Madonna Thunder Hawk, Tribal Liaison
Madonna Thunder Hawk is a member of the Oohenumpa band of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. The goal of renewing and attaining justice for Native Americans has guided her life’s work, as an original member and spokesperson of the American Indian Movement, as co-founder of Women of All Red Nations (WARN), and—since 2006—as Tribal Liaison for the Lakota People’s Law Project. Madonna has also been featured in several documentary films including the recent PBS series We Shall Remain. A grandmother, both literally and figuratively, to a generation of Lakota activists, Madonna builds alliances and support for Child Welfare among South Dakota’s American Indian tribal leaders and communities.
Daniel Sheehan, President and General Counsel of the Romero Institute
A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Daniel Sheehan has participated in some of the most important public interest cases of the last forty years. He represented The New York Times in the Pentagon Papers Case; and the family of Karen Silkwood against the Kerr-McGee Corporation. In 1980 co-founded the Christic Institute, a nonprofit public interest law center that, among many others cases, prosecuted members of the Ku Klux Klan in Greensboro, South Carolina; represented victims of the Three Mile Island disaster in Pennsylvania; and in 1986 filed federal racketeering charges against 28 individuals involved in the Iran/Contra affair. Sheehan has developed the legal strategy for and is leading the Lakota People’s Law Project civil suit against the State of South Dakota for its violations of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).
Sara Nelson, Vice President and Executive Director of the Romero Institute
After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, Sara Nelson served as the Chair of the Labor Committee of the National Organization for Women. There she spearheaded a national coalition demanding an investigation into the death of union activist and nuclear power plant worker Karen Silkwood. The effort led to a landmark lawsuit and judgement on behalf of Silkwood’s family. She was a co-founder and the Executive Director of the Christic Institute and in 1999 served as Executive Director of former-Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev’s State of the World Forum. Through the Romero Institute, she has helped weave together varied projects that fulfill the organization’s dual missions of opposing structural injustice and supporting positive, alternative ways of addressing our world’s challenges.
Our Team
Madonna Thunder Hawk, Tribal Liaison
Madonna Thunder Hawk is a member of the Oohenumpa band of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. The goal of renewing and attaining justice for Native Americans has guided her life’s work, as an original member and spokesperson of the American Indian Movement, as co-founder of Women of All Red Nations (WARN), and—since 2006—as Tribal Liaison for the Lakota People’s Law Project. Madonna has also been featured in several documentary films including the recent PBS series We Shall Remain. A grandmother, both literally and figuratively, to a generation of Lakota activists, Madonna builds alliances and support for Child Welfare among South Dakota’s American Indian tribal leaders and communities.
Daniel Sheehan, President and General Counsel of the Romero Institute
A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Daniel Sheehan has participated in some of the most important public interest cases of the last forty years. He represented The New York Times in the Pentagon Papers Case; and the family of Karen Silkwood against the Kerr-McGee Corporation. In 1980 co-founded the Christic Institute, a nonprofit public interest law center that, among many others cases, prosecuted members of the Ku Klux Klan in Greensboro, South Carolina; represented victims of the Three Mile Island disaster in Pennsylvania; and in 1986 filed federal racketeering charges against 28 individuals involved in the Iran/Contra affair. Sheehan has developed the legal strategy for and is leading the Lakota People’s Law Project civil suit against the State of South Dakota for its violations of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).
Sara Nelson, Vice President and Executive Director of the Romero Institute
After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, Sara Nelson served as the Chair of the Labor Committee of the National Organization for Women. There she spearheaded a national coalition demanding an investigation into the death of union activist and nuclear power plant worker Karen Silkwood. The effort led to a landmark lawsuit and judgement on behalf of Silkwood’s family. She was a co-founder and the Executive Director of the Christic Institute and in 1999 served as Executive Director of former-Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev’s State of the World Forum. Through the Romero Institute, she has helped weave together varied projects that fulfill the organization’s dual missions of opposing structural injustice and supporting positive, alternative ways of addressing our world’s challenges.