House of Welcome Staff
Lyn D. Dennis
Tribal Relations Liaison
Lyn is a member of the Lummi Nation in Bellingham, Washington, and Tahltan Band of British Columbia.
Lyn's role is to establish and build government-to-government relationships with the Tribes in the Northwest, creating more opportunities and collaboration. She has extensive experience working with Tribes, including serving as tribal relations director for the Department of Corrections. She was responsible for establishing government-to-government relationships with Northwest Tribes. Her work focused on reducing the high recidivism rate of incarcerated tribal members and helping them to better connect with their tribal communities.
Laura VerMeulen
Director of the House of Welcome
vermeull@evergreen.edu
(360) 867-6413
Laura is enrolled in the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. She is Gaanax.ádi clan, youngest daughter of Pearl Peratrovich of Klawock, Alaska. Previously Laura served as the assistant director of the House of Welcome from 1999-2021 and financial aid counselor and director of student employment from 1994-1999. Prior to that she worked in Multicultural Affairs at Kansas State University, and assistant dean of the University Graduate School at Indiana University-Bloomington. Laura has a master's degree in higher education and student affairs from Indiana University, and a B.A. in sociology, also from Indiana University.
Vanessa Marenco
Assistant Director
vanessa.marenco1@evergreen.edu
Vanessa earned her BA with a focus in Critical Indigenous Studies and a secondary focus in Creative Writing. She is a graduate of the Native Pathways Program and credits the program with giving her the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed at the administrative level in higher education. She is currently completing her postbaccalaureate degree in Creative Writing at The Evergreen State College, with plans to obtain her MFA in the same subject.
After graduating from Evergreen in 2020, Vanessa worked for Indigenous Performance Productions and the Nisqually Indian Tribe's Medicine Creek Enterprise Corporation. While attending Evergreen as a full-time student, she held various roles throughout the college. She considers her position as Assistant Director for the House of Welcome a full circle moment and strives to give all the knowledge, teachings, and experience she has gained back to the community within which she first called home.
Linley Logan
Program Specialist for the Northwest Heritage Program
Linley (Seneca) is a multi-disciplinary contemporary artist/designer and art consultant. He has attended four International Indigenous Arts Exchanges, curates contemporary Native American art exhibits and serves on local arts boards. Linley's employment experience includes the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American, and teaching printmaking at Hawaiian Ohana for Education in the Arts, Hawaii. Linley has served on grant review panels for the House of Welcome Education and Cultural Center, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, First Peoples Fund, Ford Foundation - Leveraging Investments in Creativity, NEA - Folk and Traditional Arts, All Roads Film program and the National Geographic Society.
Mary Kummer
Program Specialist
mary.kummer@evergreen.edu
(360) 867-6413
Mary is deeply committed to the Supporting Indigenous Arts Mastery program which works in creative partnership building between Tribes and higher education institutions to make Indigenous arts and culture solid and accessible. The House of Welcome has been all about relationships and community and this is central to her role. She is a member of the Makah Tribe and a community advocate who strongly values engaging in Tribal philanthropy, serving as a member of the Suquamish Tribe's Foundation, the philanthropy arm of the Tribe. Mary enjoys cultivating relationships and understands the power of community organizing to elevate the voices of communities of color. She is an active member of the Kitsap Racial Equity and Empowerment Fund and Kitsap Professional Leaders of Color.
Linda Terry
Program Coordinator
Linda coordinates the Supporting Indigenous Arts Mastery program. She is a 2022 graduate of Native Pathways Program, awarded and recognized non-profit founder of STEP - Sharing Teens and Elders Project, mother of Makana and Kailea, brain trainer, mentor, speaker/facilitator, event coordinator, passionate art appreciator and connector of people who think and act in a conscious, diverse, inclusive and innovative way to create a sustainable future for the next generations.
