SHI announces keynote speaker, new venue for 2025 education conference
Culturally responsive education event to be held at Centennial Hall; registration now open
May 20, 2025
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has announced the keynote speaker and new location for its eighth annual education conference, Our Cultural Landscape, which centers Indigenous knowledge, language and values in education.
The 2025 conference will be held Aug. 6–8 at Centennial Hall in downtown Juneau. The event was previously scheduled to take place at the University of Alaska Southeast campus. Some elements will also be available virtually.
The keynote address will be delivered by Robin
Zape-tah-hol-ah Minthorn, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Minthorn (Kiowa, Umatilla, Nez Perce, Apache, Assiniboine) is a nationally recognized scholar and author known for her work supporting Native students in higher education and for cultivating “heartwork” that centers the needs of tribal communities. She is the current president-elect of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), the first Native American to hold the position.
Dr. Minthorn has co-edited numerous influential publications, including “Indigenous Leadership in Higher Education,” “Reclaiming Indigenous Research in Higher Education” and “Unsettling Settler Colonial Education: The Transformational Indigenous Praxis Model.” She has worked in New Mexico, Washington and Oklahoma to strengthen educational systems that support Native youth.
The annual conference brings together educators, administrators, scholars and community members from Alaska and beyond. In 2024, the conference served approximately 250 participants from nearly 70 towns across the U.S., Canada and Australia.
This year’s theme is Strength in Unity: Innovating Together for Culturally Responsive Education. The event will feature engaging sessions focused on culturally responsive teaching, Indigenous perspectives in curricula, place-based education and more.
The conference is part of SHI’s Thru the Cultural Lens program, which was established in 2012 to help educators build deeper understandings of Indigenous knowledge systems and the importance of culturally responsive instruction.
Registration for participants is now open here.
For more information, visit the conference website at conference.sealaskaheritage.org or contact Sara Little at sara.little@sealaska.com.
Sealaska Heritage Institute is a tribal organization founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. SHI also conducts scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee, a Southeast Regional Language Committee and a newly formed Education Committee.
CONTACT: Kathy Dye, SHI Communications and Publications Deputy Director, 907.321.4636, kathy.dye@sealaska.com.
Caption: Conference keynote speaker Robin Zape-tah-hol-ah Minthorn, Ph.D. Photo courtesy of Robin Zape-tah-hol-ah Minthorn, Ph.D. Note: Media outlets are permitted to use this image for coverage of this story. For a higher-res image, contact kathy.dye@sealaska.com.