Administrators
Tracy Zacher Tracy Zacher is an enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and Psychology from the University of South Dakota; and went on to obtain an Associate Degree in Nursing. In the past, she has worked as a registered nurse in the hospital, clinic, nursing home, research and educational settings since 1999. Currently, she works for Rapid City Regional Hospital as a bedside nurse, and for the University of Colorado as Field Study Coordinator on a project aimed at improving oral health for American Indian children. She recently moved to the Kyle, SD area on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to try her hands at hobby farming and ranching. She started working with the Asniya program in 2000, when it was offered through Harvard Medical School's Office of Enrichment to Harvard Medical students. To expand the program to other medical schools, she collaborated with Miles and Ron to incorporate Asniya as its own 501(c)3. She has been a volunteer organizer and administrator for Asniya since 2000, and became one of the founding Board of Directors in 2002. |
| Ron Campbell Ron Campbell is a member of the Sisseton/Wahpeton Sioux Tribe and currently lives and teaches on his home reservation. He has an undergraduate degree in Biology with a 7-12 teaching endorsement, a graduate degree in School Supervision, and some graduate work in biology, astronomy, and physics. Ron currently teaches science at Tiospa Zina Tribal School on the Sisseton/Wahpeton Reservation in Northeast South Dakota. In 1995, he met Miles Cunningham, and together they co-founded the Asniya program. He has been instrumental in the growth and development of the program, serving as mentor to interns, Waubay site coordinator, life science instructor, and cultural advisor. |
Miles G. Cunningham, MD, Ph.D. Miles Cunningham earned his MD from Harvard Medical School and his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied the potential for custom-engineered neural cells in repairing the damaged and disease brain and spinal cord. He completed his residency training at the Massachusetts General and McLean hospitals, and he conducted a fellowship in neuropsychiatry at McLean. Dr. Cunningham presently is active in stem cell neuroscience, schizophrenia research, and neurosurgical innovation. He supervises medical students, residents, and fellows in behavioral neurology, and he treats neuropsychiatric patients in his private clinic. Prior to medical school, Dr. Cunningham served as a VISTA in Rochester, NY, where he established an adult literacy learning site and a tutorial program for Native Americans in the city. In 1995, during his fourth year at Harvard Medical, Dr. Cunningham designed a novel outreach program for Native American children and began recruiting medical students each year to travel to remote reservation schools to teach medicine. He is the original founder, the first "intern", and he funded the beginning years of the program. Dr. Cunningham partnered with Ron Campbell, and then Tracy Zacher, which empowered this inception to flourish into what is now known as Asniya. Presently, Dr. Cunningham serves as a Director, fund-raiser, and instructor for Asniya. |
Danica Liberman, M.D. Danica Liberman grew up in Southern California. She received her undergraduate degree in history at Yale University, medical school at Dartmouth and Brown, and then completed her residency training in pediatrics and her fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at Children's National Medical Center in Washington DC. Her involvement with Asniya began in 2003 when, as a medical student at Brown, she spent a month in Waubay, South Dakota teaching health to middle and high school students at Tiospa Zina Tribal School. She remained in close contact with the program organizers, was in the first group of summer camp interns in 2006, and became an official Asniya Board Member in 2007. In addition to her clinical work as a pediatric emergency medicine physician, she is interested and involved in local and national politics, particularly as it relates to issues of child health, health care policy, and general public health. She is currently working towards a masters degree in public health with an emphasis in health policy at the University of Southern California. She is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Southern California and an Attending Physician in the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. |
Ryan O'Connor
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Robin Bowen Robin Bowen is the sister of the Ron Campbell, one of the cofounders of the Asniya organization. Robin was born in Sisseton South Dakota and is an enrolled member of the Dakota Sioux Lake Traverse Reservation. She has a BS degree from the University of South Dakota in Allied Health and a double minor in Criminal Justice and American Indian Studies. She served eight years in the US Army, Military Police Corp. She is a published short story and song writer. Robin has a strong interest and passion in preserving traditional Indian ways and ceremonies, and has shared her knowledge and wisdom with the participants at Odepi Park, where she serves as the cook and a cultural mentor. She worked as a dorm counselor at the Crow Creek tribal school; and in Louisville Kentucky, where she currently lives, she formed a Native American Dance Troupe and manages a Native American powwow drum that travels throughout the United States performing Native American dances, songs and storytelling. Currently, her cultural focus lies with her vision to empower women and give them the confidence and support they need to find themselves and realize their abilities and strengths. In addition to the cultural work she does within the Native community, Robin is a phlebotomist at the University Health care Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Sarah Arobba Sarah Arobba is a member of the Sicangu Oyate, (burnt thigh people) and an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation (also known as the Rosebud Sioux Tribe). In 1982, Sarah obtained her degree in Business Secondary Education and went into the accounting business with her husband, Jaime who in the same year obtained his CPA license. They established their business at home and worked solely with Tribes, tribal organizations, and non-profit entities. After a few years in their own specialized areas of accounting, Sarah broke away with her specialized areas of bookkeeping, computer implementations, training and technical assistance in computer-based accounting systems. She encompassed her specialized activities under her own consulting business and called it “Wintercount.” Tracy Zacher is the daughter of Jaime and Sarah, and at her request in 2002, Sarah has been involved with the Asniya program providing the bookkeeping and accounting services on a voluntary basis. |