Board of Directors

Board of directors

Todd Hall is a lifelong resident of western North Dakota with deep roots in ranching, public service, and advocacy. He operates a commercial cow-calf operation in Dunn County, raises Registered American Quarter Horses, and previously owned an oilfield services company. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Dickinson State University and a master’s degree in business management from the University of Mary.

With a background in natural resources, Todd served for 15 years with the Three Affiliated Tribes, working on conservation, law enforcement, and homeland security issues. His leadership roles include Chairman of the Northern Great Plains Inter-Tribal Fish and Wildlife Commission and National Vice President of the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society.

Appointed by Presidents Obama and Biden, Todd served on the United States Department of Agriculture, North Dakota Farm Service Agency Committee, including as chairman, where he shaped policies impacting farmers and ranchers. He is also active in civic and educational organizations, currently serving as President of the Board for the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance.

Committed to supporting future leaders, Todd and his wife, Patti Jo, established a scholarship endowment at Dickinson State University for American Indian student-athletes demonstrating strong civic leadership.

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Todd

Reba White Shirt has dedicated her life to careers in education, fundraising, and policy development for over 40 years. She has spent countless hours volunteering with Native and underrepresented youth and giving back to her community. She has started several nonprofits, served as Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Nebraska, and started the KMHA radio station.

Reba earned an Associate of Arts in Social Sciences/Psychology from the College of San Mateo, a Bachelor’s and Master’s of Arts in Education from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. She enjoys theater, music, reading, and sports. Reba strives to stay informed in all things related to the Native American community. She utilizes her experiences to be an advocate and act as a bridge to promote communication and education cross-culturally.

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Reba

A passionate journalist with more than 30 years of experience in the newsroom and the college classroom, Claire Regan is an assistant professor of journalism and faculty adviser to the student newspaper at Wagner College, her alma mater in New York City.

She served as the 106th national president of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) from 2022 to 2023 and was a three-term president of the Deadline Club, SPJ’s New York City chapter.

Claire’s reporting, editing, and design work as longtime associate managing editor at the Staten Island (N.Y.) Advance, her hometown newspaper, has been honored by the Associated Press, the Society for News Design, the New York Deadline Club, and the New York Press Club.

She completed a yearlong fellowship in journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and received the Charles O’Malley Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Columbia University Scholastic Press Association. She earned the Diversity and Internationalization Award from Wagner College for her work with the Mandela Washington Fellowship, a program for young African leaders.

Claire is a founding board member of the Journalists Association of New York and a member of the Silurians Press Club of New York.

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Claire

Paula Peters is a politically, socially and culturally active citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. For more than a decade, she worked as a journalist for the Cape Cod Times and is now co-owner of SmokeSygnals, a Native-owned and -operated creative production agency. As an independent scholar and writer of Native, and particularly Wampanoag, history, she produced the traveling exhibit “Our Story: 400 Years of Wampanoag History” and The Wampum Belt Project, documenting the art and tradition of wampum in the contemporary Wampanoag community. Paula is the executive producer of the 2016 documentary film Mashpee Nine and author of the companion book, a story of law enforcement abuse of power and cultural justice in the Wampanoag community in 1976. Paula lives with her husband and children in Mashpee, Massachusetts.

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Paula

Jodi Rave Spotted Bear now serves as the executive director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with offices in Bismarck and the Fort Berthold Reservation. The IMFA publishes news online at Buffalosfire.com. The project assists the public in making informed news choices within a free and responsible press. Prior to founding the IMFA, Jodi spent 15 years reporting for the mainstream press.

She has won journalism awards from military, mainstream, university, and Native press organizations. Some of those awards include: a Silver Telly Award for video; Paul Savanuck Military Print Journalist of the Year; Society of Professional Journalists Pacific Northwest award for education reporting; the Thomas C. Sorensen Award for Distinguished Nebraska Journalism; Columbia University's "Let's Do It Better" award for a portfolio of work and column writing; and the Native American Journalists Association award for column writing.

Jodi holds the distinction of receiving both Nieman and John S. Knight journalism fellowships from Harvard and Stanford universities, respectively.

She also was named a 2020 Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT. She also received a Bush Fellowship in 2021 in recognition of her leadership and for her vision and commitment to helping independent media better serve Indigenous communities.

Jodi’s writing is featured in "The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity," published by Columbia University Press. In 2023, Jodi was selected to serve as a national board member of the Society of Professional Journalists, an organization that represents about 6,000 journalists. She is also an SPJ Foundation board member and now serves as chairperson of SPJ’s Freedom of Information Committee. Prior to returning home to North Dakota, Jodi reported on Native issues for Lee Enterprises for more than a decade. Her last reporting post was with the Missoulian in Missoula, Montana.