Writer/Proofreader/Advocate and Trainer

Special Skills, Knowledge and Abilities:
Writing grant proposals, handbooks, training tools, web site content, articles, and essays
Developing training curriculums and training/meeting agendas
Coordinating training events, conferences and meetings
Facilitating meetings
Providing training on topics ranging from grant proposal writing to crime victim issues
Advocacy for victims of crime and trauma
Experience working in culturally diverse environments
Non-profit corporation development and management
Grants management and corporate financial management
Quantitative and Qualitative Research Skills and Experience
Oil and Gas Lease/Contracts Analysis and Title Examination
Payroll and Accounting Experience
Supervisory Experience
Ability to travel up to •••••% of time


Employment History:•••••
•••••Present
Independent Consultant
Based in El Paso, TX

Provide training on a variety of topics, such as grant proposal writing, grants management, domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, dating violence, child abuse and elder abuse topics, including topics specific to federal public policy in Indian country. I have participated in planning meetings at a tribal level and organizational level, and have written grant proposals and Tribal Code.

My previous employer, Native American Circle, Ltd., ceased receiving federal funding support for its programs as a consequence of shrinking resources for training and technical assistance programs in Indian country in both the federal and private sector. I began working as an independent consultant when funding ceased, but now desire to have a stable income and working environment in a profession that will utilize my diverse talents and knowledge, developed through serving a national non-profit corporation.

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Native American Circle, Ltd.
Based in Texas and Oklahoma
Executive Director

Provided crime victim advocacy, training and technical assistance to urban and rural or reservation-based Tribal Nation programs providing services to American Indian/Alaska Native victims of violent crime, particularly domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, dating violence and elder abuse crimes. I provided the training in person, directly, and I oversaw all other employees and consultants working for the organization in the collective work of developing training agendas for conferences. It was my responsibility to make certain that all training events hosted by the organization were advertised and marketed appropriately and that conference binders were created and distributed to conference participants. I wrote all the content of each of the conference binders, even performing "copyediting" duties on the bios and workshop summaries provided me by employee and consultant presenters/speakers at each training event. I negotiated all contracts with conference event host hotels and coordinated each event, and/or maintained oversight on the coordination of the event. Since our consultant faculty and presenters were often hand-picked by me, I also established the training agenda to correspond with the roster I had created for the service of our faculty members as advocates for any conference participants who desired to spend time in a designated, private "safe room". I did not exempt myself from service in the safe room, but served there whenever I could as an advocate. In each workshop that I presented, I made certain that the workshop participants knew that I would remain after the workshop ended to discuss any needs or concerns that anyone might have individually, and often, it was necessary for me to stay behind for some time after the conclusion of a workshop. I personally provided training to organizations, both tribal and non-tribal, desiring to implement programs for abusive men (batterer re-education) or programs for Native Two-Spirit (GLBT) persons, or provided oversight for the trainings conducted.

I wrote the only protocol in existence to date for establishing Tribal Domestic Violence Fatality Review Teams. I also wrote a •••••page comprehensive handbook concerning domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking crimes in Native communities, which was made accessible as a free download from the Native American Circle (NAC) web site. In the first ••••• months after the handbook became available on-line beginning in October •••••, more than •••••,••••• copies had been downloaded by individuals, agencies and service providers across the U.S. and in diverse countries around the world, including Great Britain, France, Japan, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, as well as the Middle East and Africa, with an additional •••••,••••• having been distributed at various Office on Violence Against Women and Office for Victims of Crime, U.S. Department of Justice, and Indian Health Service, Department of Health and Human Services, training events. A portion of the NAC handbook was re-printed in the "Domestic Violence Sourcebook, Health Reference Series, Second Edition", published by Omnigraphics, copyright ••••• As part of my duties for the organization, I also wrote articles for the Stalking Resource Centers newsletter, for Unified Solutions & Coaching Group, Inc. and for the Washington State Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs newsletters.

As Executive Director for Native American Circle, Ltd., I encouraged and implemented frequent collaboration with the Stalking Resource Center, a program of the National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC), to provide training on topics related to stalking crime issues in Indian country. Together with the Stalking Resource Center of NCVC, I personally collaborated with NCVC officials to plan and execute the First National Tribal Summit on Stalking, held in Salt Lake City, Utah in September •••••, my last "official" act on behalf of NAC. My salary with the organization ended many months before the conference event took place, but I remained committed to this last event, as did all of NACs Board Members and employees. It was a momentous landmark event, and an emotional "sending away" that no organization has attempted to replicate since. One workshop I co-presented on advocacy, scheduled as the last workshop of the day on the second day of the conference, ran over, at the request of the workshop participants, for more than an hour. Again at the request of various conference participants, I remained behind after the conference ended to meet with tribal representatives to discuss specific needs and how those needs might be addressed in their communities.

