Deana Dartt, PhD (Principal) is Coastal Chumash and Mestiza, descending from the indigenous people of the Californias. Dartt is the Founding Director of Live Oak Consulting. Her life experience, and professional work has led her to her commitment to confront the incongruities between public understanding, representation and true acknowledgement of Native peoples, their cultures, histories and contemporary lives. 

She earned her MA and PhD from the University of Oregon (go Ducks) and has held curatorial positions at the Burke Museum of Natural and Cultural History and the Portland Art Museum as well as teaching appointments at the University of Oregon, University of Washington, and Northwest Indian College. She recently completed a writing fellowship at the School for Advanced Research where she revised her book manuscript for publication titled: Subverting the Master Narrative: Museums, Power and Native Life in California. Deana serves on the board of the Native Coast Action Network. 

Heron Brae (Associate Director of Programs for Environmental Stewardship and Allyship) holds a B.S. in Botany and Ecology from the Evergreen State College. She has taught programs in botany, ecology, herbalism, ethical wildcrafting, Indigenous history/context of the land, and wild food tending for over two decades. At an essential level, Heron’s work is to connect humans to each other and the land. She believes that decolonizing requires deep personal and community work as the foundation that will allow for the systemic changes needed. Her experience reckoning with her European heritage, and yearning to belong to the land and a people, has led her through a personal process of facing systems of power and working to heal ancestral trauma around leaving homelands, participating in colonization, and assimilation. Listening deeply and emotional empathy are key tools she practices and brings to her work.

As part of the Live Oak team, she directs, develops, and facilitates trainings and consults with clients in the environmental field.