Kusemaat – Shirley L. Williams is a Lummi Nation community member, registered nurse, and Co-Founder and Executive Director of Whiteswan Environmental (WE), and Co-Founder of Whatcom Intergenerational High School (WIHS). Her work advances classroom-to-place-based learning as an Indigenous educational pathway grounded in Straits Salish homelands, strengthening youth leadership and intergenerational education. She addresses the root causes of trauma impacting Indigenous peoples and the natural systems of the Salish Sea by reconnecting land, language, food systems, and community through education. She shares her experience co-founding a charter school to examine the opportunities, challenges, and responsibilities of balancing Indigenous and Western ways of knowing in public education.
