Indigenous Community Forum

Dr. Lee Francis IV (Pueblo of Laguna) aka Dr. IndigiNerd is the Founder and Chief Imagination Officer of the Indigenous Imagination Workshop, an organization dedicated to sparking and cultivating the Indigenous imagination. He is an educator and entrepreneur and is the founder of the Indigenous Comic Con, Indigenous Worlds of Wonder, the Indigenous Futurisms Festival, Native Realities, and Red Planet Books and Comics. Francis is also an award-winning writer and editor and has multiple publications from poetry to short stories to comics.

Eleanor Stolzoff is a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and an incoming junior at Amherst College majoring in American Studies and Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought, in addition to obtaining the 5 College NAIS Certificate. Eleanor is The Carle’s Summer 2025 Special Project Trinkett Clark Intern and curating a Reading Library exhibition on Indigenous picture books that will open in August 2025.