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Indian Education Summer Teaching Institute Presenters

Keynote Speakers


The Summer Teaching Institute will feature Dr. Jeannette Armstrong, Henry Strom, Maya Esquivido-Strom, and other educators as keynote speakers.

A photo of Maya Esquivido-Strom sitting outside in the grass wearing a white top and orange skirt.  A picture of Jeannette Armstrong standing outside beneath a tree. A portrait of Henry Strom

Pictured left to right: Maya Esquivido-Strom, Dr. Jeannette Armstrong, and Henry Strom.

Dr. Jeannette Armstrong is Syilx Okanagan, a fluent speaker and teacher of the Nsyilxcn Okanagan language, and a traditional knowledge keeper of the Okanagan Nation. She is a founder of En’owkin, an Indigenous cultural, educational, ecological, and creative arts organization that is located on the Penticton Indian Band reserve. With a Ph.D. in Environmental Ethics and Syilx Indigenous Literatures, Armstrong is an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Okanagan Philosophy at the University of British

Columbia Okanagan. She also currently serves on Canada’s Traditional Knowledge Subcommittee of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.

Henry Strom is a proud member of the Yakama Nation and a descendant of the Quinault and Nez Perce Tribes. He is the assistant superintendent of the Office of Native Education (ONE) at the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). A dedicated educator, Strom has served students as superintendent of the Grandview School District and Mt. Adams School District, an elementary teacher, special education director, elementary and secondary principal, and central office administrator for over 30 years. Strom received his superintendent certification from Seattle Pacific University, his master’s degree from City University, and his principal certification and bachelor’s degree from Central Washington University.

Maya Esquivido-Strom is an enrolled member of the Nor Rel Muk Wintu Nation and a Hupa descendant with spousal ties to the Quinault Indian Nation and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. She has a Bachelor’s in American Indian Studies, a Master of Social Work, and a Graduate Certificate in American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS). Esquivido-Strom is the interim director of tribal government affairs at the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC), and her work focuses on supporting the success of Native students by designing intentional pathways and fostering relational accountability through her work with Washington state’s 34 community and technical colleges and the 29 federally recognized Tribes.