Dr. Melodi Wynne is a member of the Spokane Tribe and resides on her ancestral homelands on the upper Columbia Plateau. She holds a doctorate in Community and Cultural Psychology and a graduate certificate in Conflict Resolution from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Melodi speaks on behalf of ancestral plant foods and medicines whenever called to do so, including in middle and high school classrooms, local university programs, indigenous podcasts, coalition meetings, and conferences.

Dr. Melodi Wynne is currently the Food Sovereignty manager for the Spokane Tribal Network and the Spokane Tribe. Food sovereignty is typically defined as "the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods". For the tribes, this means, in part, reestablishing the lost flora of their ancestral lands. The purpose of the project is to create a healing space demonstrating Spokane Tribal Food Sovereignty through connections among people, plants, elements, and all life above, on, in, and under the soil.

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Thank you Dr. Wynne!

We are so grateful to Dr. Wynne for her contributions as a valued community leader and guest panelist at a YWCA Spokane facilitated event. Her contributions broaden perspectives of community members by cultivating cultural humility, nurturing listening skills, and increasing capacity for a strength-based worldview of Native American communities.