Meet the NOAA Fisheries Tribal Liaison Team

Plants sprouting from the reservoir footprint on the Klamath (Credit: Tommy Williams/NOAA)

Meet members of the NOAA Fisheries Tribal Team. They work to strengthen the government-to-government relationship between NOAA and tribal governments and engagement with Indigenous communities.

National

Heather Sagar. Courtesy: Heather Sagar

Heather Sagar, Senior Policy Advisor and Headquarters Tribal Liaison

Heather grew up on Cape Cod Massachusetts. She has worked at NOAA Fisheries since 1996. She has held a number of positions at NOAA Fisheries including going out to sea, port agent for New Bedford Harbor, stock assessments, and working on the New England multispecies fishery. In the Office of Policy, she focuses on national cross programmatic issues. She began working on tribal issues in 2012, leading the team of regional office and science center liaisons. Heather is also the primary author of NOAA's Tribal Consultation Handbook and first Indigenous Knowledge guidance.

Alaska Region

Marjorie (Maggie) Mooney-Seus, Communications Program Manager and Alaska Fisheries Science Center Tribal Liaison

Maggie grew up in a small rural community on a farm in Ontario, Canada. She has worked for NOAA Fisheries since 2008. Prior to joining NOAA Fisheries, Maggie was the Conservation Department Manager for the New England Aquarium and a consultant for MRAG Americas. In her current position at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Maggie manages the communications program and serves as public affairs officer. She leads the Center's equity and environmental justice efforts, supports our staff with Indigenous and constituent engagement activities, and conducts tribal consultations with Alaska Native Tribes and Corporations.

Amilee Wilson

Amilee Wilson, Alaska Regional Office Tribal Coordinator

Aquay and Yak'éi ixwsiteeni (Shinnecock/Lingit welcome greeting). Amilee grew up on a cattle ranch in Olympia, Washington. She joined NOAA in 2009 as a fisheries biologist in the West Coast Region. In that position, she worked with tribes on salmon and steelhead fishery managementand hatchery and genetics managementplans. She served as the West Coast Region tribal liaison from 2016 to 2021. After moving to Yakutat, Alaska, Amilee became the Alaska Regional Office Tribal Coordinatorin 2022. She leads the regional tribal engagement team and conducts tribal consultationswith Alaska Native Tribes and Corporations. Amilee also serves on the NOAA Fisheries Equity & Environmental Justice Executive Committee and co-leads the Alaska Region's NOAA Fisheries' equity and environmental justice efforts.

Northeast Region

Patricia (Trish) Clay, Anthropologist and Northeast Fisheries Science Center Tribal Liaison

Trish grew up mostly in Indiana, but lived or spent time abroad with her family in Ghana, France, Venezuela, and Malaysia from age 10 through graduate school. Trish joined NOAA Fisheries in 1993 after receiving a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology, with specialties in economic and ecological anthropology. She is an anthropologist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. She seeks to understand the perspectives, activities, and well-being of people who fish and the communities where they live, using an ecosystem focus. She has served as the Center's tribal liaison since January 2024.

Ellen Keane. Courtesy: Ellen Keane

Ellen Keane, Biologist and Greater Atlantic Regional Office Tribal Liaison

Ellen grew up in central Massachusetts and moved to the coast after hearing the call to be on or near saltwater. She started her career in medical microbiology, working in a lab in Boston. She was drawn towards conservation and switched her focus by pursuing degrees in Biological Oceanography and Marine Affairs. After working with the Navy as an environmental contractor, Ellen joined NOAA Fisheries Sea Turtle Program in the Greater Atlantic Region in 2003-allowing her to focus on regional conservation issues from Maine through Virginia and west to the Great Lakes. In 2015, she added Regional Tribal Liaison to her portfolio, working to advance respectful engagement with tribes on a government-to-government basis to address issues of importance to them. In this role, she works with tribes and her NOAA colleagues on issues such as restoring sea run fish and fish passage, marine mammal stranding response, and habitat restoration.

Pacific Islands

Mia Iwane,Fishery Management Specialist and Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center Tribal Liaison

Mia was born and raised on the island of Oʻahu. Her interest in the social and political dimensions of local fisheries issues led her back to school at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2017, and to her current position as a social scientist at the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center. As part of the Social-Ecological and Economic Systems program, Mia liaises with members of the fishing community and partner agencies in American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Her work prioritizes research and relationship-building responsive to communities' needs and interests. Mia is building her understanding-under the advice of the national tribal liaison team and Pacific Islands' cultural experts and communities-of how a tribal liaison in the Pacific Islands may best serve the region.

