Staff Directory
The National Native American AIDS Prevention Center (NNAAPC) is proud to have a staff of highly qualified professionals who are committed to helping fulfill our mission of addressing the impact of HIV/AIDS in the Native community.
To learn more about a staff member, click on his or her name in the list below:
Robert Foley
President/CEO
720.382.2244 x 303
rfoley@nnaapc.org
Hannabah Blue (Navajo)
Capacity Building Assistance Specialist
720.382.2244 x 301
hblue@nnaapc.org
Sandra Janis (Oglala Lakota)
Director of Finance and Operations
720.382.2244 x 307
sjanis@nnaapc.org
Vicki Peterson
Regional Training Coordinator
720.382.2244 x 308
vpeterson@nnaapc.org
Mat Barkhausen (Tuscarora)
Media Specialist
720.382.2244 x 316
mbarkhausen@nnaapc.org
Tony Aaron Fuller (Colville)
Capacity Building Assistance Specialist
720.382.2244 x 309
tfuller@nnaapc.org
Jamie Folsom (Oklahoma Choctaw)
Capacity Building Assistance Specialist
720.382.2244 x 302
jfolsom@nnaapc.org
Shannon Francis (Hopi/Dine')
Accounting Assistant
720.382.2244 x 311
sfrancis@nnaapc.org
Matt Ignacio (Tohono O'odham)
Capacity Building Assistance Liaison
720.382.2244 x 313
mignacio@nnaapc.org
Staff Bios
Hannabah Blue (Navajo)
Capacity Building Assistance Specialist
720.382.2244 x 301
hblue@nnaapc.org
Hannabah Blue came from NY1 News, a 24 hour news station in New York City, where she worked as an Assignment Editor, Researcher, Photojournalist and Field Producer for over a year. She graduated with a double major in Broadcast Journalism and Gender and Sexuality Studies from New York University.
Hannabah has held many positions where she has drawn attention to cultural diversity and the different issues affecting races. She was an Office Assistant for the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs, where she assisted in promoting diversity on campus. She served as the Founder and President of the Native American Club at NYU. She was also a Research Assistant for a Professor at the School of Social Work, where she compiled data on such topics as poverty, homelessness and HIV/AIDS.
Hannabah also interned in the Communications Department of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and at CBS News, where she worked on news inserts for the Logo channel.
Robert Foley
President/CEO
720.382.2244 x 303
rfoley@nnaapc.org
Robert Foley has worked in varying aspects of the prevention field for the past 8 years, including community-based research and assessment, public information campaigns, coalition-building, and intervention planning for efforts around intimate partner violence, methamphetamine abuse, alcohol and other drug abuse issues, and most recently STD/HIV.
Before coming to NNAAPC, Robert was a training specialist for the Denver STD/HIV Prevention Training Center, training on evidence-based interventions, behavioral theory and requisite intervention skills. He also served as a part-time clinician in the local STD clinic and volunteered with local prevention and outreach efforts.
Robert also worked as a research assistant with the Tri-Ethnic Center for Prevention Research at Colorado State University where he examined substance use and domestic violence prevention issues in rural, ethnic communities.
Robert serves on the boards of several local non-profit and advocacy organizations and his areas of interest include gay male culture and identity, Native American prevention efforts, and intervention research, planning and evaluation.
Sandra Janis (Oglala Lakota)
Director of Finance and Operations
720.382.2244 x 307
sjanis@nnaapc.org
Sandra Janis served as the Grants Specialist, Accountant and Program Specialist for the Diabetes Prevention Program for the American Indian and Alaska Native Programs at the University Of Colorado at Denver (UCD). She provided guidance to 65 American Indian Tribes in coordination with the National Indian Health, Indian Health Services (NIH/HIS) contracts for prevention of Diabetes.
Sandra was the Business Manager/Accountant for Lakota Express, an American-Indian, woman-owned business on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. During this time she also served as the Financial Advisor and IRS Liaison on a crisis Management Team for Lakota Fund, a non-profit lending organization that provided loans to on-reservation Indian-run businesses.
For ten years, she was the Accountant at the Native American Rights Fund, an American Indian non-profit law firm that represents Tribes nationally for Human, Civil, Land and Water rights.
Vicki Peterson
Regional Training Coordinator
720.382.2244 x 308
vpeterson@nnaapc.org
Vicki Peterson came to NNAAPC from Salish Kootenai College, in Pablo, Montana, where she assisted the Training Coordinator for the Tribal BEAR Project, a project subcontracted with Northwest AIDS Education and Training Center in Seattle.
In 2006, she took over as the primary program director for the CSAT funded HIV/HCV and Substance Abuse Prevention program, working with student peer educators. In 2007, Vicki designed and implemented the Native Women’s Empowerment program, funded by the Office of Women’s Health.
She has been a CDC certified HIV Counseling, Testing, Referral Services trainer since 2002.
Mat Barkhausen (Tuscarora)
Media Specialist
720.382.2244 x 316
mbarkhausen@nnaapc.org
Mat Barkhausen graduated with a degree in Interactive Media Design from the Art Institute of Colorado in 2005. He has done freelance design work for several Native American organizations. Mat has worked as the Media Specialist for NNAAPC off and on since November of 2006. Mat has designed several projects for NNAAPC over the years. In addition to his digital media training, Mat also enjoys writing. While an undergraduate he was a staff writer for Seventh Native American Generation Magazine.
