Our Team
Board Members
Ts’e Itzoh-Louise Profeit-LeBlanc
President
Greetings! Indeah doh hoh teah! My name is, Ts’e Itzoh-Louise Profeit-LeBlanc, and I am from the Nacho Nyak Dän First Nation of Mayo, in north eastern Yukon. In 2002, I migrated south with my husband and grandson to Quebec, to take on a position as the Aboriginal Arts coordinator for the Canada Council for the Arts in the Nation’s capital, Ottawa. My primary responsibility in this field of arts administration was to expand and improve access to granting programs for Indigenous Artists especially those from the north. As part of my mandate it became apparent that this would have to involve an increase cultural awareness amongst my colleagues and to raise their consciousness of the uniqueness of Indigenous arts across all genre and as well demonstrate how these art practices would assist in the revitalizing of Indigenous languages, traditions and result in strengthening their communities. During my tenure I worked with many other government departments and art agencies to increase their capacity to better serve the “First Artists” of Canada to honour the talent, brilliance and unique art practices of the Inuit, First Nations and Metis people of Canada. This was also supported through Indigenous officers working in each of the artistic genre and a “National Indigenous Advisory Council” consisting of representatives across all Indigenous cultures and regions of Canada. Since my retirement in 2013, I have entered into my own artistic career as a Traditional Storytelling/keeper, mentor, motivational speaker, textile artist, writer, poet and mentor for the younger generation, all of which brings me great joy. I have also been honoured to sit on several Indigenous Advisory boards including Minwashin Women’s lodge, Wabano Health Centre, Royal Ontario Museum, Storytellers of Canada & Ottawa Storytelling Childrens festival, which has now established a festival event at the Odawa Native Friendship Centre, Walking With Our Sisters exhibition at CUAG and the Wakefield Community Center. Since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released their report in 2015, (https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/ 1450124405592/1529106060525) I have worked with several federally funded organizations, providing workshops to assist them and their staff in learning how to practice the art of reconciliation within their own departments and their relationship and association with Indigenous communities, My approach for this is an artistic one, in which I use “Seven Caribou Hide Bowls” and take participants through the “Seven Valleys” from the teachings of the Bahai Faith, as a means of approaching this sacred task of reconciliation. “We are all walking towards this lofty goal of reconciliation” I have travelled extensively to many places in the world as a story-keeper and cultural ambassador. I believe in the unity of all people and strive to honour this belief, by sharing traditional Indigenous knowledge cloaked with most recent knowledge from the Bahai teachings which brings all of us together as one, on this planet. Mussi Cho!
Karen Pulkrabek
I am a part of the Patricia Locke Foundation Board because I met Kevin and his mother in the early 80's. I served as an Auxilary Board Member of the Baha'i Faith with Kevin in the 90's. My father's family who all became Baha'is in the 40's were members of the White Earth Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. My father's family were also on the first Baha'i Assembly for St. Paul, MN. Patricia was also a member of the same Mississippi Band of Chippewas. (Ojibwa, most correctly Anishinaabe) Our families have known of each other since Kevin and his mother became Baha'is.
I have lived on Standing Rock for about 12 years. I work at the Standing Rock Community School as a Substitute Teacher and Para-Professional. I also serve on the McLaughlin Local Spiritual Assembly. I served on the first Northern Plains Regional Baha'i Council for 5 years. I have 2 beautiful daughters and 5 grand children. I am very honored and humble to be invited to serve in whatever capacity i am able.
Littlebrave Beaston
Littlebrave Beaston (Tsimshean, Makah, and Greek) received her Naturopathic Doctorate and Masters in Acupuncture at Bastyr University and her M. Ed. in Counseling from North Dakota State University. She has been a Bahá’í since 1969 and has experienced Reservation, rural and urban, large and small, heterogeneous and homogenous Bahá’í communities. One of her most memorable life chapters was when she lived on the Standing Rock reservation and taught high school in Solen and Fort Yates at different times. She is the author of several books, including Warrior Grandma: The Story of Patricia Locke, suitable for ages nine and up, and recently released. For fun she loves going to the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, visiting indigenous homelands and learning from the people, swimming, hiking, cooking, good conversation, and helping people reach their full potential and make their contributions. To that end she encourages others to write their stories.
