Board Leadership
The North American Indian Center of Boston is seeking candidates for the Board of Directors. Per our bylaws, candidates must be eligible for NAICOB Membership and must be willing to complete a CORI and SORI check. Interested persons should apply for candidacy by emailing boardofdirectors@naicob.org or by completing the online application form.
Jean-Luc Pierite
Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana
President of the Board
Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, Jean-Luc now resides in Jamaica Plain. Prior to his election to the Board of Directors, Jean-Luc was also elected to the Community Linguist seat of the Advisory Circle for CoLang for the period 2016-20. The Institute on Collaborative Language Research or "CoLang" is designed to provide an opportunity for community language activists and linguists to receive training in community-based language documentation and revitalization. Currently, Jean-Luc volunteers with his Tribe's Language and Culture Revitalization Program which is a collaboration with Tulane University in New Orleans. This program is based on tradition passed from Jean-Luc's great-grandfather Joseph Alcide Pierite Sr., last traditional chief and medicine man of the Tunica-Biloxi. The Tribe is an amalgamation of members from the Central Louisiana communities of: Tunica, Biloxi-Choctaw, Ofo, and Avoyel.
Jean-Luc has a B.A. in Humanities with a co-major in Mass Communication and Japanese from Dillard University in New Orleans. He also earned an A.S. in Video Game Design from Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. Jean-Luc currently is the International Procurement and Logistics Manager for The Fab Foundation. The Fab Foundation was formed in 2009 to facilitate and support the growth of the international fab lab network as well as the development of regional capacity-building organizations. The Fab Foundation is a US non-profit 501(c)3 organization that emerged from MIT's Center for Bits & Atoms Fab Lab Program.
Jean-Luc's previous positions include: Internet Marketing Specialist for Mohegan Sun, and Graphic Artist for Paragon Casino Resort. He was elected to the Board of Directors in 2017.
Mea Johnson
Apache
Vice President of the Board
Mea Johnson has been a community and cultural organizer in the Boston area for over 17 years. She has worked with parents and families, fighting for better access to quality and accessible childcare; with transit riders, fighting for a more affordable and equitable public transit system; with cultural leaders in the Black community, fighting for more police accountability; and with the Indigenous community, fighting for land sovereignty both locally and nationally.
Gareth Howlingcrane
Cheyenne and Pawnee
Treasurer of the Board
Gareth Howlingcrane is a plaster and stucco construction applicator in and around Boston. Gary arrived in Boston in 1999. His Cheyenne-Pawnee heritage quickly guided him to NAICOB, where he completed computer classes and found community. Through his work on the Board of Directors, Gary hopes is to see the younger generation achieve greatness and for the elders to be a source of cultural resilience.
Gary has come along way from the boarding schools he attended. After graduating from Concho and Riverside Indian school in Oklahoma, he studies HVAC through Job Corps. Gary also studied architectural systems at Massasoit Community College. Gary was elected to the Board in 2009 and is now serving his fifth term.
Isaac Daniel Moore
Tsétsêhéstâhese (Northern Cheyenne)
Member of the Board
Isaac comes from southeastern Montana, where he grew up on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. A direct descendant of Chief Morning Star, better known as Dull Knife, Isaac studied Cheyenne history, culture, and language as a child. This early passion for historical inquiry has played a large role in Isaac’s journey from Montana to New York, Budapest, and Boston.
A graduate of Bard College in New York’s Hudson Valley in 2013, Isaac holds a Bachelor of Arts in History with a concentration in Jewish Studies. After leaving Bard, Isaac went to Europe and earned a Master of Arts in Comparative History from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, in 2014. With this academic background in cultural history, previously focused on Spanish and Jewish history, Isaac enjoys continuing to study the history and culture of Native American and Indigenous North American communities.
Prior to moving to Boston in fall 2015, Isaac completed a yearlong fellowship at the National Yiddish Book Center, a nonprofit organization in Amherst, MA, dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of Yiddish culture and language, where he supported the work of the Wexler Oral History Project and conducted oral history interviews.
Currently residing in Somerville, Isaac works as a faculty assistant at Harvard Law School and is interested in pursuing higher education as a career with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Isaac is interested in oral history, cultural preservation, and institutional development—areas that he aspires to focus on as a NAICOB board member.
