About
I've done many different things in my career in the non-profit world.
I've reviewed organizational assessments for non-profits, including homebuyer education programs, financial education programs, community building and engagement programs, technical compliance, and oversight and management. I'm also a certified instructor of Building Native Communities: Financial Education for Families through Oweesta.I built and maintained the Green Initiative in the Boston office at NeighborWorks, which included educational programs, and we even got a Platinum rating from the Green Business Bureau. I've been the editor and scheduling coordinator for organizational assessments on the east coast for NeighborWorks, which covers 130 network organizations from Maine to Florida and as far west as Arkansas. I also became a Tableau lead in both Organizational Assessments and Native Partnerships Initiative, creating visual information for leadership to make decisions. I've been a leader in REDI spaces at NeighborWorks since 2016, most notably as a REDI facilitator and team lead on employee-lead recommendations to improve NeighborWorks. I've sharpened my skills in grant review, budget management, budget forecasting, strategic planning, and event planning since I started at NeighborWorks. My proudest accomplishment was co-founding Akwe:kon at NeighborWorks America. Akwe:kon is a cross-divisional effort to formalize NeighborWorks' reach into Indian Country. Through this project, I led the team to establish a full-time position, Director of Native Partnerships, make work in Indian Country a priority in the strategic plan, and create a recurring Listening Session where intermediaries, banks, CDCs, and tribal housing authorities can come together to strategize how NeighborWorks can best serve Indian Country. While there, I provided cultural competency training for the Organizational Assessments Division, as they were about to affiliate with two new Native-run organizations. I also led discussions on considerations that needed to be made during the affiliation process to reflect the challenges of working in Indian Country.Outside of work, I've served on the board of the North American Indian Center of Boston and Allston Brighton CDC. I was Chief Organizer for Boston's Indigenous Women's March and Indigenous March for Science. I'm also a lead organizer with Medicine Wheel Solidarity Network, a community group made up of the Boston Native American community and Settler Allies, formed in response to calls for solidarity organizing. We've done some notable work, like providing mutual aid, fundraising, and political support for Red Warrior Camp and Camp of the Sacred Stones at Standing Rock, Mauna Kea ʻOhana, Wet’suwet’en Solidarity, and the Tyendinaga Mohawk.I'm still going strong in the non-profit world, working with under-resourced and underrepresented communities on community development projects, land use, and housing.
Work experience
Medicine Wheel Solidarity Network
2015- Present Lead Organizer
NeighborWorks America
2008-2023 Organizational Assessments, Sr. Specialist
Allston Brighton CDC
2018-2019 Board MemberNorth American Indian Center
2015-2016 Board MemberEducation
University of Massachusetts Boston, Master of Public Affairs
University of Massachusetts Boston, Bachelor of Science, American Studies
University of New Hampshire’s Carlisle School of Public Policy, Graduate Certificate, Community Development Finance
Harvard Business School, Graduate Certificate, Leading People and Investing to Build Sustainable Indigenous Communities
Bree did her undergraduate work at the University of Massachusetts and Cornell University. Bree’s Bachelor of Science is in American Studies. While working at NeighborWorks America, Bree earned her master’s in Public Administration at the University of Massachusetts Boston (2010). Her Capstone Project was on Urban Native American Housing. She has a graduate certificate from the University of New Hampshire’s Carlisle School of Public Policy in Community Development Finance and a graduate certificate from Harvard Business School in Leading People and Investing to Build Sustainable Indigenous Communities.
