Hillary is also an LL.M candidate through the LL.M. in Agricultural and Food Law program here at the University of Arkansas School of Law.Hillary serves as the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for Sherwood Valley Rancheria. Before coming to the University of Arkansas, she worked for the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C. She has also served as Yakama Nation Chief Judge; Environmental-Air Quality Specialist for Yakama Nation; Associate attorney for the LaPena Law Corporation; a Law Clerk for Oregon Governor Kulongoski's Office of General Counsel; and a Law Clerk for Anderson Law Group in Anchorage, Alaska. Hillary has several years of public service employment with the Indian Health Service in Rockville, Maryland; the Environmental Protection Agency; the National Institutes of Health; the Department of State, Bureau of Oceans and the International Environmental and Scientific Affairs; Office of Senator Maria Cantwell; Bureau of Land Management; and the American Red Cross. She is also alumni of the Pre-Law Summer Institute (PLSI) at the University of New Mexico School of Law; the Morris K. Udall internship in the Office of Senator Maria Cantwell; the AISES Summer program at the State Department; the Washington Internship for Native Students (WINS) at American University; and a recipient of the Rodney T. Mathews Scholarship, Morongo Band of Mission Indians.
Hillary received her J.D. from the University of the Oregon School of Law, with certificates of completion in Environmental and Natural Resources, Ocean and Coastal Law, Pro Bono, and Public Service. While in law school she was a Native Environmental Sovereignty Fellow and served as Public Relations Outreach Officer for the Native American Law Student Association. She was a Research Assistant for Professor Mary Christina Wood, researching Nature’s Trust and Public Trust Doctrine as it relates to Climate Change. She also completed graduate studies in Cultural Resource Management at Central Washington University, successfully defending her Master’s Thesis on Yakama Indian Treaty Fishing and Significance of Traditional Places and graduate studies in Public Health at George Washington University assisting, Dr. David Goldsmith with his research on Native American health problems associated with exposure to agricultural pesticides in agriculture and during repatriation. Hillary received her B.A. in Anthropology from American University in Washington, D.C. Hillary is also alumna of Mendocino College, Phi Theta Kappa.
Hillary currently serves on the Board of Trustees for California Indian Legal Services and was previously a member of the Native American Advisory Group to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Hillary is a member of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians and descendant of the Hopland Shanel, Noyo and Ft. McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone communities.
