Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative

Rachel “Ray” Friedlander recently served as city manager in Seldovia, Alaska and spent the last decade in public service to Alaska at the nonprofit, municipal, and state level. Her policy focus is democracy and human rights, specifically preserving local control for municipalities while respecting the sovereignty of Native Nations through collaborative governance. She received her associate's degree from Santa Fe College in environmental science and her bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley in political ecology. Under the mentorship of Professor Nancy Peluso and Dr. Noer Fauzi Rachman, she studied the agrarian reform movement of West Java while attaining fluency in Bahasa Indonesia through the US Department of State Critical Language Scholarship Program. She is currently assisting Dr. Miriam Jorgensen with a project in partnership with the National Indian Child Welfare Association.