Stephanie Miliena Lum-King Bennett

Stephanie Miliena Lum-King Bennett, Directorate Division Chief and Pacific Island Regional Office Tribal Liaison

Aloha mai kākou. ʻO Stephanie Miliena Lum-King Bennett koʻu inoa. No Waimānalo, Oahu mai au, kahi kaulana i ka lawaiʻa. Hana au ma NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands. ('Ōlelo Hawai'i) Greetings to all. Stephanie is from Waimanalo on O'ahu, which is known for the art of fishing. She attended the University of Hawaii for an environmental science/zoology baccalaureate in marine sciences and graduate studies in pinniped endocrinology.Her first job in the federal government was as the park ranger in Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, where she fell in love with wildlife management. She worked in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 5 years, she moved to NOAA Fisheries in 2006. She currently serves as the division chief for the Directorate as well as the tribal liaison for the Pacific Islands Regional Office.

West Coast Region

Lalena Amiotte. Courtesy: Lalena Amiotte

Lalena Amiotte, West Coast Region Senior Tribal Relations Coordinator

Lalena, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, grew up in South Dakota. Her husband is a Skokomish tribal fisherman, and they live with their daughter and ranch animals in Shelton, Washington. Lalena previously worked with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources for 15 years. She specialized in environmental stewardship of overwater structures and endangered species recovery. Lalena joined the NOAA Fisheries Tribal Team when she began her position as the West Coast Region Senior Tribal Relations Coordinator in 2023.

Jhen conserves and protects marine habitat and the endangered species that live in them. Credit: Jhen Cabasal

Jhenevieve (Jhen) Cabasal, West Coast Region Assistant Tribal Coordinator

Jhen grew up and works in Long Beach, California. Jhen graduated from California State University Long Beach with a Bachelor's in Marine Biology in 2020. She started working for NOAA Fisheries in 2021 under the Pathways Recent Graduates Programas a Marine Habitat Resources Specialist. Previously, she conducted conservation work of Endangered Species Act-listed species and their habitats through consultations. Now, Jhen serves as an assistant tribal coordinator, providing tribal support services to regional staff and West Coast tribes.

Anna Kagley. Courtesy Anna Kagley

Anna Kagley, Research Fishery Biologist and Northwest Fisheries Science Center Tribal Research Coordinator

Anna grew up in a commercial fishing associated family in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. Her immediate family are proud to be members of the Bering Straits Native Corporation. She started with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center as a high school student volunteer in 1987, and became a permanent employee after receiving a B.S. in fisheries in 1993. She is currently involved in field (small boat) projects studying salmonid and forage fish ecology (habitat use, restoration/remediation/monitoring). Anna is almost as passionate about mentoring and outreach than she is about salmon. Anna is currently on assignment as the Center's tribal research coordinator.

Nate Mantua off the coast of Sonoma County on the New Sea Angler. Photo courtesy of Nate Mantua.

Nate Mantua, Landscape Ecology Team Leader and Southwest Fisheries Science Center Tribal Liaison

Nate grew up in Bodega Bay, California, where his family was a part of the local fishing industry. He is a climate scientist focused on climate dynamics, climate impacts on natural resources, and the use of climate information in resource management. Much of his work has focused on climate, marine life, and fisheries in the North Pacific Ocean and western North America, including climate impacts on Pacific salmon and salmon fisheries. He has worked at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, leading the Landscape and Seascape Ecology Team since 2013. He has been the Center's Tribal Liaison since 2022.

Southeast Region

Calusa Horn. Courtesy of Calusa Horn

Calusa Horn, Natural Resource Specialist and Southeast Regional Office Tribal Liaison

Boozhoo (formal Ojibway greeting meaning "hello" or "welcome"). Calusa is a natural resource management specialist with more than a decade of experience in the management, conservation, and recovery of threatened and endangered species. She works at the Southeast Regional Office in St. Petersburg Florida. Calusa has expertise in species listing under the Endangered Species Act, interagency consultations, and cooperation with states and tribes. She is also the Southeast Region's lead for giant manta ray recovery, Species Recovery Grant Programs, and has served as the Southeast Region Office's tribal liaison since 2021.

Joy at home in Lafayette, Louisiana. Photo provided by Joy Merino.

Joy Merino, Fishery Biologist and Southeast Fishery Science Center Tribal Liaison

Joy joined NOAA Fisheries in 2000. She works in the Southeast Fisheries Science Center's Population and Ecosystem Monitoring Division. She is involved in social science, tribal engagement, Caribbean work (habitat, strategic planning, funding governance), acquisitions, aquaculture, employee morale, and offshore wind energy. She coordinates with the Southeast Regional Office and Social Science Branch on equity and environmental justice and is tribal liaison for the Center.