10th Annual Native Nations Nursing, Helpers, and Healers Summit

Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer
Plant Ecologist, Educator, Writer, and MacArthur Fellow

Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, which has cemented Dr. Kimmerer’s reputation as one of the leading voices of our time on environmental stewardship.

Her newest book, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, is a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.

Widely celebrated, Dr. Kimmerer has been reviewed frequently in The New York Times, named a Time magazine Most Influential Person of 2025, and received many awards, including a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship.

Learn more about Dr. Kimmerer on her website.

Amy DeLong, MD
Ho-Chunk Nation

Dr. Amy DeLong is a Ho-Chunk family physician who works for the Ho-Chunk Nation Department of Health and has for nearly twenty years. She received her Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Michigan, completed medical school at the University of Minnesota and completed her training in family medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, MN. She earned her Master’s in Public Health in the maternal child health track while completing an adolescent health fellowship through the University of Minnesota Department of Pediatrics.

Dr. Amy DeLong was appointed as the Chief Clinical Consultant for Family Medicine in the Indian Health Service in 2021. She was appointed to the Governor’s Health Equity Council in 2020.  Her passions include public health efforts to prevent chronic disease like obesity, especially in childhood, promoting healthy pregnancy outcomes, adolescent health care, and being outdoors with her family.

Brian Jackson, MS, EdD
Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

Dr. Brian Jackson is an assistant professor with a background serving Indian Country with an emphasis on Community Based Participatory Research. He is part of the Great Lakes Native American Research Center for Health (GLNARCH) Community Scientific Advisory Committee serving the Bemidji Area. He has worked extensively with Native American students in student development programs through storytelling and cultural teachings combining academic research and Indigenous ways of being. Furthermore, Dr. Jackson is trained as a Family Circles AODA Prevention Program facilitator; providing instruction in language, traditional cultural practices, history, and culture of Native people will be preserved, thereby restoring pride in the identity of Anishnabe.

With an introspective approach in which family members examine their own behaviors, the curriculum enables individuals to better understand how the process of realizing positive healthy lifestyles within the family begins with self-esteem building, coping skills building through Indian culture, values and lifestyles.

Jeneile M. Luebke, PhD, RN, Planning Committee Chair and Summit Host
Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa 

Dr. Jeneile Luebke is a registered nurse and Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is an enrolled member of Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and is crane clan. She is a member of Wisconsin’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Taskforce. She received an Outstanding Woman of Color award in 2025. She leads the annual Native Nations Nursing, Helpers, and Healers Summit and is a Co-Director of the Center for Indigenous Research to Create Learning and Excellence (CIRCLE) program on campus. Her research aims to better understand the lived experiences of gender-based violence through storytelling, as well as advocating for survivor-led, trauma-informed, and culturally safe screening methods and interventions for Indigenous survivors of violence using Indigenous-specific and community-engaged research methodologies.

Hope Nelis-Stone, Traditional Midwife, IBC, CBE 

Mother of 7 biological children & 2 bonus children. Owner of Indigenous Birth Services, involved with MCH for 13 years. Co-Chair of Maternal Health Task Force for State of Wisconsin Member of the Maternal Mortality Review Team of Wisconsin. Currently pursuing education in Human Services, to become a Mental Health Counselor.

Russell Stone

Cultural Director, Dad Doula. Bus Driver, Teacher Aide & pursuing education to become Immersion Teacher. Expecting 7th child, foster parent, father for 13 years and been involved in traditional birthing for 11 years.

Nicole Thomas PhD, BSN, RN 

Nicole Thomas has been a registered nurse for 19 years, working across diverse patient settings. While working as a nurse, Nicole saw first-hand the impact of systemic racism on negative health outcomes for non-White women. Given the experiences she witnessed as a nurse she decided to complete a PhD with a goal to address social injustice as a nurse scientist. Nicole is the Anna Julia Cooper Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, School of Nursing and will transition into a tenure-track assistant professor role upon completing her fellowship.  Although Nicole does not have tribal identity, she identifies as having Indigenous descent along with settler ancestry. Her program of research seeks to understand how Indigenous women experience historical and cultural trauma, what actions they take to protect themselves and others, and the impact on premature aging (long-term impacts of stress on the body, such as inflammation, higher blood pressure, etc.). At the Native Nations Summit she will discuss preliminary results of her most recent scoping review, Cultural Practices of Human Interconnectedness Within Nature. Dr. Thomas’ overall goal is to make meaningful contributions to Indigenous communities and create substantive nursing knowledge that improves health outcomes for Indigenous women.

Melissa Vera, PhD
Tsm’syen/Yaqui First Nations 

Dr. Melissa Vera is an Assistant Professor at Washington State University’s College of Nursing and the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. She is Tsm’syen and Yaqui First Nations and her research focuses on the intersections of Indigenous health, climate change, and land-based healing using Indigenous research methodologies. Before becoming an Assistant Professor, Dr. Vera practiced as a registered nurse for four years in the hospital and clinic setting, while also working as a medical writer and editor. She earned her BA in English/Creative Writing from Seattle University, her BSN from Boise State University, and her PhD in Nursing Science from the University of Washington.

Mike Wiggins Jr.
Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa 

Mike is the Director of Madeline Island Museum and former Chair of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, serving three terms in this role. He is a life-long resident of northern Wisconsin. Raised on the Bad River Reservation, Mike learned how hunting, fishing and harvesting were essential to the Tribe’s cultural and spiritual traditions and why the Tribe’s ceded territory rights were important to protect for this generation and the next. He earned his bachelor’s degree at UW-Superior in 1992 and previously served as a conservation warden for the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission, and as a Home School Coordinator for the School District of Ashland. He is an active teacher of Anishinaabe practice in use and protection of natural resources and is a leader in the protection of the Penokee Hills region.