Ceylan İşgör-Locke
Ceylan İşgör-Locke, originally from Türkiye, holds a PhD in neurosciences from Indiana University in Bloomington. Increasing representation of Indigenous American students in science careers, particularly in research, concerns her. Without this pivotal representation, many discoveries that are waiting to be made for the pursuit of human advancement are simply impossible. She is an avid supporter of women as leaders in science. She commits her efforts to the Patricia Locke Foundation to aid in the paradigm shift needed to reassign value and priorities in the field of education. Ceylan has 15+ years of experience working in a medical school setting as an academician. She is a published drug addiction researcher and continues to serve as a mentor to numerous undergraduate and graduate students. She enjoys parenting her daughter Patricia, named after the late Patricia Locke, and exposing her to the arts and wonders of her culture and the world. She values learning about the rich Indigenous cultures of the Turtle Island, particularly from her husband Kevin, a member of the Lakota tribe.
Josephine Mulcahy
From a young age Josephine Mulcahy became aware of the disparate treatment of marginalized people and injustices in the world. This awareness fueled her passion for social justice and led to work and service in the arenas of child welfare, government affairs, education and the arts. She has a degree in business and marketing, experience in nonprofit organization and event planning. Josephine is involved in numerous service activities—providing food to the hungry, independent housing for those who have aged out of foster care, and shelter for victims of child abuse and domestic violence.
Josephine has worked on a national campaign, Education Under Fire, whose purpose was bringing religious awareness to persecution of the basic human right to a higher education in Iran.
Josephine’s dedication to the preservation of the environment shine through her photographs of wildlife and the natural world. She lives in Florida and spends time visiting with her daughter, son-in-law and grandson in Puerto Rico.
Advisory Board Members
Michael Hampton
Michael Hampton’s love for music began in his childhood as the youngest of seven children of a father who served as a Christian minister. Everyone in his family sang and played instruments. At the age of three, Michael began performing and by the time he was six performing semi-professionally.
As a young adult, Michael worked in the entertainment industry as president of a production company and director of tour management for an audio engineering production company. He managed and supported the career development of several successful recording artists, before serving in the military.
During his time in the navy, he was stationed in Japan and advanced in his military career working in top secret as an electronic intelligence analyst. After the military, Michael returned to the music and entertainment industry.
When he married his wife, Linda, and became a father, he discovered life on the road 200 to 250 days of the year became increasingly difficult. When an investment firm recruited him, he cut his hair and bought a suit and began a new career, building three branch offices of an investment practice as a Vice President of Investments with Raymond James & Associates.
Now retired from his work in investments, Michael Hampton serves as an entertainment consultant, music producer and executive producer, team member of the Third Coast Recording Company and a voting member of the Grammy Awards. He enjoys sharing his love of music with his two grandchildren.
Michael has served on the boards of numerous nonprofits and is especially happy to serve as an advisory board member for the Patricia Locke Foundation. He holds a deep respect and admiration for the life and influence of both Patricia Locke and Kevin Locke.
Rainn Wilson
Rainn Dietrich Wilson is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, businessman, and producer. He is best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom The Office, for which he has earned three consecutive Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
A native of Seattle, Rainn began acting in college at the University of Washington, and later worked in theatre in New York City after graduating in 1986. Rainn was cast as Dwight Schrute in The Office in 2005-2013. In addition to acting, Rainn published an autobiography, The Bassoon King, in November 2015, and also co-founded the digital media company SoulPancake in 2008 with a very specific mission: to combat negativity online and to uplift, entertain, and provide inspiring human content that joyfully explores life’s big questions.
Rainn is an avid supporter and advisor of nonprofit organizations. He and his wife Holiday Reinhorn are founders of LIDÈ Haiti, an educational initiative that uses the arts and literacy to build resiliency and empower adolescent girls in rural Haiti.
Rainn is married to writer Holiday Reinhorn. The couple married on the Kalama River in Washington in 1995, and have a son, born in 2004. He hosts a podcast for the Baha'i blog called the Baha'i Blogcast, where he interviews notable people about the intersection of their faith and their work.
