Our Leadership

 
 

Sandy White Hawk

Sandy White Hawk is a Sicangu Lakota adoptee from the Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota. She is the Founder and Director of the First Nations Repatriation Institute.   

First Nations Repatriation Institute (FNRI) is the first organization of its kind whose goal is to create a resource for First Nations people impacted by foster care or adoption to return home, reconnect, and reclaim their identity. The Institute also serves as a resource to enhance the knowledge and skills of practitioners who serve First Nations people. 

Sandy organizes Truth Healing Reconciliation Community Forums that bring together adoptees/fostered individuals and their families and professionals with the goal to identify post-adoption issues and to identify strategies that will prevent the removal of First Nations children.  She has also initiated an ongoing support group for adoptees and birth relatives in the Twin Cities Area. 

Sandy is the Elder in Residence at the Indian Child Welfare Law Office, Minneapolis, MN, and is a consultant for the Capacity Building Center for Tribes, Center for Regional and Tribal Child Welfare Studies University of Duluth, Minnesota.

 She serves on the boards of:

  • The Legal Rights Center of Minneapolis

  • The Association for American Indian Affairs.  

She is a subject in three documentaries:

 She is a contributing author to: 

  • Outsiders Within: Writing on transracial adoption

  • Parenting as Adoptees 

  • The Kinship Parenting Toolbox

She has received the following awards: 

  • The Child Welfare Leadership Award, Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare, U of MN, 2019  

  • The National Indian Child Welfare Champion for Children Award, 2017

  • Women in Wellbriety Dana Tiger Award for Creating Change in Nations, 2014  

  • Named one of The INNOVATORS in Color Lines Magazine, 2008  

  • Named one of the 50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World Utne Reader, 2008  

  • Named Outstanding Native Women Award from the University of Minnesota 2003  

  • Named one of the “50 Most Influential and Cool People” of Madison, WI, in Madison Magazine, November 2002.

George McCauley

George McCauley is a founding member and Chairman of the Board of Directors for the First Nations Repatriation Institute. He is a citizen of the Omaha Nation in Macy, Nebraska. George has 40 years of working for non-profits in Minneapolis, MN. For 13 years he worked at the Minneapolis American Indian Center where he worked with a team in the ICWA program to design and implement the first web-based case management system and court monitoring system for ICWA Tribal workers and ICWA Social Workers across the nation to collect data on ICWA compliance. In his retirement he took a part-time job as a Zoom administrator for the University of Duluth, Tribal Training and Certification Partnership that facilitates training for tribal and county social workers on the Indian Child Welfare Act. In his spare time, he acts in independent films and documentaries. His latest role has been an extra in the major motion picture by Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon.

 
 

Janice Riech LMFT

Janice Riech LMFT is a founding member and serves as Board Co-Chair. I have approximately 3 plus years of experience as a Battered Women’s Advocate, working for Sojourner Shelter and Eagles Nest Shelter-Women of Nations. Approximately 2 plus years experience as an Anger Management Counselor for East Side Neighborhood Service. Approximately 2 plus years experience as a Ramsey County Children’s Mental Health Case Manager, Native American specific. Approximately 13 plus years as an LMFT- Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, with my private practice (Life Balance Counseling). I retired at the end of 2019.

 
 

Carolyn Liebler

Carolyn Liebler is the White sister of an Ojibwe adoptee from Little Grand Rapids Reserve in Manitoba, Canada. She is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota, specializing in the social demography of race and Indigenous identities. Liebler works with White Hawk and other collaborators on FNRI research to understand the experiences of Native adoptees and birth mothers. She was a founding member of the FNRI board and currently serves as Board Secretary.

 
 

Paul Minehart, JD

Paul Minehart, JD, is the Board Treasurer. He currently coordinates the Education and Training Voucher (ETV) Program at the Minnesota Department of Human Services. He has 29 years of experience in child welfare working with tribal, county, and non-profit social service agencies. Previously Paul represented parents in Indian Child Welfare proceedings, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe in Indian Child Welfare Act proceedings, and helped develop and implement Indian child welfare quality improvement processes specific to state child welfare agencies both in Minnesota and nationally.

Lenny Hayes, MA

Lenny Hayes, MA, is a citizen of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the northeast corner of South Dakota. Lenny is also the owner and operator of Tate Topa Consulting, LLC, and is currently in private practice specializing in Marriage Family Therapy.  He has extensive training in mental and chemical health issues that impact the Two-Spirit/Native LGBTQ and Native community.  Lenny has traveled nationally and locally training and presenting on the issues that impact both the Two-Spirit/Native LGBTQ individual and community. These issues include the Impact of Historical and Intergenerational Trauma on this population, violence of all forms, child welfare issues, and the Impact of Sexual Violence on Men and Boys which is a topic that is rarely discussed. Lenny is the former Missing and Murdered Two-Spirit Project Assistant for Sovereign Bodies Institute. Lenny is also a 2020 graduate of the Human Trafficking Leadership Academy Cohort 5.

 
 
 

 Lenny is former Chairman of the Board of the MN Two-Spirit Society. As Chairman of the Board of the MN Two-Spirit Society he assisted Native organizations in developing policies in the protection, safety, and non-discrimination of Two-Spirit/Native LGBTQ people in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Lenny is a Board member of StrongHearts Native Helpline, Board member of Wac’ ang’a (Sweet Grass) Inc. Victim Services, Board Member to the First Nations Repatriation Institute, Advisory Committee Member with Capacity Building Center for Tribes, LGBTQ Advisory Co-Chair Council Member for the Southwest Indigenous Women’s Coalition, Advisory Board Member for the National Quality Improvement Center (QIC) on Tailored Services, Placement Stability and Permanency for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Two-Spirit Children and Youth in Foster Care, Committee Member for ACE-DV Leadership Forum with the National Resource Center for Domestic Violence. and a former Council Member for the MN HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Council, and a former Two-Spirit/Native LGBTQ Advisory Committee Member for the Center for Native American Youth, Washington, D.C. Lenny was selected to be a recipient of the 2018 Bonnie Heavy Runner Advocacy Award at the 16th National Indian Nations Conference “Justice for Victims of Crime.”

Dr. Jane Harstad

Dr. Jane Harstad is an enrolled member of the Red Cliff band of Lake Superior Anishinaabe.  Jane began her educational endeavors at the University of Minnesota where she pursued her Elementary Education licensure with an emphasis in American Indian Studies. She worked within many American Indian groups and served on the Board of Directors for the National Indian Education Association. Post-graduation she taught in St. Paul Public Schools. In 2005, she was accepted into the American Indian Leadership Program at Pennsylvania State University, earning her Master’s degree in educational leadership, as well as obtaining a Doctorate with an emphasis in curriculum and instruction.

 
 

While at Penn State, Ms. Harstad worked for the Professional Development Schools as a Professional Development Associate, collaborating with, supervising, and teaching pre-service teachers during their year-long internship. Ms. Harstad was also a Holmes Scholar and provided culturally responsive professional development both locally and nationally. Her dissertation research related to teacher efficacy in teaching the American Indian curriculum.

Upon her return to Minnesota, Dr. Harstad worked with American Indian literature and also as the Principal of a Tribal school. She is currently serving as the state Director of Indian Education and Tribal Liaison to Minnesota’s eleven Tribal Nations at the Minnesota Department of Education. Jane also serves on the FNRI research team that focuses on the experiences of Native American Adoptees/formerly fostered individuals and birth relatives.