In November •••••, I was the guest host on the Office for Victims of Crime web forum as a consequence of my work in Indian country as Executive Director for Native American Circle, Ltd. The topic of interactive discussion was "providing victim services in Indian country nationally". The session was to last one hour only, but the questions submitted to me were well-thought-out and in my opinion, important, so I determined to provide in-depth answers to each question, no matter how much time was required of me. As a consequence, when the interactive session ended, I was still answering questions and continued to answer questions for several hours until each question submitted was fully responded to. No other guest host forum on this specific topic had ever committed to completing the task of responding to questions so fully and as a consequence, I was commended by the Office for Victims of Crime with a certificate and a letter stating that my forum had been the most popular "to date" on the topic discussed.
As an Office on Violence Against Women "consultant" (on behalf of NAC), I worked on committees that addressed victim assistance services for underserved communities and populations, and I also participated in the first (and only) meeting hosted by OVW on the topic of developing and funding non-profit tribal and inter-tribal domestic violence and sexual assault coalitions. As a non-federal Steering Committee member for the SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)-sponsored Second National Womens Conference and Third National Womens Conference, I worked on a panel to shape conference themes and topics. I also served as a grant peer review consultant, representing NAC, for the Office for Violence Against Women, the Office for Victims of Crime, and for SAMHSA, each review focusing on grants to Tribal Nations.

I have always been a detail-oriented, "memory-retentive" person, but my employment with NAC refined those natural gifts, as well as my talent for being at home in high-stress, high-demand, high-visibility, multi-tasking functions. Because of my work for NAC, I became thoroughly knowledgeable in the procedures and protocol necessary to coordinate and plan training events, both large and small, and in planning, coordinating and facilitating meetings on a variety of topics. I became skilled, too, at maintaining an emotionally "safe" environment for meeting participants when facilitating meetings.

One of my passions became that of promoting a spirit of "inclusivity" at training events, encouraging the concept that all races of people should feel welcome at the event, even when workshops might focus solely on topics that centered around Native American issues and cultures. I took on an active role in developing and finalizing training tools, both written and visual, for training events, and made it a corporate policy to develop training tools, including power point slide shows, that were as specific as possible to the audience anticipated. For instance, if an audience consisted of American Indian people living in a Public Law ••••• state, information specific to how those laws might impact the tribes in that State were always included in the training provided. I also insisted that the training provided be as specific as possible to the cultural group that the training was being provided to.

As Executive Director for NAC, I also became knowledgeable and skilled in managing federal grant budgets and in complying with reporting requirements. I managed, in a hands-on manner, all financial obligations of NAC, whether those financial obligations involved the distribution of grant funds in an approved and responsible manner, or simply cutting payroll for employees. I managed the books of the company to such an extent that even commingled grant funds were monitored separately for maximum effectiveness, and to ensure that no funds were expended in a manner unacceptable to the funding entity. NACs first federal grant program official commended me for demonstrating "a level of accountability" that no other organization had demonstrated prior to the funding of NAC. She requested that she be allowed to use my semi-annual program report as a "best practices" model for other grantees to follow. This was partly because NACs employees were all "telecommuters", who worked in various parts of the country and only met when we assembled for meetings and conference or training events. It was necessary for me to coordinate the work of our employees from my own home office with my own work. As a consequence, I requested that each employee provide me monthly with a daily log of their activities so that I could track what had been done on specific projects, what remained to be done, and then effectively report to federal authorities on the progress of our various projects. I also required reports on Needs Assessments with tribal communities which I had not personally conducted, but which had been conducted instead by employees and associates.

I wrote all grant proposals for the organization and I managed all federal and private grants awarded NAC. Over a three year period of time, I wrote a total of nine grants for NAC and other organizations and tribes. Of those nine grants, seven were fully funded. The grants I wrote for tribes I wrote free of charge, simply because it was corporate policy to do our best to build community responses for victims of crime in tribal communities. I wrote grants for the Sac and Fox Tribe of Oklahoma and the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma (which historically en•••••yed close relationships with the Santee Tribe in Nebraska), and for a food distribution program in Indian country and an inter-tribal coalition. I provided private consultation to persons desiring to establish non-profit corporations and during my time as Executive Director for NAC, I assisted in the organization and development, from corporate documents to successful attainment of •••••(c)(3) tax exempt status, a total of five non-profit corporations, including one tribal coalition. All are still functioning, though two are struggling due to lack of funding resources.

