Our Team

  • Woman with long gray hair wearing a maroon dress and colorful beaded medallion, sitting on a cushioned ottoman in a living room.

    Kimber Olson, MSW, PhD

    Kimber (Northern European, Chiricahua Apache, and Cayuga descent) is the Founder, CEO & Principal Consultant of Juniper & Pine Consulting, LLC. Dr. Olson designs and delivers culturally grounded, healing-centered trainings for Tribal Nations, with emphasis on Indigenous regulation, trauma-responsive systems, and stewardship-based leadership. Her work bridges Indigenous knowledge systems, neuroscience, and community practice to strengthen family wellbeing, staff wellness, and social service ecosystems.

    Olson is an Indigenous Partnerships and Health Systems expert, with over thirty years of experience partnering to advance the health and well-being of 250+ North American Indigenous and Alaska Native communities, providing training and technical assistance in the areas of early childhood education, Tribal vocational rehabilitation, behavioral health, and systems building. She wrote her doctoral dissertation, a PhD in Psychology, focusing on Grief Counseling and emphasizing Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Healing, to explore how contemporary healing methods have origins in and connections with Indigenous knowledge systems. “Inviting the Sacred Wound into Circle: Re-Storying an Indigenous Mind-Body Medicine Framework for Healing” is based on Kimber’s passion for service-driven work in Indigenous communities.

    Kimber knows from deep personal experience that western science is a good start. Still, it is flawed in its inability to incorporate Spirit, to see beyond the known world, or to integrate cultural aspects of Native science and medicine into the healing process. “pinu’u echicasay…I am all my relations” is her foundational healing belief. yenáda'ilzih… that's how we are healed.

    You can learn more about Kimber here, here, and here.

  • Close-up portrait of a man with curly dark hair, glasses, and a beard, wearing a dark green sweater, looking thoughtfully to the side in a well-lit indoor setting.

    Bitahnii Wayne Wilson

    Bitahnii is a ceremonialist Elder, Traditional Dine'h / Navajo Baha'i from the remote community of Pine Springs on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. Wayne belongs to his mother’s Bitahnii (Folded Arms Clan) and is born of his father’s Toh ahee dliinii (the Two Waters that Flow Together Clan). Wayne also belongs to his maternal grandparents’ Toh di'chiinii (Bitter Water Clan) and his paternal grandparents’ Tsi'najinii (Black Streak Running on the Tree Clan).

    Bitahnii is a boarding school survivor who works to help others heal from their historical and intergenerational pain. He serves as a Pow Wow dancer, artist, author, keeper of herbal medicine knowledge, and sweat lodge practitioner. He is certified in the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association's AcuDetox five-point acupuncture training. Bitahnii works regularly at the intersection of addiction, intergenerational trauma, and holistic healing, including substantial work with Elders and men.

    Bitahnii organized and collaborated with other groups to form the K’eh Native Action, providing basic needs and emergency services, clean drinking water, food, and firewood to Elders. He facilitates contemplative medicine, sacred movement, and wellbriety events. Bittahnii describes the work that he does as “Hozhogo Nintsahakees Doo Hozhoo Bei Nihistis bei iina nihi Azee! (Beautiful Thinking and Beautiful Body movements medicine!")”

    You can learn more about Bitahnii here, here, and here.

  • Wayne Dagel, MS, LCPC

    With over 20 years of experience in the vocational rehabilitation world, Wayne Dagel's career is marked by his dedication and unique perspective as a first-generation descendant of the Romsa family of the Blackfeet Tribe. His journey began in 1996 as a client of vocational rehabilitation after a motor vehicle accident resulted in a spinal cord injury. This experience provides him with a deep, personal understanding of the field.

    Mr. Dagel has held numerous leadership and counseling roles throughout his career. He served as a vocational rehabilitation (VR)counselor for the State of Montana for eight years and as an AIVRS project director for the Northern Cheyenne Chief Dull Knife College VR program. Currently, he is the director of the American Indian Vocational Rehabilitation Training and Technical Assistance Center (AIVRTTAC) project at Northern Arizona University. His extensive knowledge of State and AIVRS systems allows him to network with multiple state VR agencies, federal RSA staff, and AIVRS projects to provide resources to meet varied needs. He has also developed, managed, and implemented many disability and employment-focused programs.

    As the owner of Perspectives Counseling & Consulting, Mr. Dagel provides individual, family, group, and equine-assisted therapy. He works with a diverse caseload of youth and adults, predominantly American Indian. He approaches his therapy from the lens of a Blackfeet man with a bi-racial background, utilizing his experiential knowledge of trauma, emotional abuse, and generational historical trauma.

    Another key area of his work is providing specialized training for indigenous communities. His training focuses on identifying the levels and types of trauma found in American Indian populations. He discusses the impact trauma has on the brain and presents methodologies for treatment. The training also explores the connection between substance use and generational historical trauma, concluding with a discussion on how to use the Seven Sacred Teachings in the recovery process. Mr. Dagel supports clients in developing a sense of self, building positive self-value, and engaging in a healthy lifestyle to continue their journey of managing trauma and addiction characteristics.

  • Erin D. Dixon

    Erin D. Dixon is an enrolled Tribal member of the Nabahé Diné Tribe, also known as the Navajo Nation. She is a Kinlichii'nii clan member, born to the Tachii'nii clan, and currently resides in Shiprock, NM, on the Northern Navajo Nation.

    Erin lives her work and life through the lens of universal kinship for all beings seen and unseen.

    She is the founder of Shining Stone Wellness, LLC, specializing in the integration of a spectrum of mind-body practices to aid in the holistic wellbeing of her client relatives through a lived experience of culture, connection and authenticity.

    Erin holds multifaceted knowledge and certifications in perinatal education through the Ninde Doula Program and Mind-Body medicine skills facilitation through The Center for Mind Body Medicine.

  • C. Allison Baez, PhD

    Dr. C. Allison Baez, PhD, is an Indigenous educator and researcher. She is a member of the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan (Mission Indian) from Yanaguana in South Texas (Land of the Spirit Waters) and is of European descent. Dr. Baez has shared her expertise with K-12, higher education, and behavioral health settings for over 25 years.

    Dr. Baez’s research focuses on Native populations that implement best practices within their cultural lens. She believes it is her responsibility to learn from and serve Indigenous communities. Her cross-cultural work has allowed her to learn firsthand from Indigenous relatives who are the Māori of New Zealand and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders of Australia. With these experiences, her services strengthen and empower American Indian and Alaska Native individuals, families, and communities.

    Today, Dr. Baez continues to serve Indigenous populations while sharing, collaborating, and educating on culturally responsive approaches and methodologies. Her publications as a researcher focus on the healing of Indigenous communities, implementing practice-based evidence rooted in traditional ways of knowing, being, and doing. She received her doctorate from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, TX.