Leadership

Unci Intertribal was founded more than 30 years ago as an inclusive and diverse Indigenous volunteer group by a knowledgeable and dedicated group of Native Tribal and Indigenous individuals committed to making a positive difference in Native and Indigenous communities in North America and in Mexico.

We are now an inclusive 501(c)3 non-profit Indigenous organization bringing together the most highly-skilled, diverse, and experienced Indigenous and passionate professionals in their respective areas of expertise, to share their Indigenous knowledge and wisdom to help people improve and enrich their spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental well-being.

Our focus is on the wellness and healing of all Peoples and Grandmother Earth to help bring about positive changes in the world today.

Sofia Han-Hernand

Executive Director

Learn more about Sofia Han-Hernand

Sofia Han-Hernand holds a bilingual and cross-cultural California teaching credential and comes from a vibrant heritage rooted in Taiwan and Indigenous Mexico. Inspired by her grandmother—a respected community leader in San Ysidro, California and who once worked alongside César Chávez—Sofia has dedicated herself to community service. For over eight years, she has worked with elders and cultural leaders to foster intertribal relationships across the U.S. and Mexico. She has a passion for immersing youth and families into culturally grounded programming guided by Indigenous values, voices, and histories. She enjoys co-creating opportunities for all to engage in educational enrichment, arts and culture, intertribal gatherings, and more.

Andres Hernand

Programs Officer

Learn more about Andres Hernand

Andres is a dedicated Programs Officer specializing in culturally grounded education initiatives. With a strong background in community engagement and intercultural programming, he coordinates educational projects that center Indigenous knowledge, traditions, and language. He works closely with local educators, elders, and cultural leaders to design and implement programs that empower youth, strengthen cultural identity, and build cross-border relationships rooted in respect, heritage, and land-based learning.

Chief Luis Anaya

Cultural Advisor

Learn more about Chief Luis Anaya

Luis Anaya, a Sicangu Lakota-ordained Chief, has dedicated his life to serving Indigenous communities across Mexico, Latin America, and the U.S. Fluent in five languages, Luis has coordinated traditional blessings, cultural gatherings, and community support efforts, including food drives and holiday programs for Native communities. He has been mentored by renowned spiritual leaders, including Chief Leonard Crow-Dog and Chief Luciano Perez. Together with his wife, Wendolyn Anaya, he plans and organizes traditional gatherings and various ceremonies ensuring the physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing of participants across the Americas.

First Lady – Wendolyn Anaya

Cultural Advisor

Learn more about Wendolyn Anaya

Wendolyn Anaya, one of Unci’s cultural advisors, supports and builds intertribal relationships across Mexico, Latin America, and North America.She began her service in the early 2000s through legal advocacy for the Wirrarica and Nahua peoples in Jalisco, Mexico, defending civil rights and ancestral lands.

In 2004, she organized a landmark intertribal cultural exchange between the Wirrarica and Lakota peoples, sparking the foundation of Unci’s ongoing intertribal cultural programs. Since then, she has focused on preserving and revitalizing Indigenous traditions through educational exchanges, ceremonial gatherings, and tribal partnerships. As the wife of Chief Luis Anaya and an honored Lakota First Lady, Wendolyn brings deep cultural insight to the educational work being done in Unci Intertribal. Her work in Mexico is grounded in fostering intertribal healing, wellness, and community, especially for women.

Rudy Rojas

Director of Cultural Communications

Learn more about Rudy Rojas

Rudy Rojas is a proud Tigua Tribal Member from the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, husband, father, founder of Smoke Signals Marketing & Design, cultural advocate and surfer.

Rudy is blessed to see his life’s-path with the added perspective of looking through the eyes of his ancestors. He see’s the challenges we all face in life as obstacles to overcome, and lessons to learn from – in order to be prepared for the next steps in our life’s journey.

Drawing upon his life’s experiences and artistic gift, Rudy has dedicated his life to sharing the Native-Story by working with Tribes and Tribal Programs throughout the United States to create communications, artwork and messages designed to empower Native People to feel proud of who they are, and where they come from.

Like his ancestors before him, Rudy envisions a better tomorrow for our future generations. He sees his life’s work and experiences bringing him to this point in his life where he can help bridge the cultural divide which exists between the Native and non-Native worlds.

Rudy’s vision for creating art and visual communications to support cultural, educational, environmental, political, and economic issues is a gift which comes with responsibility. But, it is a gift that he loves and honors.

Dr. Pierce Flynn, PHD

Executive Operations Officer

Learn more about Dr. Pierce Flynn

Dr. Pierce Flynn, UNCI Executive Operations Officer, is a cultural ethnomethodologist, researcher, educator and PhD from UC San Diego, with 25+ years experience in directing nonprofit, university and corporate organizations. As an UNCI Executive Operations Officer, Pierce has many roles including primary administrative, operations and fundraising support for Sofia Han-Hernand, our Chief Executive Officer, and as the Chairman/President of the UNCI Board of Directors. He is deeply committed to Native Peoples and cultures.

Pierce’s roles have included being the national CEO of the Surfrider Foundation, Senior VP of Business Development at DUB Publishing & Media, VP of Business Development at SD Entertainment, a founding Board of Director of the Tony Hawk Foundation, a Board of Director for the University of California San Diego Africa and African American Research Center, and an Adjunct Professor and Professional Mentor at California State University San Marcos.

Pierce is now CEO of his company, Blue Sky Consulting, and has worked for twenty-five+ years in university, nonprofit and corporate sectors working with many nonprofit organizations, multicultural marketing, companies including Patagonia, Dr. Bronner’s, Amazon, Microsoft, MTV, Xbox, Pepsi, GM, Walmart and Target, entertainment and music media, and international government agencies.

His UC San Diego dissertation, entitled The Ethnomethodological Movement: Sociosemiotic Interpretations, was published as a book in the Approaches to Semiotics series by Mouton de Gruyter.

Pierce lives in San Diego, California, with his artist wife Lindsey and their two dogs, and surfs, free dives and fly fishes regularly.

Robert Ornstein

Legal Advisor

Learn more about Robert Ornstein

Bob is an attorney with 40+ years of involvement and experience in leadership and consulting roles in the nonprofit communities of NYC, Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara. His primary areas of focus has been in environmental protection litigation and advocacy, and as the former Board Chair/President of a long established international nonprofit that supports and provides aid to indigenous peoples and their cultures. He is excited about the vision and energy that has played a major role in UNCI’s launch.