Staff, Faculty, & Team Members

Rebecca Edler
Sustainability Coordinator

Rebecca Edler is the Sustainability Coordinator at the Sustainable Development Institute at the College of Menominee Nation. Working with recruitment, admissions, and advising at the College for 5 years before moving into this position, she is familiar with various aspects of higher education, primarily Student Services. Before working at the College, Rebecca was the director of the American Indian Center of the Fox Valley, a program of Goodwill Industries of Northeast Wisconsin. It was here that she worked with off-reservation American Indians and identified education, sustainability, and cultural knowledge, as means to improve the lives of American Indian families and communities. Rebecca brings her experience of working in research and development, to the Sustainable Development Institute as well as her passion to strengthen American Indian families.

Frank Kutka
Sustainable Agriculture Faculty

Frank Kutka is a plant breeder who is currently developing a Sustainable Agriculture degree program at the College of Menominee Nation. He grew up in southern Wisconsin, and eventually studied field biology, animal ecology, and corn breeding. Frank did agricultural field work and worked at a rifle range as a young man. He later worked for the University of Minnesota conducting surveys of crayfish, fish, and frogs, and also operated a small wildflower nursery before moving to upstate New York and then North Dakota. He was the assistant director of the Dickinson Research Extension Center there, coordinated the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, and also helped to coordinate the Farm Breeding Club for the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society. His teaching experiences include lab and discussion courses at Iowa State University, Cornell University, and Dickinson State University. Frank and his family currently live in southern Door County on a small farm.

Sara Smith
Midwest Tribal Resilience Liaison

Sara Smith is a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and is the Midwest Tribal Resilience Liaison with the College of Menominee Nation - Sustainable Development Institute (CMN-SDI), in association with the Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (MW CASC).

As the liaison for the Midwest, she works on facilitating stronger relationships between Tribes, climate researchers, organizations, academic institutions, and the MW CASC. In addition, she works with Tribes to build capacity and provides support by helping identify gaps and assisting with climate resilience efforts.

Sara holds a Master of Science in Ecology from the State University of New York – College of Environmental Science and Forestry and an undergraduate degree in Biology and First Nation Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Ally Scott
Midwest Deputy Tribal Resilience Liaison

Ally Scott is the Midwest Deputy Tribal Resilience Liaison with the College of Menominee Nation - Sustainable Development Institute (CMN-SDI), in association with the Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (MW CASC). She is stationed remotely in Madison, Wisconsin and works throughout the 9-state region covered by the MW CASC. As the deputy liaison, Ally works to address Tribal climate science needs in the Midwest region. By supporting relationship-building between Tribes, Climate researchers, the MW CASC, and other organizations, she works to increase capacity, address research gaps, and guide strategic adaptive planning and implementation of Tribal resiliency projects. Ally holds a Master of Science in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Conservation with a minor in Environmental Policy & Planning from Virginia Tech. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outdoors, playing board games, and performing music.

Nicholas Schwitzer
SDI Media Specialist

Nicholas Schwitzer was previously a long time Sustainable Development Institute intern who has now taken on a full time position at SDI.. Harnessing the skills learned as a member of the Sustainability Leadership Cohort (2013-2016) and as an intern in the Visualizing Forest Futures Project (2018-2020), Nick now works as the Media Specialist for the Institute. In this role, he manages SDI’s social media pages, creates exclusive video content for their YouTube page, and also live streams events for SDI and the College of Menominee Nation. Graduating from UW-Stout with a degree in Entertainment Design: Comics and Sequential Arts, Nick also designs posters for SDI events and creates art assets when needed. Currently, Nick also is using his comic making skills for SDI’s “Collaborating Our Model In Contemporary Sequential-arts (C.O.M.I.C.S.) Project”. Working with indigenous writer Justin Eagle Gauthier, the two aim to create a graphic novel based on the Menominee Theoretical Model of Sustainability. Nicholas, a proud first descendant of the Menominee Tribe, is excited to use the skills he learned from and outside SDI to help create material and media that benefits his tribal community.

Dulce Moeller
Field Coordinator

Dulce Maria Moeller works part-time as an assistant coordinator in the agriculture field with Dr. Frank Kutka. Her primary goals are to help Indigenous people with sustainable agriculture and local garden, and natural food. Dulce is a descendant of the Mixtec and Hopi and practices the indigenous medicines of her great-grandmother. Dulce is currently pursuing her Bachelor’s in Business Administration and Associate in Natural Resources at the College of Menominee Nation. Dulce previously worked with an Indigenous cooperative and corporation and earned a master's degree in Mexico.

Kate Flick
Geoscience Faculty

Dr. Kate Flick is a faculty member at the College of Menominee Nation in Geoscience.  She focuses on Place-based and Indigenous pedagogy in STEAM-fields (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math).  She has a PhD in Natural Resource Science and Management (University of Minnesota), an International Master of Science in Forest Ecology and Management (University of Freiburg in Germany), and a Bachelor of Science in Community and Environmental Sociology (University of Wisconsin).  Dr. Flick loves exposing students to experiential and place-based learning opportunities that integrate arts into STEM.  She hails from a smalltown in Wisconsin and grew up next to the Tomorrow River as well as many lakes that she likes swimming across, sometimes meeting a loon family in the middle.