I have taught workshops on the body of federal public policy that is commonly referred to as "Indian law" and am knowledgeable in the myriad jurisdictional issues tribal victims of violence face as they attempt to secure services for themselves in Indian country, including issues specific to tribes in P.L. ••••• states and the specific issues of Native victims of violence who must seek assistance off-reservation, from primarily non-Native service providers. I taught workshops on the topic of cultural competency for non-Native victim advocates and service providers working with Native populations, as well as workshops on grant proposal writing and grants management.

Of all the work I performed while Executive Director for Native American Circle, Ltd., I most en•••••yed the challenge of facilitating meetings or serving on committees where I had an opportunity to explore ways to ease conflicts between diverse peoples, systems, organizations, and cultural groups in the hope of building bridges, not walls, lessening conflict and tension, and resulting in the building of successful relationships.

Native American Circle, Ltd., as a non-profit •••••(c)(3) organization, is no longer a viable company, but has ceased to function due to a lack of funding resources to support its programs.

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Senior Lease Analyst
Continental Resources, Inc.
Enid, Oklahoma

I began employment with Continental as a Division Order Analyst, but moved to the Lease Records Department when a position became available. I became acting Land Records Supervisor in the early summer of •••••, with a promise of the actual title to follow by years end. In that capacity, a broad knowledge and background in Land Administration duties was required, which included the drafting of Assignments and Releases, handling of delay rental payments and producing lease properties. On-going responsibilities involved the training and supervision of new staff and coordinating the timely completion of daily work with larger projects. I was also responsible for reviewing and proposing computer enhancements. I was "appointed" by upper management to serve on a four-person "Land/Accounting Alignment Team", whose mission was to review and re-evaluate the duties of the Division Order, Lease Records, Revenue and •••••int Interest Billing departments and propose improved methods for handling the workload between the departments, and for improving inter-departmental relations. I discovered in the process of working on this committee that I en•••••y building relationships that streamline workflow within an organization or "system", helping to ease conflict between departments and individuals where conflicts exists, thereby creating a "team-oriented" approach to the task of meeting business goals and objectives.

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Land Administration Analyst
Santa Fe Minerals, Inc.
Dallas, Texas (now based in Houston)

Tracked and researched shut-in gas wells for shut-in payment purposes. Analyzed shut-in clauses and how same interact with other clauses in the body of a lease. Traced mineral titles to determine current ownership of a tract and shut-in payment amounts to be tendered. Coordinated shut-in situations with engineering and legal
departments. Researched and responded to questionnaires and/or depositions as requested by the legal department relative cessation of production or shut-in histories for various properties. Maintained leases through minimum royalty and delay rental payments. Handled Critical Action Calendars, Expiring Lease Reports
and Canceled Lease Reports.

Researched and drafted Assignment and Release documents. Handled Sales Packages as needed, including the investigation and composition of property exhibits, Bills of Sale and Assignment documents. Researched and prepared Record Title and Operating Rights Transfers for all federal and Indian properties during the sale of Santa Fes assets, which involved extensive correspondence and conversations with various Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian
Affairs offices.

Created and maintained well information reports. Assisted in the creation and development of a users manual for Santa Fes in-house land administration computer system, LAMS. When LAMS was abandoned in favor of the Artesia Land Records Management computer system, engineered creative ways to maneuver in the system in order to properly maintain minimum royalty payments on Indian leases and other leases, and to properly monitor shut-in royalty payments and minimum royalty payments. Taught others how to use Artesia system. Researched and handled Division Order royalty maintenance questions and problems. Handled Division Order maintenance, including the transfer of interests (royalty, override or working interest) from one
party to another, coordinating this information with revenue accounting for revenue payment purposes. Exposed to the mechanics of calculating and drafting division orders on newly drilled and completed properties. Involved in Unclaimed Property and Senate Bill ••••• Projects. Santa Fe completed the sell of its assets and closed the Minerals Department in late •••••

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Acreage Department Manager/
Quality Control Supervisor
Research Title of Austin, Inc.

Initially employed as an Acreage Examiner, I was later promoted to Acreage Department Manager over three other examiners and then to Quality Control Supervisor. In the latter position, I supervised approximately eighteen examiners for both Undeveloped Acreage and Lot and Block departments. I supervised, coordinated and approved the work of Title Examiners during the research and preparation phases of Commitments for Title Insurance. It was my responsibility also to establish the priority of incoming requests for Commitments, often in figures exceeding $••••• million, and assign those requests to Examiners for research and the preparation of Commitments for Land Title Insurance.