Danelle Woodman
Named Asdzą́ą́ Tsiishch’ilí (Curly-Haired Woman) by her maternal grandmother, Danelle is Tsi’naajinii (Black Streak Wood Clan) and born for Naahiłii (Black/Latina). She was raised along Interstate-40 at the southernmost part of the Navajo Nation in so-called Sanders, AZ (Łichííʼ Deezʼáhí). A place of historical significance, Sanders, and the greater “New Lands” area, are eternally linked to the 1979 Church Rock uranium spill and the Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act of 1974. Shaped by this legacy of colonization and the ongoing struggles for land and water rights, Danelle’s upbringing as a multiracial Indigenous person continues to be a driving force for her work and scholarship.
Danelle earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Azusa Pacific University (APU), with an emphasis in secondary education. During her summers, she served as a teaching fellow for Breakthrough Collaborative, a national program addressing summer learning loss for middle school students in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work as a multi-racial educator was highlighted in Tell Me Who You Are: Sharing Our Stories of Race, Culture, & Identity by Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi. As a Multi-Ethnic Leadership Scholar (MEL) at APU, she was an active campaign organizer for initiatives focused on cultural appropriation awareness (the“Culture, Not a Costume” Fashion show, 2016–2019), gender violence prevention (the “Red Zone” workshop), and Indigenous issues (the Dakota 38 film screening event). She also served as president of the Indigenous People’s Circle from 2017 to 2019.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Danelle has worked as a teacher, youth mentor, writing coach, education content creator, and family support specialist for schools and nonprofit organizations. In 2023, she earned a Master of Arts in Transformative Social Change from Saybrook University, where her research focused on decolonizing education and developing innovative interventions for classrooms in response to the pandemic. Through her research, she has contributed to the development of educational materials for organizations across the United States, including the JED Foundation, the J. Paul Getty Museum, National Geographic, and the Snap Foundation.
Currently, Danelle is pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology and Social Change at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Her research explores how Diné epistemologies, particularly K’é (Navajo clanship and relationality), can serve as a framework for healing from historical and intergenerational trauma.