Born and raised on the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona, Danelle is born for the Bitter Water Clan and Black Street Wood Clan. Danelle is a proud Diné youth practitioner and poet, and because of her upbringing on the reservation, she has aimed to cultivate spaces for inclusion and education liberation for those who never quite fit.
As a young Afro-Indigenous person, Danelle had to learn to awkwardly navigate conversations on diversity and inclusion before she knew what these terms were within the context of a homogenous community on the Navajo Nation. These experiences informed her interest in empowering indigenous youth through learning and writing. After teaching in the classroom during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Danelle decided to transition to more personally sustainable education work on a macro-level. As the Development, Education, and Administrative Associate at Amplifier, Danelle focuses on grant writing, communications, and lesson plan creation for education programs.
In her free time, Danelle enjoys true crime podcasts and playing Breath of the Wild on her Nintendo Switch. And, when she gets the chance, Danelle works on writing her first poetry book.
