Sandra received both her BS and MS degrees from Western Carolina University. Her undergraduate degree is in Radio & Television/Communications with her graduate degree in Human Resources with a concentration in Career Development. Before coming to NCCAT, Sandra worked in Student Activities at WCU helping plan special events and outdoor activities for students. In 1995, she accepted her position at NCCAT as University Program Specialist where she helps plan and organize NCCAT’s professional development seminars.

Ms.Harlan is a member of the EBCI and serves as the Tribal Historian.

Mr. Mink is executive director of UNC-Chapel Hill’s LEARN NC. He will lead the Institute’s exploration into the vast collection of digital resources that document Cherokee history and American Indian removal.

Ms. Dugan, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, has an extensive background in education and served for five years as Superintendent of the Cherokee Central Schools. In 1995, she ran for and won the office of Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. She is the first woman to hold this office and to date, the only woman to hold this office. During her tenure as Chief, the tribe recovered the property on which the “mother town” of Kituwah was located.

Mr. Belt is the WCU Cherokee Language Program Coordinator; he is working to create a state-of-the-art Cherokee language program at the university level. Mr. Belt teaches the first four semesters of Cherokee language and he co-teaches courses on Cherokee grammar and Cherokee language literature. Mr. Belt, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is a fluent Cherokee speaker and works closely with speakers from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to produce culturally-based Cherokee language learning material. Before joining the Cherokee Language Program, Mr.

Ms. Belt is director of the Western Carolina University–Cherokee Center. Born in Cherokee, NC, and an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), Belt has been director of the Cherokee Center since June, 2001. She received her bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she worked for 10 years as a University counselor, and earned her master’s degree in counseling and consulting psychology from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education. Upon returning to Cherokee, she received certification in school counseling from WCU.

Dr. Eastman is an associate professor of anthropology at Western Carolina University and director of the Cherokee Studies Program. She received her Ph.D. from the UNC-Chapel Hill. Her research interests include Native American societies of the Southeastern United States, particularly community organization, gender relations, pottery analysis, and culture contact studies.

Dr. Denson is an associate professor of history at WCU. He teaches courses on Native American and United States history, and participates in the WCU Cherokee Studies program. He is the author of Demanding the Cherokee Nation: Indian Autonomy and American Culture, as well as articles in various journals. His most recent publication is an essay in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal (2012) titled "Native Americans in Cold War Public Diplomacy: Indian Politics, American History, and the US Information Agency".

Dr. Riggs is a research archaeologist with the Research Laboratories of Archaeology (RLA) at UNC-Chapel Hill. He specializes in Cherokee studies and, for more than twenty years, has worked in southwestern North Carolina to shed light on the lives of Cherokee families during the removal era of the 1830s. In his position with the RLA he is helping to establish the National Historic Trail of Tears Long-Distance Trail in the extreme southwestern corner of North Carolina.