Staff
Francesca Pine-Rodriguez, (Apsáalooke/Crow and Tsitsistas/Northern Cheyenne), Executive Director
Francesca’s lived experience growing up on the Northern Cheyenne and Crow reservations, her work for national Indigenous leadership programs, administrative posts at Tribal Colleges, academic background in Environmental Studies and Public Administration, and her six-year involvement with MTA makes a powerful contribution to the organization.
Hailey Sinoff, Development & Administrative Associate
Hailey grew up as a dancer and a skier in Truckee California, the traditional homelands of the Washoe people. A deep love of mountains and snow brought her to Bozeman.
Enchanted by the passion of community members to make Bozeman more equitable and resilient in the face of climate change, she became involved with several local organizations including the Gallatin Valley Land Trust and Forward Montana.
While pursuing a degree in Political Science and Sociology at Montana State University, she was a member of the Campus Sustainability Advisory Council and helped pass the university's first sustainability plan. In her time as a student, she researched the historical relationship between Land Grant universities, Indigenous communities, and how that legacy is communicated today.
Board of Directors
Jim Madden, MTA Board President
Artist/Architect & Founder, Mountain Time Arts
Jim draws upon his deep experience in art, architecture, and land conservation to connect people to place in engaging and transformative ways. A graduate of RISD and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, his architectural work has received Design Awards from the American Institute of Architects and Progressive Architecture. Multiple awards stemming from his projects and community planning have resulted in broad exposure and influence across southwest Montana.
Shauna White Bear, MTA Board Vice-President
Artist & Entrepreneur, White Bear Moccasins
Shauna White Bear is from the Arikara & Hidatsa nation. She is a designer, innovator, artist, entrepreneur, stylist and cobbler in the art of moccasins. She currently owns a small business called White Bear Moccasins located in Bozeman, MT. Through this medium she's been able to collaborate with Ginew (a Native owned business), has been featured in Huffington Post, and b.yellowtail. Her talents are bringing people together through moccasin making while educating about the land and its history.
Dan Bailey, MTA Board Treasurer
Teller Wildlife Refuge, Executive Director
Born and raised in Wyoming and living his entire adult life in Montana, Dan brings a unique perspective to the issues and opportunities that encompass living in the shadow of Yellowstone National Park. Through his previous role with NPCA, Dan worked closely with Mountain Time Arts on the Yellowstone Revealed project, providing time and funding to support this incredible program.
His love of fishing brought him to Montana State University where he graduated with a degree in Land Resources Analysis and Management. Dan decided to call Montana home starting in 2001 but wound up spending parts of the next 13 years in Mongolia working first as an ecologist and then as a fishing guide and outfitter. During Dan’s time in Mongolia he started a master’s degree from the University of Montana focused on community-based fisheries conservation in Mongolia’s far north regions. After finalizing his degree Dan joined Pheasants Forever leading the organizations efforts in Montana. During his time with Pheasants Forever he oversaw the development of Montana’s Farm Bill Biologist Partners Program and the purchasing of two conservation properties opened to public hunting. After a brief call back to Mongolia Dan joined the National Parks Conservation Association in 2019 as their Yellowstone Program Manager working directly with the park on a host of conservation, wildlife and cultural management issues. Dan and his wife Kascie welcomed a return back to the Bitterroot Valley and their home outside of Victor with their three bird dogs when he was hired as Teller’s Executive Director in 2023.
Emily Gonzales, MTA Board Secretary
Artist
Emily Gonzales was born and raised in Bozeman, MT. Creating is a way of life for Emily, with art being her truest form of communication with the world. She threads connections from the past to the present by way of graphite and mixed mediums. Breathing life into those who came before us. Emily’s work pays homage to her Mexican & Indigenous heritage.
K. D. Chavez, MTA Board Member
Director of Philanthropic Parternships, Climate Justice Alliance
KD approaches every facet of their life with ancestral strength, resilience, and wisdom of their communities. A long-time art enthusiast and former board member of Hawaii Contemporary, KD is thrilled to serve on the board of MTA. Currently, they are the Director of Philanthropic Partnerships at the Climate Justice Alliance. During their time at ACLU, KD was a member of the national Indigenous Justice Steering Committee working to further justice for indigenous peoples, and developed innovative campaigns and fundraising programs.
Victoria Cheyenne, MTA Board Member
Film/TV Director & Producer
Victoria Cheyenne (she/her/ella) is an Indigenous Bolivian-American (Aymara/Tsétsêhéstâhese) documentary filmmaker based in Bozeman, Montana. As a storyteller, Cheyenne navigates intimate familial storylines with a deep passion for themes centered on matriarchal lineage and cultural heritage. Her activism focuses on land sovereignty and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples. Her documentary short film, Learning I’m Home, was a Kendeda Fund grant recipient and premiered at the 2023 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, winning the bronze award in the Indigenous Documentary Film competition, judged by Lily Gladstone. Cheyenne is a 2022/2023 NeXt Doc Fellow, a 2024 4th World Media Lab Fellow, and a member of the Chicana Directors Initiative. She has previously worked producing and directing for digital original productions at Paramount. She’s currently in development for her debut feature documentary How To Be A Daughter, which follows her mother’s journey to her birthplace in Bolivia to reconnect with the family who spent the last 50 years searching for her.
Benjamin Bennett, MTA Board Member
Founder and Principal, Massive Studios
Benjamin believes art serves as a universal language that transcends boundaries and fosters connections between individuals, communities, and cultures, enriching lives and expanding communication and understanding.
As the Founder and Principal for twenty two years at Massive, and with over twenty seven years of professional experience in Montana, Benjamin curates marketing strategies in the industries of healthcare, outdoor manufacturing, finance, retail trade, professional services as well as political campaigns and consultancy.
Highly invested in Bozeman’s growing community, Benjamin has served on the City of Bozeman’s Parking Commission, Bozeman Schools Foundation, and has been an adjunct professor to Montana State University’s School of Arts and Architecture.
Mary Ellen Strom, MTA Board Emeritus
Artist, Professor at Tufts University & Founder, Mountain Time Arts
Mary Ellen’s installations and site-specific projects unearth submerged narratives within art, history and cultural discourse. Her work has been exhibited in a wide range of contexts including museums, galleries, passenger trains, large-scale video projections onto industrial sites and mountain rock faces, in empty retail stores and horse arenas.
Recent awards include an International Fulbright Scholar Fellowship, a Bogliasco Fellowship to the Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities, The MAP Fund, a Rockefeller Fellowship, Artadia The Fund for Art and Dialogue, Art Matters and Creative Capital.
Dede Taylor, MTA Board Emeritus
Art Historian & Founder, Mountain Time Arts
Dede Taylor is an art historian with a focus on the arts, history and culture of Islamic Spain and a former art history and history professor at Montana State University. She is a sought-after lecturer on a range of topics and an organizer of community-focused cultural projects, including the Friend of the Story and Pecha Kucha Bozeman. Taylor is proud to be a member of the organizing committee for the successful campaign to establish Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Bozeman. She avidly promotes the arts as a vital ingredient of sustainable and just communities.