Alexis Xóchihua
Program Coordinator
Alexis.L.Xochihua@evergreen.edu
Alexis Xóchihua is a mixed media artist with a BA in Art Practices from Portland State University. They are from Portland, Oregon and moved to Washington to pursue a second BA in Arts education and Spanish at Evergreen. Alexis is a Gallery and Arts Program Coordinator with s’gʷ gʷiɁ altxʷ House of Welcome, working on organizing and archiving years of House of Welcome cultural knowledge, assisting with various projects and events, and creating and digitizing art for merchandise. Their passion for promoting and protecting cultural art practices stems from their love of art and personal experience losing and rediscovering cultural practices from their Nahua roots.
llatsoi Wyatt Bellon
Student Intern
LIlatsoii "Wyatt" Bellon (Apache descendant, Yakama Tribe) is of Apache lineage and Yakama heritage. He is currently a student in intersectional Indigenous anthropological studies and an intern at the House of Welcome Evergreen Longhouse. Wyatt's current focus is on Indigenous gender and sexualities, and he has created the annual conference "Celebration of Two-Spirit Artists" in the House of Welcome.
House of Welcome Advisory Board
Our board is comprised of established Native artists and scholars who help to provide some for the creative direction to the House of Welcome.
Marwin Begaye
Diné
Marwin is an associate professor of printmaking and painting. Begaye has received degrees in illustration/graphic design, painting and printmaking. His research has been concentrated on the issues of cultural identity, especially the intersection of traditional American Indian culture and pop culture. He has also conducted research in the technical aspects of relief printing and the use of mixed-media. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. He has received numerous awards, including the Oklahoma Visual Artists Coalition’s Visual Arts Fellowship (2007) and Red Earth (2009).
Mario A. Caro, Ph.D.
Mestizo
Mario is a researcher, curator and critic of contemporary art, having published widely on the history, theory and criticism of contemporary Indigenous arts. His work within the academy complements his endeavors within various communities to promote global cultural exchanges. Mario is also a lecturer in the Art, Culture, and Technology Graduate Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mariana Harvey
Yakama
Mariana is the traditional plants program coordinator at Garden Raised Bounty (GRuB). She works to promote culturally based leadership initiatives for Native youth with the Native Youth Leadership Alliance and the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians Youth. Mariana co-led Native student buffalo harvests at her Colorado college, sparking her journey into Tribal food sovereignty. Since returning home to Washington, she is learning about traditional foods from Yakama community and elders, studying with Elise Krohn in a Wild Roots apprenticeship. Mariana designs earrings using natural materials, is a Native song composer and singer. Mariana has a bachelors of arts degree in American Indian Studies, is a member of the Yakama Nation and a proud mother of Áyut.
Trudy Marcellay
Chehalis
Trudy “tsl stah ble” is a master weaver, a sixth-generation basket weaver and the daughter of master weaver, teacher and lecturer Hazel Pete (Chehalis). She has had the opportunity to learn from master weavers Bruce Miller (Skokomish), Karen Reed (Puyallup), Hazel Pete, and Yvonne Peterson (Chehalis). Trudy has learned from international Indigenous weavers and blends traditional weaving techniques with contemporary materials from around the world. Trudy is a founding member of the Hazel Pete Institute of Chehalis Basketry.
Yvonne Peterson
Chehalis
Yvonne “Too Nee Mu Sh” is a member of the faculty in political science at The Evergreen State College. Prior to joining Evergreen, she taught about American Indian learning environments, Washington state treaty relations and contemporary issues in Native American treaties. Yvonne’s academic training is in education and ethnic studies (Western Washington University) with graduate work in political science at the University of Arizona where she worked with Vine Deloria, Jr. Yvonne’s work has focused on enabling American Indians to succeed in school, most especially to finish high school and enter college. She was worked intensively on multiple aspects of this issue, working in curriculum development, program assessment, culture matters projects and Indian youth leadership programs. Yvonne has been a consultant for the Washington State Office of Public Instruction around the challenge of “Teaching the American Indian Learner”.
Shirod Younker
Coquille/Coos/Umpqua
Shirod Is a practicing artist, instructor and a partner in a small business operating in Oregon state. Shirod's art practice predominantly works to promote and instruct Indigenous people how to make traditional Native American tools, models that help perpetuate cultural arts, subsistence and ceremonial practices. He is the director for the Journeys in Creativity Program that provides art and higher education opportunities for Native American Teens. Additionally, he is a partner with Kanim Associates LLC who provides expertise for Native American tribal communities working in the energy, natural resources and educational fields.
