FOUNDER and PROJECT DIRECTOR

Sophia Madrigal is an enrolled member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians and is of Turtle Mountain Chippewa descent. An avid writer and actress, she is a sophomore at Harvard. Sophia graduated from Orange County School of the Arts in 2022, where she resided within the El-Erian Acting Conservatory. Sophia is a recipient of the Yale University Misty Upham Award for Young Native Actors 2023, and is the Orange County Artist of the Year Theater finalist 2022. Sophia Madrigal is the founder and co-director of the Luke Madrigal Indigenous Storytelling Nonprofit. Under the nonprofit she has performed alongside her sister Isabella Madrigal in the original Cahuilla play Menil and Her Heart, in over 20 different venues including for the California State Legislature in 2022. The play and production of Wildflower: Indigenous Spirit earned Sophia her Inaugural GSUSA Gold Award. For her work, Sophia spoke at the United Nations’ Day of the Girl Summit: Girls Speak Out Event in 2020. Wildflower also earned Sophia her Rupert Costo Medal in American Indian Affairs from the 2022 UCR Writers Week.

To contact Sophia email sophiadionne1@gmail.com.

photo credits: Deidhra Fahey Photography

TREASURER and PROJECT DIRECTOR

Isabella Madrigal an enrolled member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians and is of Anishinaabe, Turtle Mountain Chippewa, descent. A playwright, actress, and emerging screenwriter, Isabella’s artistry is invested in the ways Indigenous cultural knowledge systems, artistic expression, and oral traditions are crucial to the health and wellbeing of Indigenous people. Isabella is currently a senior at Harvard College majoring in English and is the Artistic Director of the Luke Madrigal Indigenous Storytelling Nonprofit, where, alongside her sister, she produces and creates films, theater performances, and workshops dedicated to uplifting Indigenous voices through arts, culture, and advocacy. Isabella’s original play Menil and Her Heart was a winner of the 2020 Yale Young Native Storytellers Contest. Menil and Her Heart has been performed at 15 venues across the nation and was featured at the United Nations’ Girls Speak out Event in 2019 and at the California State Capitol in 2022 for legislators voting on issues surrounding missing and murdered Indigenous people. The play discusses the issue of MMIWG2S+ (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People) while centering community performance and cultural revitalization efforts. Isabella currently sit on the Youth Advisory Board for the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute (where she was previously named a 2020 and 2021 Champion for Change). As an actress, Isabella is best known for her leading role in Menil and Her Heart and guest starring role in the TV series Rutherford Falls. Isabella is also featured in the 5th issue of the bestselling series Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls: Inspiring Young Changemakers and her essay and podcast episode on Indigenous sisterhood will be published in Dear Rebel, from the same series, in the fall of 2023.

To contact Isabella email Isabelladionne1321@gmail.com

PRESIDENT

Dr. Renda Dionne Madrigal is a Licensed Turtle Mountain Chippewa Clinical Psychologist, a Registered Drama Therapist, the President of Mindful Practice Inc, and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner with over twenty years of experience in the field. She has been featured on the cover of Mindful Magazine and was recognized as a Powerful Woman of Mindfulness in the August 2022 edition.

She is a mentor for the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior Mindfulness Awareness Research Center Teacher Training Program, a Stanford Certified Applied Compassion Educator/Consultant, and faculty member at the Drama Therapy Institute of Los Angeles and California Indian Nations College.

Dr. Renda Dionne Madrigal specializes in embodied narrative and mindfulness-based practices, which combine mindfulness, somatic therapies, and storytelling to support insight, healing and growth.

In addition to her work as a clinician, Dr. Renda Dionne Madrigal is also a writer, with an MFA from the American Indian Institute of the Arts (May 2023), and a performer. She has appeared in Indigenous plays written by her daughters and enjoys writing fiction featuring Indigenous female protagonists who save the world. Her book, The Mindful Family Guidebook, has been listed as a Best Book of Mindfulness 2021 by Mindful Magazine. Dr. Renda Dionne Madrigal is currently working on her next books, Story Medicine, and thriller-fantasy Silenced, featuring Indigenous women saving the world.

To contact Renda email Dionner@msn.com

SECRATARY

Member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe

Member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe

Opelousas/Coushatta