Community Engagement

Jen Shannon manages the NMAI’s Outreach and Engagement Planning Office. Prior to joining the NMAI in 2022, she was a museum curator and associate professor of cultural anthropology and museum studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She was a 2021–2022 Whiting Foundation Public Engagement Fellow, co-produces NAGPRA Comics and Kumeyaay Comics, and is the author of Our Lives: Collaboration, Native Voice, and the Making of the National Museum of the American Indian (2014) and Posterity Is Now: Practicing Museum Anthropology, Collections Care, and Collaborative Research with Indigenous Peoples (2025). Jen began her museum career as a curatorial research assistant for the NMAI’s inaugural exhibitions before earning her PhD in sociocultural anthropology.

Kendall (Tallmadge) Tryhane is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. She is the Assistant Program Manager for the Outreach Office, having formerly served as manager of grant-funded fellowship programs. She supports the daily operations and coordination of the Outreach Office and continues to work closely with fellowship and internship programs at the museum. She has a longstanding passion for Indigenous community work and previously interned at the NMAI in the former community services department. She worked for nine years managing various grantmaking and capacity-building programs serving Native youth, artists, and knowledge keepers at the First Nations Development Institute before joining the NMAI in 2023. Kendall has an MBA and an MA in anthropology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Sam grew up in southeastern North Carolina and is enrolled in the state-recognized Lumbee Tribe. He has a BA in early American history from Lee University and an MA in museum studies, with a concentration in exhibitions, from The George Washington University. He has a passion for education and museums, as well as experience working in archives, libraries, and at a Smithsonian affiliate museum. During graduate school, he worked as an intern on the National Museum of American History’s Made By Us initiative. His most recent role at the National Law Enforcement Museum centered on developing and teaching educational programming for visitors. Sam looks forward to deepening his understanding of museum work and learning how we can better serve the communities represented by the NMAI.

Of Puerto Rican and Colombian Indigenous descent, Karina manages collections at the NMAI’s Cultural Resources Center and fosters community relationships by facilitating access for communities and researchers. Through the Tribal Museum and Cultural Center Partnership Program, she travels nationwide to cultural heritage centers, providing support for collections care. Before joining the Outreach Office, Karina worked at the Smithsonian’s National Collections Program, the National Museum of American History, and the National Museum of the American Latino and has contributed to collections initiatives that preserve and elevate Latinx and Indigenous histories. Karina has an MA in museum studies from Johns Hopkins University and a BA in anthropology and history from Montclair State University.

Krishna Aniel coordinates the internship and the centralized Smithsonian fellowship programs at the NMAI's three facilities in Washington, DC, Suitland, MD, and New York, NY. From 2009to 2018, she was the education program specialist at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, managing two internship programs and one fellowship program. From 2006to 2009, she worked at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, beginning there as an intern. Krishna served on the Washington Internship Institute Board from 2015 to2022. She has a BA in humanities (history emphasis) from Brigham Young University and a MA in liberal studies (American studies concentration) from Georgetown University.

Camilla is a member of the Mapuche Nation from the Ngulumapu territory. She is passionate and dedicated to her community and to other Indigenous communities. She has a BA in psychology and double minors in sociology and critical race and ethnic studies from the University of Denver. She has also taken Mapudungun language classes with La Universidad Austral de Chile. During her time at university, she was a NAGPRA assistant, as well as an exhibition installer, for the University of Denver’s Museum of Anthropology, which provided her the privilege of working with various Indigenous communities and leaders active in repatriation, curation, and education. This encouraged her to become more involved in museums working with Indigenous communities. In 2023, Camilla interned in administrative services at the NMAI, leading her toward her position as a staff assistantwith the Outreach Office.

A member of the Navajo Nation, Elayne was raised in northwestern New Mexico in the farming community of Shiprock. She hasa BA in Southwest studies with emphasis in history and Spanish from Fort Lewis College, and a MA in library and information science from Emporia State University. Prior to coming to the NMAI, Elayne was a tenured librarian/associate professor at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. Many know her as the former librarian for the Vine Deloria Jr. Library at the NMAI, where she was gratified to care for a research collection of Native and Indigenous knowledge and scholarship. Elayne is excited to serve the museum in a different capacity now, and enjoys connecting with the many Native and Indigenous communities on Turtle Island on behalf of the NMAI.

Melissa is Ahtna and Paiute from Nay'dini'aa Na Kayax (Chickaloon Village, Alaska). She is an artist, social activist, language warrior, writer, and curator. Melissa first visited the NMAI in 2014 as a student researching Ahtna Dene (Athabascan) cultural belongings at the NMAI’s Cultural Resources Center. Since then, much of her artwork, activism, and curatorial work has centered around creating community accessibility within institutional collections. She has traveled with collections to rural communities and has facilitated numerous community visits to institutions. Melissa believes that collections research and moments with cultural belongings can help Indigenous people reclaim and protect cultural identity. She attended the University of Alaska Anchorage and the Institute of American Indian Arts. She currently lives on the land of the Dena’ina in Degheyey kaq’ (Anchorage).

Dennis (Kiowa/Isanti Dakota/Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo) has written more than 200 articles for Smithsonian Magazine about Native issues, events, and tribal leaders, including Native voices from throughout the Western Hemisphere to amplify his topics. He has served as director of the Great American Indian Dance Company and traveled to approximately 40 countries and 49 states, sharing Native culture with diverse audiences. Prior to his work at the NMAI, Dennis was a research historian at the Oklahoma Historical Society, where he helped with open the new Oklahoma History Center by providing cultural input, from blueprint to functionality. He is well known throughout Indian Country as a cultural promoter, speaker, ambassador, and networker, and is frequently consulted for his cultural knowledge of diverse tribes. Dennis gives daily presentations at the NMAI’s museum on the National Mall, where he answers questions from children, elders, educators, the media, Natives, scholars, and visitors from around the world to enhance their experience with the museum and Native culture.

Manuel is a Maya Indigenous scholar from Yucatan, Mexico. He has a PhD in architectural heritage from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. His work is located at the crossroads of heritage, archaeology, and sociocultural anthropology. He enjoys sharing insights on Indigenous heritage, and contributes to United Nations forums on Indigenous issues. He has been in program management and community engagement for more than 12 years and serves as a liaison between the NMAI inspiring communities in Mexico, Central, and South America. Manuel speaks English, German (B level), Portuguese, Spanish, and Yucatec Maya.

Jorge was born and raised in Colombia. He has a BA in anthropology from the Universidad de Antioquia, and an MA in Latin American studies with a concentration in museum studies from the University of Florida. Before coming to the US, Jorge worked as an archaeologist in Colombia, where he collaborated with different communities, co-coordinated research projects, and fostered outreach initiatives in educational institutions. Driven by a passion for intercultural and transnational learning, he interned at the NMAI in 2023. Jorge is committed to serving Indigenous communities and allied heritage organizations in the Americas while pursuing better museum practices. He speaks Spanish and English.