former president and CEO of the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. He was the founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, retiring from the position in 2007. He is also a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma and a Peace Chief of the Southern Cheyenne. His professional life has been devoted to serving the American Indian community on cultural, artistic, educational, legal, and governmental issues.