Meet The Board
Julian Lang
Karuk Tribe/Wiyot – Shasta descendant
I am a member of the Karuk tribe of northwestern California who belong to the lands nourished by the
Klamath and Salmon Rivers and its creeks and streams. The Karuk language was spoken in the ancient villages of my ancestors and today I teach that very same language with one goal: to create 10 new
Karuk speakers during the next 5 years. We have created several speakers during the last few years already. My process includes the one-on-one Master-Apprentice methods developed by AICLS over the
years, the ASLA method, immersion techniques and years of experience teaching the Karuk language in
schools and in community settings. Today’s technology and social networking has become a valuable
tool to help reach our Karuk diaspora—we have descendants spread across the United States and
internationally.
Raymond Huaute
(Chumash, Cahuilla), Board Member
Ray Huaute (Chumash, Cahuilla) is an Assistant Professor in the American Indian Studies Department at the University of California, Los Angeles and a former UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow. He holds a BA in Native American Studies at UC Riverside, and MA in Native American Linguistics from the University of Arizona, and a PhD in Linguistics from UC San Diego. Ray has extensive training in second-language acquisition theory and methods, with over a decade of experience teaching language at the K-12 and university level. He also helped to establish, and serve as Manager, of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Mentor-Apprentice Program from 2022-2025.
Kayla Begay
(Hupa/Karuk/Yurok), Board Treasurer
Kayla Begay is a Hoopa Valley Tribal member of
Hupa, Yurok and Karuk descent. Carpenter holds a bachelors degree in Linguistics from Stanford
University and a masters degree in Linguistics from U.C. Berkeley. She is currently a graduate student in
the Linguistics Ph.D. program at U.C. Berkeley. She is the daughter of Chance Carpenter, and Melodie
George-Moore, one of the first apprentice participants in the Master-Apprentice Language Learning
Program. Carpenter is working towards conversational fluency in the languages of her family heritage,
and is also a traditional basket weaver and singer.
Melissa Leal
Board Member
Board Member
James Sarmento
Board Member
Board Member
Nancy Steele
Board Member
Nancy is a language specialist and consultant. She has worked on language projects for the past 25years. Nancy is also a board member of the Karuk Language Restoration Board and is an accomplished storyteller, basket weaver and traditional singer.
Stan Rodriguez
(Kumeyaay), Board Member
(Kumeyaay) started with the Advocates as an apprentice to Juan Mesa, fluentKumeyaay speaker and renownked Wild Cat song singer. He is currently teaching Kumeyaay at SycuanCollege and at various tribal locations.
Deborah Morillo
Board Vice Chair
Advisory Board
Leanne Hinton
Advisory Member
Advisory member of the board of AICLS and one of its founders; professor emerita of Linguistics at U.C. Berkeley. Prof. Hinton specializes in language revitalization, and consults with indigenous groups around the world on language maintenance and reclamation. She has published books, articles and reports on the revitalization of indigenous languages, and assisted in the development of several organizations and language learning programs.
Matthew Vestuto
(Ventureño Chumash), Advisory member
Matthew Vestuto serves as language program coordinator
for the Barbareño/Ventureño Band of Mission Indians and director of the Tšumaš Transcription Project.
A graduate of The Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA) where he focused on Language Revitalization,
Linguistics and Media, he plans to pursue graduate studies in linguistics at the University of Oregon,
Eugene.