Amelia Marchand

Amelia Marchand’s lineage includes Okanogan, Lakes, Moses-Columbia, Palus, Chief Joseph Band of Wal’wama Nimiipuu, French, Irish, German, and Dutch.  She is a wife, daughter and granddaughter of U.S. Army veterans, and a descendant of U.S. prisoners of war, the U.S. American Indian residential school system, and the U.S. relocation program for American Indians.  Her personal experiences and family history have increased her passion for indigenous rights, environmental justice, and implementing socially equitable solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation that not only honor values of community and reciprocity; but also heal wounds from intergenerational trauma and institutional colonialism.  

L.I.G.H.T. Foundation was born from these experiences and desires – a way to honor the memory of the land, memory of our ancestors, heal our cultural ecology, uplift our hearts, and support those whose wish to do the same.  In this way, we can find resilience, support, and connections to help our human and ecological relatives survive the climate crises.  As the salmon swim together against the current to support their future generations, we must do the same.   

A citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Amelia is the Executive Director of the Center for World Indigenous Studies, an education, research, and public policy nonprofit established in 1979.  She also volunteers as a board member with Conservation Northwest, the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland and serves on the Women in Conservation Leadership Advisory Council for the National Wildlife Federation.  Amelia earned her BA in anthropology from Eastern Washington University, her MA in environmental law and policy from Vermont Law School and has 24 years working in the cultural and natural resource fields.  She is a Public Voices Fellow of the OpEd Project at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, and an alumnus of Presidential Classroom and the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program.