Board of Advisors
Advisory COUNCIL
Melody is a social entrepreneur, the Founder of Indigenous Community Collaborative and a Co-Founding Member of CahokiaPhx SocialTech + ArtSpace. She is dedicated to serving Indigenous communities and individuals within the systems of workforce development, education, and economic development, utilizing collaborative approaches rooted in Indigenous Identity. Melody’s career blends her experiences of social work, education, and Workforce Development to create participant-centered programs. Experiences include: industry implementation of workforce and education initiatives with post-secondary institutions, local school districts, employers, and nonprofits across Arizona, California, and Nevada. Melody Lewis is Mojave/Tewa/Hopi and an enrolled member of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe.
Melody lewis
Nadine Groenig is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico. During her 17 year tenure at the Arizona Department of Education, Nadine held several positions, including Program Specialist for Title I and Director of Indian Education. She served 22 tribes supporting over 90,000 Native American students, the majority of whom attend public schools. During this time, Nadine honed her outreach skills working with tribal governments, school districts, and community organizations throughout Arizona. She is currently the owner and lead consultant at SunClan Consulting and the founder and former CEO of the Southwestern Institute for the Education of Native Americans (SIENA), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization serving students, parents, and educators of Native American students in Arizona and beyond.
Nadine Groenig
Rod brings significant global leadership experience with both Fortune 500 organizations as well as entrepreneurial ventures. He was EVP, Corporate Development for iCrossing, leading 7 successful acquisitions over 6 years prior to and after the sale of iCrossing to the Hearst Corporation in 2010. Well known as a leader in the Phoenix Tech Community, he coaches and mentors CEO’s and their teams in strategy and business planning. Rod holds a Bachelors degree in business from Fairleigh Dickinson University in NJ and a Masters degree from the Columbia School of Business in NYC. He is an adjunct faculty member in the Entrepreneurship program in the business school at Grand Canyon University, teaching “Intrapreneurship” and Innovation.
Rod Lenniger
Bipin Jayaraj is a VP & CIO at Rogers Corporation, a Board Member and Former CIO at Make-A-Wish America and is an information technology senior executive with over 20 years of experience in multiple business areas in the for-profit and non-profit sectors. He has executed multiple strategic IT initiatives/ programs to drive enterprise performance and value by improving business processes, and delivering game-changing technology solutions. His extensive experience in IT Operations managing business-critical, global, round-the-clock ERP and non-ERP technologies, multiple X-aaS models, legacy apps modernization programs.