Media Ethics Conference Speakers
Suzan Shown Harjo
Suzan Shown Harjo is an advocate and activist for Native American rights. In 1978 President Jimmy Carter appointed Harjo as a Congressional liaison for Indian affairs. In this position she helped lead the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978. Suzan served as the Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) from 1984 to 1989. Suzan was the first Vine Deloria, Jr., Distinguished Indigenous Scholar from the University of Arizona in 2008, and in 2011, she was the first woman to receive an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Fusion Conference Speakers
Ayanna Najuma
Ayanna Najuma is the voice of the past, an inspiration for the present and one who takes action to help create the future. In 1958 at the age of seven, she sat at the lunch counter at Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City and began to lay the foundation as an activist and advocate who has helped create the stories that come out of newsrooms today. For more than 25 years, Ayanna has been a principal with Lincoln-McLeod, a public relations firm in Washington, DC. In addition to being a public relations professional and advocate, Ayanna uses her voice, creativity and skills as a journalist. This fall, Ayanna will join the University of Central Oklahoma family as a professor. She looks forward to empowering students to see the value in their ability to make a contribution to the world.