TXG Membership

Frank Harjo, GIS Manager & TXG Chair | Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Oklahoma

Frank is currently the GIS Manager for the Muscogee Nation’s (MN) Geospatial Department. Since 2009, he has guided the tribe’s GIS activities and worked with EPA’s Exchange Network. Together with the MN Environmental Services department, the tribe’s first Exchange Network grant was funded in 2011. A node was implemented and the Open Waters application was established to manage water quality data. The MN expanded the Open Waters application to incorporate additional tribal partners and built a tribal response application that would allow partner tribes to work together. More recently, the tribe was awarded funding to build real-time capabilities and a tribal portal to display and host their information in real-time. Frank currently serves on the E-Enterprise and Exchange Network Management Board as a tribal representative.

Contact Frank - Phone: 918.549.2510 | Email: Fharjo [at] mcn-nsn.gov

Angie Reed, Water Resources Planner & TXG Vice-Chair | Penobscot Indian Nation, Maine

Angie has worked with Wabanaki Nations, in what is also known as Maine, on protecting the health of their waters since finishing her MS in 1998. As the Water Resources Planner for Penobscot Indian Nation (PIN) she has written four successful Exchange Network (EN) grants. The fourth was an EN partnership grant awarded to PIN and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians (HBMI) in 2020 to help both Nations take their data management, analysis and exchange systems to the next level. She has been with TXG since 2007 and currently her focus is hands-on technical trainings that make the daily lives of tribal environmental professionals easier. Since 2019 she has helped TXG organize two Data Carpentry workshops (in-person and virtual), host many virtual small-group R demonstration/working sessions and provide weekly virtual one-on-one R mentoring. Angie believes that building strong data management and exchange skills in the office will help tribal environmental professionals feel more able to take advantage of the EN grant program and participate in TXG to help others.

Contact Angie - Phone: 207-356-5167 | Email: angie.reed [at] penobscotnation.org

Lisa Gover, Director - Environmental Quality | Gila River Indian Community, Arizona
Lisa (Pawnee/Comanche) is the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality at Gila River Indian Community (GRIC), and has formerly served as the administrator for various tribal environmental programs including General Assistance Program (GAP), Clean Air Act (CAA), Clean Water Act (CWA), and Climate Change Programs. Lisa has served as a delegate to the Region 9 Regional Tribal Operations Committee (RTOC), the National Tribal Air Association (NTAA), the Western Regional Air Partnership (WRAP), and the EPA E-Enterprise Leadership Council (EELC). She also served as a Policy Analyst for EPA Region 9 RTOC, where she analyzed EPA policies and prepared position statements on EPA programs and initiatives that impact Tribes, including environmental data related topics.

Contact Lisa - Email: lisa.gover.deq [at] gric.nsn.us

April Hathcoat, Environmental Director | Cherokee Nation Environmental Programs, Oklahoma
April has worked for the Cherokee Nation Environmental Programs office since February 2004 and is primarily responsible for managing the Clean Air Program. Her current duties include quality control and quality assurance of all air monitoring data, grant management, staffing and workload assignments, and uploading data into the EPA Air Quality System (AQS). April is licensed with the State of Oklahoma as a Registered Sanitarian and a Registered Environmental Specialist, is a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM), and is a member of the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA). April began working with the Exchange Network program in 2011; the current Cherokee Nation EN grants include creating a Tribal mentoring program for ATTAINS (Assessment and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Tracking and Implementation System), providing support for Tribal representatives of the EELC, and establishing a radon data exchange via OpenNode2. April serves on the EN Interoperability & Operations Team (IOT).

Contact April - Phone: 918.453.5098 | Email: april-hathcoat [at] cherokee.org

Brianda Hernandez Rosales, Water Quality Program Coordinator | Bishop Paiute Tribe, California

Brianda is the new Water Quality Program Coordinator for Bishop Paiute Tribe. She is a recent graduate from the Graduate Program of Hydrologic Sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno where she completed a Master of Science degree in Hydrogeology. She is excited about data management and analytics and serving communities that value it most. When she is not behind a desk, she likes to get out and do some field work in the beautiful Eastern Sierra. She is an avid rock climber, fly fisher and mountain biker.