Colleen Jollie, MPA (She/Her)
Turtle Mountain Chippewa Descendant
Colleen is a graduate of The Evergreen State College in Native American Studies with an emphasis in Museology - 1978, and a master’s degree in public administration – 1992. Her master’s thesis, The Gatekeepers: The Longhouse Project at The Evergreen State College, resulted in construction of the House of Welcome; opening in 1995, it was the first of its kind on a college campus.
Colleen’s passion has always been in the arts, and she has strongly influenced the programming of the House of Welcome in that direction. She was the founding director of the Northwest Native American Basketweavers Association, and a founding board member of the Potlatch Fund, again emphasizing the traditional Native arts. Her public administrative work included positions such as the Deputy Director of the Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs, Tribal Liaison for the Commerce Department, and she retired as the first Tribal Liaison for the Department of Transportation. In her retirement, Colleen makes natural medicines from the gifts of the Earth.
Fund Development Council
Helen Carlson
Helen is the co-owner of The Legacy LTD, brings her eye for quality to a gallery with an international reputation as a source for the finest examples of northwest coastal art. Clients include The British Museum, as well as other major museums and an outstanding list of private collectors. A native of Seattle, Helen has been interested in northwest coast Indian art since the 1970’s when she studied with Bill Holm and Robin Wright at the University of Washington. She received a bachelor of arts in anthropology in 1980. Training included working at the Ozette archaeological site on the Olympic Peninsula with the Makah Tribe and Washington State University. Helen took part in archaeological surveys on the Columbia River and in the Puget Sound area. Since 1977, photography has been a passion and she has photographed many artists, dance groups and events in the Native American communities, winning numerous photography awards.
Ellen L. Ferguson
Co-Chair
Described as “profoundly committed to the welfare of the diverse communities of the Puget Sound region," Ellen has been a long time philanthropist. After majoring in political science and history at the University of Puget Sound, Ferguson earned her master in museology degree from the University of Washington. She is currently director of community relations at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. She also is co-president of the board of the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience. She was named the Women’s Funding Alliance “Inspirational Leader of the Year” and received the Washington Museum Association’s Board of Directors Award of Excellence.
Rita Moore
Rita took early retirement from a career in the software industry when she and Robert moved to Washington in 1999. Since then, she has devoted herself to ecological restoration and the study of Washington native plants, serving as a Washington native plant steward and a King Conservation District land/water steward and forest advisor. Rita and Robert started seriously collecting and studying Northwest Coast Native Art around 2008. Pieces from their collection have been shown at the Seattle Art Museum, the Palm Springs Art Museum and the Schack Art Center. Rita is currently on the steering committee of the Seattle-based Friends of Native Art.
Robert Moore
Robert has spent his professional career in artificial intelligence research at SRI International, NASA Ames Research Center, Microsoft Research and Google Research. Robert and Rita started seriously collecting and studying Northwest Coast Native Art around 2008. Pieces from their collection have been shown at the Seattle Art Museum, the Palm Springs Art Museum and the Schack Art Center. Robert is currently president of the Seattle-based Friends of Native Art.
Marcia Mueller
Marcia enjoyed a successful 20-year business management career before returning to school at Evergreen for a master of environmental studies degree. She had graduate internships as a legislative analyst at Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission and Washington State Association of Counties. Marcia also worked with the Squaxin Island Tribe on water quality issues at the Washington State Department of Health. She had a 10-year career in environmental health before starting her own business, Evergreen Environmental Consultants. Since retirement, Marcia has concentrated on her passion for nature photography and volunteering. She currently serves on The Evergreen State College Foundation's Board of Governors and the House of Welcome's Fund Development Committee.
Paul Nicholson
Paul is co-owner of The Legacy LTD and printed many of the prints in The Evergreen State College’s Native Art print collection. He studied graphic arts of the Northwest Coast while working at the Ozette archaeological site for the Makah Tribe. It was during his time at the University of Washington that he began to study Lushootseed, a local Pacific Northwest Salish language, with Salish elder Vi Hilbert. He learned the craft of printing and began to print editions for artists in the Pacific Northwest. Nicholson has printed editions for many Native American artists and arts organizations including Greg Colfax, Tony Hunt, Marvin Oliver, David Boxley and Robert Davidson. In 2001 Nicholson, along with co-owner, Helen Carlson, bought the The Legacy LTD gallery that they currently work out of, which features contemporary and historic art and prints.