Board of Directors

Honor The Earth’s Board of Directors

Board Member Bios

  • Amy Sazue, Sicangu/Oglala Lakota, is the Executive Director of the Remembering the Children Memorial in Rapid City, South Dakota, which is a memorial dedicated to the children who lost their lives at the Rapid City Indian School.

    Amy has almost 20 years of experience working with Native American nonprofits in and around the Black Hills region of South Dakota, primarily focusing on work with Indigenous youth. Her work with Native nonprofits has been informed by her experience growing up on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservations and then residing in Rapid City for the last 20 years where she is raising her four children alongside her husband, Tracy.

    Amy is an active and engaged community member and advocate for equity in the Rapid City community and continually seeks opportunities and collaborations that contribute to a just and equitable community. She is currently a commissioner for the Rapid City Human Relations Commission and a board member of the Rapid City Public School Foundation and the Rapid City Arts Council.

    Amy holds 3 Associates degrees in Early Childhood Education from Bay Mills Community College, a Bachelors in Education from Oglala Lakota College, a Certified Fundraising Manager (CFRM) graduate certificate from the Indiana University Lily School of Philanthropy, and is working to complete a Masters in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from Arizona State University.

  • An Indigenous, grassroots community organizer, advocate, wife, mother and grandmother. Eve resides in O’odham territory also known as Phoenix where she is a part of an all Indigenous owned and operated 501c3 Non-profit, Tonatierra, which has served as An Embassy of Indigenous Peoples for over 25 years. As an Indigenous woman, Eve also represents the women in her Calpolli (traditional community) annually at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues as well as at the Global Indigenous Women’s Caucus for over 15 years. Eve has served as Co-chair and special Rapporteur for both the Global Indigenous Women’s Caucus and the Global Indigenous Peoples Caucus. At the International level, Eve works alongside other Indigenous Women to bring awareness to the political, social and economic challenges affecting Indigenous Women and Peoples globally. Eve also organizes at the grassroots level regionally and locally to strengthen traditional identity, equality and well-being of Indigenous Women, Indigenous Migrants and all Indigenous Peoples.

  • Sharon Lungo is a practitioner of facilitation, training, organizing, direct action and leadership development with over 25 years experience. She is an Indigenous, fat, disabled mother and propagator of racial and social justice strategies. Her family and ancestry is from Kuskatan (El Salvador). Sharon has cultivated relationships with local and national and international organizations across various sectors of the movement. She is the former executive director, and current trainer of the Ruckus Society, a founding member of the Indigenous Peoples Power Project (IP3), a coordinating member in the Global Women's Strike and is a current board member of Asociación Nacional Indígena Salvadoreña (ANIS).

  • Gaeñ hia uh, Betty Lyons, President & Executive Director of the American Indian Law Alliance (AILA), is an Indigenous and environmental activist and citizen of the Onondaga Nation. Betty has worked for the Onondaga Nation for over 20 years. Ms. Lyons serves as a member of the Haudenosaunee External Relations Committee and has been an active participant at the annual United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) since the first session in 2001 as a delegate of the Onondaga Nation. Betty attended Cazenovia College and is a Bryant Stratton College Graduate of the Paralegal Program. For her work on Indigenous sovereignty, she received an honorary degree from Onondaga Community College.

    Under the Leadership of Tonya Gonnella Frichner, Betty worked closely with AILA since 1997 and joined AILA in 2014. During her time at AILA, Betty has worked on numerous issues, including advocating for the Rights of Mother Earth, Treaty support, educating on the Doctrine of Discovery, advocates for Indigenous Nations and peoples at the United Nations, Right to Self Determination and Sovereignty, teaching the Indigenous history of women’s rights, honoring the Two Row Wampum Treaty in New York City, polishing the Covenant Chain with the United States as part of the Canandaigua Treaty obligations. Most recently, she has been working with the National Institute for Law and Justice on helping families find closure around Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit (MMIWG2S). She believes that communities keep us safe, and it is up to Indigenous communities and their allies to address the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous relatives (MMIR). Onondaga Nation’s land rights action against the United States was rejected in 2005 by the Supreme Court. However the The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States has agreed to hear the case and it will proceed forward. She is working closely with Onondaga Nation General Counsel Joseph J. Heath and she is hopeful about how it will proceed.

    Additionally, she recently helped negotiate the White House’s recognition of the Six Nations Haudenosaunee Confederacy and their cultural ambassadors, the Haudenosaunee Nationals. The White House supported the Haudenosaunee nationals competing in the 2028 Olympics, as sovereign and independent participants marching under the flag of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and traveling on their Haudenosaunee passports. She believes that sovereignty is still the issue for Indigenous nations and peoples. Betty is particularly proud of working to get the Onondaga Nation Health Clinic funded, Tuscarora Health Clinic, and Tonawanda Health Clinic funded.

    Betty continues to work for the protection of Indigenous peoples who are fighting to protect their traditions, territories, resources, and care for Mother Earth. In 2024 she is working on facilitating land returns and launching campaign for the return of Onondaga Lake to Onondaga Nation.

    Out of her concern for Indigenous peoples and Mother Earth, Betty serves on numerous boards like: Connie Hogarth Center, Center for Earth Ethics, The MOST, Skä•noñh- Great Law of Peace Center Academic Collaborative, she is an Advisory Committee Member for the National Institute for Law and Justice, and is Co-Chair of the Center of Earth Ethics Advisory Board.

  • Lenna Zahran Nasr is a Palestinian/Lebanese organizer from Jerusalem & Bethlehem born and raised in exile on occupied Tickanwa-tic land (Central Texas). She believes that Indigenous sovereignty and Global Indigenous Solidarity is a key component of principled anti-imperialism and the creation of a better world.

    She brings experience in building out student and movement institutions focused on advocacy and agency from the grassroots. Her specialty and passion is political education pedagogy and movement culture.

    Since 2017, she has played a critical role supporting the student movement at UT Austin and Nationally across the so-called United States. She regularly leads political education workshops for Arab community on Indigenous struggle on Turtle Island, Puerto Rican struggle, Black struggle, and the role of youth and students in the Palestinian struggle, and demilitarism. She is a proficient researcher and has been recently featured in articles written in both English and Arabic.

    In Austin, Lenna brings together individuals and activists from a plurality of backgrounds to build a strong movement for Palestine. While she is an organizer with deep roots in her local community, she also brings experience from International struggles and relationships.

    In 2018, she co-organized and participated in the historic Indigenous Delegation to Palestine, which brought Palestinian youth living in exile on Turtle Island and young Indigenous land-defenders and water-protectors (Kumeyaay, Yaqui, Diné, Kānaka Maoli) together to Palestine.

    In 2019, she was honored to be invited on The Red Nation’s delegation to Dinétah and Pueblo Territories, which explored themes of border towns, extraction, food deserts, mancamps, MMIWG2+, kinship, culture, and sovereignty.

    In 2021, she traveled to Cuba on a delegation with the Interfaith Community Organization with a focus on grassroots community coalitions whose focus ranged from cultural work and advocacy to health infrastructure.

    Lenna has a robust background in legal and compliance. She is detail oriented and driven by a passion of social justice for all people, rematriation / Land Back and tackling Environmental Racism at its roots. She believes that, when the people organize they can win.

    She currently serves as a lead organizer with Palestinian Youth Movement.