Contact Brianda - Phone: 760.784.4678 | Email: brianda.hernandez [at] bishoppaiute.org

Bruce Jones, SSHIAP Section Manager | Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, Washington

Bruce has over 40 years of experience working with tribes in the northwest and has been with the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) since 2007. Since 2008, the NWIFC has been an active partner in the Exchange Network (EN), working with its 20 member tribes to successfully develop and deploy several data exchanges, including Water Quality, Nearshore, Juvenile Fish, Adult Fish, and Fish Management. Currently, NWIFC are developing a new data exchange called “Riparian and Floodplain Data Exchange,” or RFX. Bruce’s experiences on the EN/E-Enterprise includes serving on the Network Technology Board (and previously, the Network Operations Board) and Management Board. He has been a TXG member since 2008.

Contact Bruce - Phone: 360.438.1180 | Email: bjones [at] nwifc.org

Sarah Kowalski, GIS Data Technician | Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, Washington
Sarah has worked at the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) as a GIS Data Technician since January of 2022. She previously served as the Campus Tree Committee chair during her undergraduate studies at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Geneseo where she initiated research and policies to create a healthier campus tree community. For four years she worked in education and social services before completing her Masters of Environmental Studies degree at The Evergreen State College in 2020. Sarah currently contributes to the creation and implementation of four data exchanges - Riparian and Floodplain, Fish Management, Water Quality, and Nearshore - for tribes in the state of Washington. She is excited to support the Tribal Exchange Network Group’s collaborative projects and to gain more knowledge from the member’s breadth of experience."

Contact Sarah - Phone: 360.438.1180 ext 302 | Email: Skowalski [at ]nwifc.org

Sheryn Olson, Inter-Tribal Monitoring Data Project Manager | Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission

Sheryn works with data professionals at CRITFC's four member tribes: the Yakama Nation, The Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon. She coordinates and collaborates on ways to improve scientific and fisheries harvest data management throughout its life cycle. As a biologist for the USGS/Pacific Northwest Aquatic Monitoring Partnership (PNAMP), 2016-2019, Sheryn was honored to work with – and learn from – tribal researchers and managers conducting research, monitoring and evaluation (RM&E) of aquatic ecosystems in the Columbia River Basin. PNAMP also is a region-wide partnership with a mission to provide a forum for collaboration among the aquatic RM&E community.
Sheryn's B.A. in Zoology led to 7 years in biomedical research at the University of South Florida medical school, Tampa Veterans Hospital, and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore. Sheryn had a 25-year career as an IT consultant in Fort Collins and Steamboat Springs, Colorado, culminating in owning a business with approximately 200 clients for 11 years. Sheryn sold her business to return to ecological research, working at CATIE, Costa Rica, and for US Forest Service as a wildlife biologist in North California and in Colorado. At the University of Maine, Orono, during work toward a M.Sc., she worked with a long-term monitoring project assessing Canada lynx and snowshoe hare population density responses to different vegetative communities created in managed forests

Contact Sheryn

Jennifer Reyher, Database Analyst/Programmer | Muscogee (Creek) Nation

Jennifer is a Citizen of the Cherokee Nation and has been employed with the Nation for six years. Before she took her position in the Geospatial Department, she worked for the MCN Office of Environmental Services. She has worked with varying EPA programs and has extensive grant writing and grant management experience. Over the past six years, she has collaborated on several EN projects and looks forward to supporting other Tribal Nations to further their data management goals.

Contact Jennifer - Phone: 918-549-2511 | Email: jereyher [at] muscogeenation.com

Darold Wallick, Air Quality Program Manager | Pala Band Of Mission Indians, California

Darold has been involved with tribal air quality monitoring since 2014. He transitioned over to environmental science with Pala after working many years in information systems and technical support. Pala's environmental department started the air quality monitoring program over 20 years ago. The location of tribal reservation is a hot spot for a few ambient air quality issues. Darold has made many needed changes and improvements to the program and continues to help the tribe expand it abilities to handle its AQI issues. He says after been introduced to this field of work and meeting all the wonderful people that helped him when he started, he feels in debt and enjoys paying it forward.

Contact Darold - Phone: 760.891.3540 | Email: dwallick [at] palatribe.com

Interested in furthering the TXG mission and promoting tribal involvement in the Exchange Network? Complete and submit the Membership Request Form.

The purpose of the TXG is to promote tribal sovereignty by empowering tribes to make informed environmental decisions; facilitate access to training, resources, and tools for improving data management and exchange solutions; and communicate and collaborate with US EPA, EN, and EE partners to increase understanding of the unique tribal cultural values and environmental concerns.

TRIBES AND THE EXCHANGE NETWORK