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ASK ELAINE |
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Who is Elaine Willman?
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Who is
Elaine Willman?
Elaine Willman served from 2002 through 2007 as National Chair of Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA), an organization of community groups in 25 states. CERA organized over 25 years ago to provide resources to tribal members who lack civil and constitutional rights as enrolled members within their reservation boundaries. CERA also provides information and resources to communities and citizens struggling with tribal government over-reaching with efforts to tax or govern non-tribal citizens, or tribal governments that are aggressively pursuing land claims, natural resources, utility acquisitions and off-reservation casinos.
Ms. Willman is presently Administrator for the Town of Hobart, Wisconsin and is no longer the acting chair for CERA.She was a Toppenish City Council member, is a university adjunct faculty teaching in the Masters Programs of Public and Business Administration, and has had her own community planning and grant writing consulting service. She has a 15-year career in city planning and administration and is also pursuing a doctoral in public policy with a focus on federal Indian policy.
Ms. Willman is of direct Cherokee ancestry through the enrollment of her mother and grandmother, as well as through her father’s Cherokee ancestry. She is the author of Going To Pieces…resulting from a 6,000 mile road trip Ms. Willman took with a videographer, across 17 Indian Reservations from Washington State to New York.
On December 8, 2006 Elaine Willman was invited to keynote a symposium in Green Bay, Wisconsin, sponsored by the University of Southern California and Department of Homeland Security, as her book “Going To Pieces…” was used as narrative field research for the development of 10 “Risk Indicators of Terrorism” on and near Indian reservations.
She deeply respects her own ancestry and all cultures, but also deeply believes that it is every citizen's task to preserve and protect their constitutional and civil rights and property rights from inappropriate government decisions, whether those decisions result from the federal government, a state, county or tribal government. Government decision-making is a very separate issue from respect for culture. |