Layli Miller-Muro
Layli Miller-Muro is the Founder and Executive Director of the Tahirih Justice Center. Since 2001, Layli has led Tahirih in its service to more than 22,000 women and children, growing the non-profit from a staff of six to over 70, and expanding its offices from Greater DC to Houston, Baltimore, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Prior to joining Tahirih as Executive Director, Layli was an attorney at the law firm of Arnold & Porter, where she practiced international litigation and maintained a substantial pro bono practice. Prior to joining Arnold & Porter, Layli was an attorney-advisor at the U.S. Department of Justice, Board of Immigration Appeals.
Layli is a frequent lecturer and has appeared in numerous news outlets including CNN, Fox News, The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. She lives in the Washington, DC area with her husband and three children.
Executive Team
Ceylan İşgör-Locke
Executive Director
Ceylan İşgör-Locke, originally from Türkiye, holds a PhD in neurosciences from Indiana University in Bloomington. Increasing representation of Indigenous American students in science careers, particularly in research, concerns her. Without this pivotal representation, many discoveries that are waiting to be made for the pursuit of human advancement are simply impossible. She is an avid supporter of women as leaders in science. She commits her efforts to the Patricia Locke Foundation to aid in the paradigm shift needed to reassign value and priorities in the field of education. Ceylan has 15+ years of experience working in a medical school setting as an academician. She is a published drug addiction researcher and continues to serve as a mentor to numerous undergraduate and graduate students. She enjoys parenting her daughter Patricia, named after the late Patricia Locke, and exposing her to the arts and wonders of her culture and the world. She values learning about the rich Indigenous cultures of the Turtle Island, particularly from her husband Kevin, a member of the Lakota tribe.
Dennis Stafford
Online Education Curriculum Project Director
Dennis Stafford's background includes work with record labels, instrument manufacturers, and pro audio, but his nonprofit work was particularly significant. "It taught me that "good for business" and "good for the community" could work hand in hand," Dennis continues, "and at the heart of it are relationships. Building great relationships has been key to my professional success and plays a big role in my current Company.
Dennis is a member of the Bahá'í Faith, a proud dad, "foodie", and very tranquil golfer.
Tanya Huffman
IT and Web Manager
While growing up in Michigan, Tanya traveled as a youth within the United States helping with group service projects each summer. Following high school, she spent a year in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay representing Rotary International as an exchange student. Her time in South America fueled a passion for learning about the rich diversity of cultures throughout the world.
While raising her three children, Tanya started a new career in website design and development. Serving local nonprofit organizations in this capacity has deepened her commitment to serve at a national and international level. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with her family and enjoys playing the guitar, golfing and pickleball.
Keith Kellersohn
Media Manager
Keith Kellersohn joined the Patricia Locke Foundation as a staff member over a deep concern for the need to promote cross-cultural understanding and perspectives, specifically indigenous perspectives which have been heavily underrepresented. He holds Masters Degrees in Strategic Leadership and Business & Organizational Anthropology and has over 30 years experience working in private companies and public institutions, including public education.
Keith's career has spanned the areas of IT, Policy, Research, Compliance, and Business Process Analysis. He enjoys learning about other cultures and their traditions, beliefs, and spiritual practices A life-long learner, Keith lives in Maryland and enjoys traveling and genealogy in his spare time.
Vincent Mann
Video Content Developer
Vincent Mann is a filmmaker who recognizes the positive impact that film and video can have on the world. He started his journey by editing family footage with his father at a young age, and later pursued documentary production after interning with Davis Guggenheim (He Named Me Malala and An Inconvenient Truth).
Vincent is honored to collaborate with the Patricia Locke Foundation in their mission to celebrate and preserve the cultural heritage and wisdom of Indigenous peoples for future generations. He feels grateful and humbled for the opportunity to contribute to such an important cause.
