Loris Ann Taylor, President and CEO

Loris Ann Taylor - is President and CEO of Native Public Media, Inc. representing the media interests of Native America through legacy and new media technologies including radio, television, video and Internet, journalism, and public policy. She was instrumental in helping to establish the first FCC Tribal Priority for broadcasting and the new FCC Office of Native Affairs and Policy.  Taylor led the team to publish the first seminal study on broadband “New Media, Technology and the Internet Use in Indian Country” and contributed to the FCC’s National Broadband Plan. In 2008, Taylor, representing the only Native organization, briefed the Obama Biden FCC Transition Team on telecommunications issues facing Native Americans.  In 2010, Native Public Media in partnership with the National Congress of American Indians advanced Native interests to be included in the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan.

Taylor was honored with a 2006 Louis T. Delgado Award and the 2005 Ford Foundation Leadership for a Changing World Award. Formerly the General Manager of KUYI-FM Radio, Taylor co-founded the UNITY Journalist of Color Award winning “Indian Country News Bureau” and produced the children’s program “Shooting Stars” and weekly talk show “House Calls” which received an award from the U. S. Indian Health Service. Taylor instituted the first radio class/curriculum at the Hopi Junior Senior High School.
Taylor currently serves as a member on the Distribution and Interconnection Committee of the National Public Radio Board and Free Press Board of Directors, and is active on the Aspen Institute’s Communications and Society program contributing to the Knight Commission Reports on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy and New Cities: The Next Generation of Healthy Informed Communities.

Previous positions include: Associate Director of the Hopi Foundation, executive director of the Arizona Indian Gaming Association and Special Assistant under the Office of General Counsel for the Hopi Tribe specializing in land, water and energy matters.  Taylor is also one of the founders of the Hopi Education Endowment Fund.

Dr. Traci L Morris, Director of Operations
 

Dr. Traci L. Morris (Chickasaw Nation) is the Director of Operations for Native Public Media, a service and advocacy organization that works to strengthen and expand Native American media capacity.  As a telecommunications and communications policy specialist working on behalf of Native Public Media and in partnership with the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative, Morris has supported the national discourse through conferences throughout the county and via publication.   The principal and founder of Homahota Consulting, through which Dr. Morris provided organizations policy analysis and research focusing on Internet use, digital inclusion, network neutrality, and development of broadband networks in Indian Country.  The first quantitative and qualitative study commissioned by Native Public Media “New Media, Technology and Internet Use in Indian County,” was co-authored by Morris and Sacha Meinrath, Director of the Open Technology Initiative at the New America Foundation, and has become a seminal resource for key decision-makers, including being extensively cited by the Federal Communications Commission in the National Broadband Plan.

As a member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, Morris maintains a strong working relationship with her Tribal community and her passion for policy emerged from these strong ties and her own tribal roots. Dr. Morris has PhD in American Indian Studies and Comparative Culture and Literary Studies from the University of Arizona.  She has over ten years of university teaching experience at the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and East Central Oklahoma University and has inspired a decade of scholars to factor in the Native perspective in their work. Her book, Native American Voices: A Reader, continues to be a primary teaching tool in colleges throughout the country.  Morris is also a blogger for Native Public Media, NAMAC, NABI Foundation, and Homahota Consulting.

Candice Mendez, Executive Assistant

Candice Mendez (Navajo) is the Executive Assistant at Native Public Media.  Mendez brings her years of experience in entrepreneurship, business management and international experience to the position.  Her management experience includes hotel procurement for the historical Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa and food services at the prestigious Phoenix Children’s Hospital.  On the international front, Mendez was formerly the owner and operator of a restaurant in the provinces of Guanacaste and Limon in Costa Rica and studied Art History in the south of France.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Arizona.  Mendez is responsible for the day-to-day administrative matters of Native Public Media, which includes program, development and fiscal management.  She also administers the Station Services Desk for Native Public Media and is responsible for assisting Native stations in service requests.

Native Radio Stations may contact Candice for services.