MISSION

Executive Director | Diné

yolanda@restoringawcoalition.org

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Yolanda Francisco-Nez is from the Navajo/Dine’ tribe. Her clan is Edgewater (Tabaaha) born for the Basque People. She was born and raised in Tsehootsoi (Fort Defiance), Arizona. Yolanda is the granddaughter of a Navajo Code Talker Vincent Yazza. Ms. Francisco-Nez is the Executive Director of Restoring Ancestral Winds, Inc. Yolanda is a strong advocate of the Native people especially women and children. She uses her expertise to help inform policy. She served four years as board chair of the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault (UCASA). In 2017, under the leadership of Navajo Nation Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty, she helped establish a Navajo Nation Council Sexual Assault Prevention Work Group to address child abduction, sexual violence and human trafficking. In this role she facilitated a policy brief on child abduction and sexual assault, a chapter resolution to install the Amber Alert on the Navajo Nation, and hosts community dialogues on sexual assault throughout the Navajo Nation. In 2018, she received special recognition for her achievements from the Navajo Nation Council.

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She has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from the University of Phoenix. She is trained in Anti-discrimination Response Training from the University of British Columbia and received advocacy training from UCASA and Utah Domestic Violence Coalition (UDVC).

For 17 years, Francisco-Nez served three mayors at the executive level of Salt Lake City government. Among the highlights of her career is the opportunity to address the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland about her award-winning program the Human Rights Education Project. She has co-authored reports on discrimination, women’s rights and excessive use of force. Among other achievements, “The Status of Women in Salt Lake City” was published and used to help guide a resolution to establish a Commission to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and Law Enforcement Excessive Use of Force.

Ms. Francisco-Nez played a significant role in being the first city in Utah to pass legislation to protect the LGBTQI2S from employment discrimination which led to a statewide law. Prior to working city government, she was the president of the Native American Celebration in the Park and vice president and founding partner at Cal Nez Design advertising agency. In 2017, Francisco-Nez was named top 30 Women to Watch in Utah by the Utah Business Magazine.

Helpline Coordinator 

Ruby Johnston has a long history of advocating for underserved communities and working towards restorative justice. Ruby is from Colorado, where she recently worked in a domestic violence shelter offering hands-on advocacy to survivors. There, she worked closely with the district attorney’s office,  local and state police departments, and community members to create a more holistic environment for survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault, elder abuse, and other crimes. 

Ruby has been a champion of equal rights and fighting against global injustice since she was young. Ruby moved to New York City for college where she received her undergraduate degree from CUNY Brooklyn College studying feminist and linguistic anthropology. While there she studied abroad, working with the Comprehensive Rural Health Program which offers healthcare education to rural poor and marginalized populations in India. This inspired her to continue working with underserved populations with a lens of healthcare and inequity. She received her Master’s Degree in Public Anthropology from American University in late 2020. Ruby is passionate about working with grassroots communities to help people achieve freedom from violence, poverty, and inequity.

Board President

Citizen of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma; citizenship descendant to the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

J. Dena Ned is an Associate Professor/Lecturer at the University of Utah College of Social Work.  Her research has focused on the Indian Child Welfare Act, Title V of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, urban American-Indian health policies and delivery of care systems, as well as social determinants of health in native communities.  After earning her Masters of Social Welfare (MSW) from the University of California, Berkeley, she worked with California’s Division of Children and Family Services before going on to direct a Title V-funded urban Indian health center in Salt Lake City.  Her direct practice experience motivated her to explore issues of social justice, health, and policy from the perspective of urban Indians. 

Board Member

Karra Porter has been President or Managing Director of Christensen & Jensen for 19 years. She is co-chair of the firm’s Commercial Litigation and Crisis Management practice groups, and is one of the most experienced and successful commercial and appellate lawyers in Utah. She has consistently been recognized by Super Lawyers/Thomsen Reuters as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in the intermountain west (Utah, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Wyoming), and as one of the nation’s best attorneys for corporate and commercial matters. Karra has also been consistently named one of Utah’s “Legal Elite” by Utah Business Magazine.

After working as a journalist in her home state of Kansas, Karra went to law school at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating near the top of her class in 1987. Karra’s specialty is complex federal litigation. She has recently handled large cases involving the Federal Trade Commission Act, Lanham Act, Internal Revenue Code, Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, False Claims Act, Small Business Act, National Labor Relations Act, Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, and other federal and state statutes.

Karra is regularly hired by other lawyers and law firms to handle complex matters and appeals, and regularly advises or represents clients in media relations and crisis management matters.

Board Member l Treasurer

Ralph Dellapiana graduated from the University of Utah College of Law in 1994 and has worked at the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association ever since defending the constitutional rights of indigent clients and working with his social services department to help those clients get their lives back on track. Prior to that he earned an M.B.A. degree from Brigham Young University and worked in business management for several years. 

Now, Ralph hopes to find ways to serve his brothers and sisters in the community as a member of the board of Restoring Ancestral Winds.

Public Policy | Diné

Consultant

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Moroni Benally is the Coordinator for Public Policy and Advocacy at Restoring Ancestral Winds, Inc. He also serves as a Board member of Western Resource Advocates, a conservation organization that seeks to protect the West's land, air, and water to ensure that vibrant communities exist in balance with nature.

He co-founded the Utah League of Native American Voters where he assisted and advocated on behalf of tribes on public lands, water, voting rights, and violence prevention.

He also served as Director of the Navajo Nation’s Division of Natural Resources where he helped facilitate the Navajo Nation’s involvement in the Bears Ears National Monument and worked extensively on natural resource policy at the tribal, state, and federal levels.

Additionally, he served at Vice-President of Diné College. Prior to this he taught at Evergreen State College in the Masters of Public Administration program.

He is currently finishing a PhD in Public Policy at the University of Washington, focusing on collaborative governance around natural resources. He is Diné and currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Consultant

2018-Current

Alana Kindness, MSPH, has 20 years’ experience in sexual violence prevention and response, including 10 years as Executive Director and Policy and Prevention Technical Assistance Specialist at the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault facilitating statewide capacity development and coordination of sexual violence prevention planning. Ms. Kindness was an active participant in the Prevention committee of the Utah Sexual Violence Council, providing leadership, consultation and technical support for statewide

sexual violence prevention planning, training events and conferences. She has provided training for community coalitions and UDOH Rape Prevention Education Grantees on addressing shared risk and protective factors to prevention sexual violence, developed and facilitated a webinar for state sexual violence coalition prevention specialists on the relationship between social determinants of health and risk factors for sexual violence, and since 2014 has been teaching Violence and Public Health at Westminster College. She has worked extensively with Tribal, federal, state, and local stakeholders to increase

resources and capacity for preventing sexual violence in rural and urban Native communities.