Angela Christensen
Crow
Member of the Board
Bio coming soon...
Contact any member of the Board of Directors at boardofdirectors@naicob.org.
Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana
President of the Board
Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, Jean-Luc now resides in Jamaica Plain. Prior to his election to the Board of Directors, Jean-Luc was also elected to the Community Linguist seat of the Advisory Circle for CoLang for the period 2016-20. The Institute on Collaborative Language Research or "CoLang" is designed to provide an opportunity for community language activists and linguists to receive training in community-based language documentation and revitalization. Currently, Jean-Luc volunteers with his Tribe's Language and Culture Revitalization Program which is a collaboration with Tulane University in New Orleans. This program is based on tradition passed from Jean-Luc's great-grandfather Joseph Alcide Pierite Sr., last traditional chief and medicine man of the Tunica-Biloxi. The Tribe is an amalgamation of members from the Central Louisiana communities of: Tunica, Biloxi-Choctaw, Ofo, and Avoyel.
Jean-Luc has a B.A. in Humanities with a co-major in Mass Communication and Japanese from Dillard University in New Orleans. He also earned an A.S. in Video Game Design from Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. Jean-Luc currently is the International Procurement and Logistics Manager for The Fab Foundation. The Fab Foundation was formed in 2009 to facilitate and support the growth of the international fab lab network as well as the development of regional capacity-building organizations. The Fab Foundation is a US non-profit 501(c)3 organization that emerged from MIT's Center for Bits & Atoms Fab Lab Program.
Jean-Luc's previous positions include: Internet Marketing Specialist for Mohegan Sun, and Graphic Artist for Paragon Casino Resort. He was elected to the Board of Directors in 2017.
Mea Johnson
Apache
Vice President of the Board
Mea Johnson has been a community and cultural organizer in the Boston area for over 17 years. She has worked with parents and families, fighting for better access to quality and accessible childcare; with transit riders, fighting for a more affordable and equitable public transit system; with cultural leaders in the Black community, fighting for more police accountability; and with the Indigenous community, fighting for land sovereignty both locally and nationally.
Gareth Howlingcrane
Cheyenne and Pawnee
Treasurer of the Board
Gareth Howlingcrane is a plaster and stucco construction applicator in and around Boston. Gary arrived in Boston in 1999. His Cheyenne-Pawnee heritage quickly guided him to NAICOB, where he completed computer classes and found community. Through his work on the Board of Directors, Gary hopes is to see the younger generation achieve greatness and for the elders to be a source of cultural resilience.
Gary has come along way from the boarding schools he attended. After graduating from Concho and Riverside Indian school in Oklahoma, he studies HVAC through Job Corps. Gary also studied architectural systems at Massasoit Community College. Gary was elected to the Board in 2009 and is now serving his fifth term.
Isaac Daniel Moore
Tsétsêhéstâhese (Northern Cheyenne)
Member of the Board
Isaac comes from southeastern Montana, where he grew up on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. A direct descendant of Chief Morning Star, better known as Dull Knife, Isaac studied Cheyenne history, culture, and language as a child. This early passion for historical inquiry has played a large role in Isaac’s journey from Montana to New York, Budapest, and Boston.
A graduate of Bard College in New York’s Hudson Valley in 2013, Isaac holds a Bachelor of Arts in History with a concentration in Jewish Studies. After leaving Bard, Isaac went to Europe and earned a Master of Arts in Comparative History from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, in 2014. With this academic background in cultural history, previously focused on Spanish and Jewish history, Isaac enjoys continuing to study the history and culture of Native American and Indigenous North American communities.
Prior to moving to Boston in fall 2015, Isaac completed a yearlong fellowship at the National Yiddish Book Center, a nonprofit organization in Amherst, MA, dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of Yiddish culture and language, where he supported the work of the Wexler Oral History Project and conducted oral history interviews.
Currently residing in Somerville, Isaac works as a faculty assistant at Harvard Law School and is interested in pursuing higher education as a career with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Isaac is interested in oral history, cultural preservation, and institutional development—areas that he aspires to focus on as a NAICOB board member.
Angela Christensen
Crow
Member of the Board
Bio coming soon...
Contact any member of the Board of Directors at boardofdirectors@naicob.org.