Jaylyn Gough, Founder & Executive Director
Jaylyn, is from the Diné (Navajo) Tribe in New Mexico. Native Womens Wilderness was created out of the frustration of the lack women of color, let alone a Native Woman, represented in the outdoor industries. Her desire is for NWW to be a platform for Native voices, a place to express the love and passion for the Wild, and to provide education of the ancestral lands we all love to explore. Jaylyn has been a guide, a mountain bike race coordinator for eight years, and an avid mountain climber, hiker, mountain biker, climber, and a landscape photographer. You can always find her exploring the Wild with her camera in hand!
Cali Wolf, Coordinating Director
Cali is from the Sičháŋǧu Lakȟóta Tribe from Rosebud, South Dakota. She resides in Denver and works as an Emergency Room Registered Nurse and hopes to spend more time at the Denver IHS as a volunteer RN with the goal of working directly with our Native Community. She’s an activist who brings awareness to native issues within Native and non-Native communities. By sharing her story, she hopes to bridge the gap between all Natives, including those like herself who are reconnecting with the culture as an adult.
Pinar Sinopoulos-Lloyd
Pınar is a living confluence of Huanca, Turkic & Chinese lineages. The art of belonging and the gift of the liminal informs their work as a genderqueer nature-connection mentor and vision fast guide. As an indigenous futurist, they root for those in our communities who are scarred, those brilliant survivors reshaping a narrative of Belonging. They’re also here to represent and uplift the in-betweeners in our native communities who have a lineage of place-based queerness that’s ancient and vitally emergent. Pınar is the co-founder of Queer Nature, an organization that works on exploring decolonial queer futurism through natural history and ancestral, survival, and tactical skills. Pronouns: they, them, theirs
Verna Volker
Verna is from the Diné (Navajo) Tribe, in the Four Corners area of New Mexico. As a child, she remembers exploring the sandy rocky canyons with endless sagebrush around her. As she got older, she clung her childhood experiences to help her explore her current residency of Minneapolis. She is the Founder of Native_Women_Running. NWR was created under the frustration of lack of Native Women represented in the running world, running websites, blogs, social media accounts, and products. She wants to show Native Women can do anything that other runners do. She hopes this will be a springboard to show her ultra running journey as well. Running has always been good for her physically but running in nature has brought her peace. You can find her running the trails in preparation for a 50k race!
Sarah Ortegon
Sarah Ortegon is from the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes from the Wind River Reservation. She resides in Denver, CO and is the office manager for Smith & Shellenberger, LLC a Native American owned and operated law firm that focuses on Tribal Law, Family Law and Criminal Law. Ortegon was crowned Miss Native American, USA in 2013 and has since then dedicated herself to traveling around the world and country, speaking to the youth and encouraging them to pursue their dreams. Her Alaska expedition taken through NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) taught her the importance of a clean environment that offers support for the individuals residing on lands that have been around long before human contact. She has a passion for acting, art, dancing and running. She hopes to lead by example and to see the Earth start to thrive again during her
Shyanne Yazzie
Shyanne is from the Diné (Navajo) Tribe of Page, Arizona. She works as a Grand Canyon Whitewater guide on the Colorado River. While rafting, she has the opportunity of meeting people from different nationalities all over the world. She is also passionate about sharing her people's traditional values, culture and ancestral history of the Southwest. As a contemporary river guide, she's enthusiastic about educating people in values of protecting, preserving and respecting all sacred lands. Aside from the river, Shyanne's hobbies while off-the-river consist of hiking, backpacking, and exploring theoutdoors with family and friends.
Amanda
Mitchell
Amanda is from North Pole, Alaska! She comes from a long history of Athabascan, her Grandparents raised her 11 aunts and uncles in a village on the Yukon River, they lived off the land and have passed down their traditions to each generation! She has a great love,respect and appreciation for the outdoors, She loves to hike,fish and paddle board! Every year her family brings in harvest from the land! Amanda has helped her friends and youth in her life by bringing them outside to a new outlet, Somewhere that they can destress and appreciate what this land has to offer. New adventures are always on the horizon for her!
Cher
Cher is from the Diné (Navajo) Tribe. She rocks life with Downs Syndrome and she will be representing Native athletes who participate in Special Olympics!! Cher loves to do any sport available, she’s really good at Basketball, and will be going to the Special Olympics State Games, for Swimming!! She always has a smile on her face, has an infectious laugh, and will give you the best hug EVER!!
Katy Gräble
Katy is the union of Indigenous Mexican, Filipino, Sephardi, and German lineages. She began her journey to reclaim and reconnect with her Indigenous heritage as an adult when she asked herself the question “who were my Mexican ancestors?” From there she decided it was time to learn about and honor them, because her existence is a testament to their resiliency. Her favorite hobbies include hiking, mountain biking, reading, rock climbing, and snuggling with her dog, Gracie.
Joanne Yazzie
Joanne is from the Diné (Navajo) tribe. She works for Northern Arizona Council of Governments as a teacher aid. Teaching three to five year old children is a blessing to her heart. Starting early teaching is so important. At this age they are open to everything and with the right teaching, a child can succeed in anything. “At my age, hiking is always a challenge for me. I do my daily hike with my husband. Our backyard is the best with the canyon and the desert landscape. Living in northern Arizona is the center the best trails and boating.”
Roćo Villalobos
Rocío Villalobos is a Xicana indigenous woman from Austin, TX. In her personal life, Rocío created an outdoor adventure group to help (re)connect women of color and indigenous women to the land and to explore the history of the land they live on and travel to. As a child, she grew up speaking Spanish at home and went on family road trips to Mexico to visit her relatives. However, it wasn't until much later in life that she learned that her great grandparents on both sides of her family were indigenous peoples who felt they had to sacrifice their culture and language in order for their descendants to survive. Rocío is now committed to learning as much as she can about her family's roots and supporting other people's ability to strengthen their relationship to the land and each other.