Josephine Mulcahy
Grants and Contracts
From a young age Josephine Mulcahy became aware of the disparate treatment of marginalized people and injustices in the world. This awareness fueled her passion for social justice and led to work and service in the arenas of child welfare, government affairs, education and the arts. She has a degree in business and marketing, experience in nonprofit organization and event planning. Josephine is involved in numerous service activities—providing food to the hungry, independent housing for those who have aged out of foster care, and shelter for victims of child abuse and domestic violence.
Josephine has worked on a national campaign, Education Under Fire, whose purpose was bringing religious awareness to persecution of the basic human right to a higher education in Iran.
Josephine’s dedication to the preservation of the environment shine through her photographs of wildlife and the natural world. She lives in Florida and spends time visiting with her daughter, son-in-law and grandson in Puerto Rico.
Star Team
Tȟokéya Inážiŋ- Kevin Locke
Indigenous Culture Bearer/Artist
Founding President
Kevin Locke, Tȟokéya Inážiŋ--meaning "The First to Arise”-- is Lakota (Hunkpapa band) and Anishinaabe. Kevin is a preeminent player of the Native American flute, traditional storyteller, cultural ambassador, recording artist, educator, fluent Lakota language and sign language speaker, and member of the Baha’i Faith. Kevin is most known for the Hoop Dance, the Hoop of Life, a prayer for the unification of all humankind.
Kevin started his career as an educator, having received a Master’s degree in Educational Administration from the University of South Dakota. In 1980, Kevin accepted the invitation to serve as a cultural ambassador for the United States Information Service. Since then, Locke has traveled to almost 100 countries and continues to perform both nationally and internationally. Whether performing the flute or Hoop Dance, he emphasizes universal themes, such as the universality of the human spirit and its inclination towards peace, balance and harmony.
His honors include serving as a delegate to the Earth Summit in Brazil and as a featured performer and speaker at the Kennedy Center and the United Nations Habitat II Conference in Turkey. Among his awards are a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Bush Foundation Award and a Native American Music Album of the Year award for “Earth Gift,” one of his numerous albums. Mr. Locke also serves on the advisory board of the World Flute Society.
Even though he has performed in many prestigious venues to dignitaries such as Nelson Mandela and Dalai Lama, his favorite audiences are children and youth. Kevin finds tremendous value and satisfaction in utilizing traditional folk arts to nurture the full potential of young people, empowering them to realize their innate nobility and arise to advance humanity through a recognition of the oneness of humanity, transformation and service.
In 2018, Kevin Locke founded the Patricia Locke Foundation named after his late mother to provide the structure to carry on her legacy. Patricia Locke’s commitment to social justice was aligned with her deep desire for the inhabitants of the earth to achieve true and lasting justice. She had come to believe that this kind of lasting justice could only be realized with a spiritual foundation. Kevin Locke is enthusiastic to work with collaborators to develop the Patricia Locke Foundation to extend the legacy of his mom for the advancement and empowerment of future generations.
Kevin Locke’s lifelong drive to explore and create began in 1972 when Richard Fool Bull, the foremost exemplar and practitioner of the Indigenous North American flute, urged him to take up and perpetuate this unique and precious heritage that has evolved and developed here in this continent from time immemorial. Through Richard Fool Bull and many other elders, Kevin caught a glimpse of the dreams, hopes and visions that have propelled our ancestors. Those elders have departed, but their spirit lives through the traditions they have passed on to us. The traditions come alive and unrealized dreams are fulfilled when we actively engage younger generations in their perpetuation.
When Kevin first started with the flute in the mid-1970’s, he wanted to develop a repertoire. Fortunately, many of the elders mentoring him had a great knowledge of the unique vocal genre from which the flute melodies are derived and he obtained a vast reservoir of this special genre. The current popularized “Native American flute” was invented in 1980 for commercial purposes in that it uses the well-known “melodic” or minor pentatonic scale and lends itself to improvisation. Kevin differentiates that from the original Indigenous North American flute, which is much more versatile and has a wider range of notes. The original North American flute is perfectly adapted to play not only chromatic, diatonic and pentatonic scales but its note progression is able to capture the authentic Indigenous North American musical esthetic.
Simultaneous with acquiring flute music, Kevin also received the gift of the hoop dance. He has performed this choreographed prayer and traditional Native American flute in over 100 countries around the world. The dance invokes unity, beauty, holiness and is used to draw the people into this timeless, placeless realm. These authentic North American artistic traditions connect humankind to the natural world. Kevin aspires to present them to meld the physical and secular to the sacred and eternal, to bridge the perceived gap that separates the generations, and to bring all people into the hoop of life.
Though he has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institute and met many dignitaries, including the Dalia Lama, Kevin feels most at home in presenting in school settings. He treasures connecting children, youth and young adults with Indigenous North American arts, especially music, as a means to link our future leaders to that which is universal, eternal, holy and good.
Every culture has folk arts--expressions that have been passed down over time through the generations. The folk arts portray the universal human values of beauty, balance, symmetry, and unity. Kevin believes that folk arts have universal validity and significance that transcend the vortex of pop culture, in which the arts are often used as a means of escaping reality and distracting us from our essential purpose. Though challenged to reside and perform in a dominant culture with values and esthetics so diametrically different to the millennia old spiritual heritage of this land, Kevin listens to what he considers the universal call of the ancestors. This call inspire him to offer and teach his gifts as contributions to an emerging global culture and to encourage and inspire the younger generation to a global vision in which they see themselves as integral and active participants.
Tȟawáčhiŋ Wašté Wiŋ - Patricia A. Locke
Matriarchial Inspiration
Compassionate Woman, January 21, 1928 – October 20, 2001) was a member of the Lakota (Hunkpapa band), and White Earth Chippewa (Mississippi band). A devout educator and tribal rights leader, her work on the promotion and preservation of Indigenous traditional knowledge and wisdom, particularly concerning establishment of tribal colleges and development of tribal education policies and codes won her the esteemed Mac Arthur Foundation Fellowship in 1991. Locke advanced educational opportunities for the Indigenous Nations and under-served populations in the United States, both through tireless advocacy at the level of the US Legislation and through development of innovative educational policies in grassroots Indigenous communities. She worked directly with seventeen tribes, supporting their efforts to establish tribal colleges with critical advancements towards creating tribal educational standards for Indigenous languages. In her writings, Locke elucidates Indigenous values and belief systems, importance of education, native languages, and culture. A defender of the basic human rights, she was one of the principal authors of the American Indian Freedom of Religion Act (1978) which afforded basic religious freedom for Indigenous people in the US. This was a monumental shift from prior policies that outlawed all Indigenous devotional expression. She championed the cause of freedom of religion in the Western Hemisphere in her countless international engagements.
She taught and lectured at UCLA, San Francisco State University, Alaska Methodist University, the University of Colorado, and the University of Southern Maine. She was active internationally at the World Assembly of First Nations in Canada (1982), Chair of the Indigenous Women’s Caucus at Beijing (1995), and among the speakers at the Parliament of World Religions, Cape Town, South Africa (1999). She was a speaker at the Ecological Summit at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 sponsored by the UN, one of the first address of the climate change in a global consultative form. Late in her life, Patricia Locke accepted the Baha'i Faith and became the first Indigenous woman to be elected to an office of the National Spiritual Assembly (1993).
She was a recipient of the Indigenous Language Institute's Those Who Make a Difference award in 2001. She was inducted posthumously in the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2006. She was a National Race Amity Conference Honoree and posthumously received a Race Amity Medal of Honor. Most recently, Google Cultural Institute included her in its listing Showcasing Great Women in 2014. Her son Kevin Locke, the renowned cultural ambassador, continues her legacy and work in creating a positive awareness of oneness of humanity.
Youth Members
Čhaŋlkíyapi Wíŋ - Patricia Hupahu Locke
First generation direct descendant of Kevin Locke and Ceylan Isgor-Locke, Patricia represents a youth leader in service to the Patricia Locke Foundation. She embodies the harmonious unity of East and West and Abrahamic and Indigenous Covenants. Like all children and youth that presently encompass multi ethnicity and races, Patricia is a double and not half, and as such, is what is referred as "the promise and guarantee of our future." She is a painter, singer and a dancer in service to the goals of the foundation.