In addition to digital media projects, Mat is also a fine artist. His father trained him to draw and paint at an early age. Prior to coming to NNAAPC Mat worked for the Colorado Indigenous Games Society, the host society for the North American Indigenous Games held in Denver in July 2006. Mat has also worked as the Youth Coordinator for the Denver Indian Center.
Since November 2009 he has served as a commissioner on the Denver American Indian Commission, an advisory commission to the Mayor’s Office of Human Rights and Community Relations. Mat has completed a year of law school and plans to return to graduate school to continue the fight for federal recognition for his tribal nation.
Jamie Folsom (Oklahoma Choctaw)
Capacity Building Assistance Specialist
720.382.2244 x 302
jfolsom@nnaapc.org
Jamie Folsom has a diverse background addressing issues affecting Native American communities and cultures. Most recently, she has been an award-winning multimedia journalist with experience in radio, print, online and photography. She is the creator and former host of First Nations Radio News, a weekly audio magazine that featured interviews, entertainment and legislative news. For the past six years she has covered women’s health, live music events, science/technology, land justice and environmental issues.
As a science teacher and counselor in Denver, she worked with Native youth and other students who sought to attain their high school diplomas and find success living sober lives through Native traditions. She taught with Colorado High Charter School and worked as a youth prevention counselor with Eagle Lodge, Inc.
Through her family and personal life, she has been a staunch advocate for abused and neglected children, education reform, women’s health rights, Native cultural ways and civil rights. Folsom holds a M.S. in Public Communication and Technology from Colorado State, a teaching degree from Fairfield University and a B.S. in Psychology/Biology from Roosevelt University in Chicago.
Back to top
Tony Aaron Fuller (Colville)
Capacity Building Assistance Specialist
720.382.2244 x 309
tfuller@nnaapc.org
Tony Aaron Fuller came to NNAAPC from the HIV Alliance in Eugene, Oregon where he was the Prevention Coordinator. Tony managed the Counseling, Testing and Referral Services program which offered free HIV testing to high risk populations. He also oversaw the county wide Needle Exchange Program which collected and disposed of over 420,000 used syringes a year. He also managed a community outreach program that included the CDC Intervention “Community Promise”, a peer based HIV education and prevention strategy.
Before Eugene, Tony Aaron worked as an anchor/reporter for KTVZ-NewsChannel 21, an NBC Affiliate in Bend, Oregon. In Bend, Tony Aaron was a two time Oregon Association of Broadcasters Award Recipient for a piece investigating stigma around people living with HIV in rural Central Oregon.Tony Aaron graduated from the University of Oregon with a double major in Broadcast Journalism and Ethnic Studies focusing on Native American Urbanization. He was also a member of the University of Oregon’s Men’s Volleyball team and co-chair of the Native American Student Union.
Back to top
Shannon Francis (Hopi/Dine')
Accounting Assistant
720.382.2244 x 311
sfrancis@nnaapc.org
Shannon’s deep passion and love for the native community began working for native organizations at the age of eighteen working for Ackco, Inc as an office helper. She learned a lot about the Administrative on Aging programs and the services this could provide to the tribes. A few years later, she worked at the Native American Rights Fund in the fundraising department maintaining the Tsan’ahwit donor program. She has been working in the health care industry over ten years. She worked as an Accounting consultant at Denver Indian Health & Family Services, a nonprofit health clinic located in downtown Denver. She was also involved with the formation of the Indigenous Programming module and Agricultural Garden Project at Woodbine Ecology Center in Sedalia, Colorado. She worked as the Business Office Coordinator and ultimately acquired her certification in Permaculture Design at the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute and evolved as the Indigenous Agricultural Coordinator for Woodbine. Her continued passion remains focused on Indigenous Health issues, Human Rights, Environmental Justice, and food sovereignty.
She is currently a volunteer at the Denver Indian Center teaching families and youth how to grow food through traditional ecological knowledge and modern day zero waste concepts. She also has initiated a caravan of support for folks living on the Black Mesa/Big Mountain lands in Northeastern Arizona. The caravan brings food, supplies and volunteers that bring their diverse skills to the land to assist the elders with everyday living, such as herding sheep, carpentry, gardening, hauling water and initiating direct relationship building with the elders resisting coal mining.
She is bringing new ideas about Indigenous permaculture principles, and perspectives through education with diverse models of outreach. Shannon focuses mainly on youth of all ages and encourages the responsibility of reciprocal relationship building with our natural world through Indigenous Permaculture, zero waste and soil building on hands workshops she teaches. She hopes to become involved on a larger scale to teach a healthier way of living for our children and future generations.
Matt Ignacio (Tohono O'odham)
Capacity Building Assistance Liaison
720.382.2244 x 313
mignacio@nnaapc.org
Matt previously worked at NNAAPC in 2009 as the Director of Training and
Development, managing a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA) - Minority AIDS Initiative, HIV/AIDS training
program. Prior to NNAAPC, Matt worked in the Michael Palm Center for
AIDS Care and Support at Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC). GMHC is the
world's first and largest AIDS service organization located in New York
City. Matt developed, implemented and evaluated GMHC’s first sterile
syringe access program under New York State’s Expanded Syringe Access
Program (ESAP). His responsibilities also included: providing harm
reduction-based alcohol and drug counseling, providing individual-level
psychotherapy for HIV-positive clients and facilitating
psycho-educational and supportive group counseling. Prior to GMHC, Matt
worked at the Harm Reduction Coalition’s (HRC) New York City office as
the Harm Reduction Training Institute’s National Training Coordinator.
Matt received his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of
California, Santa Barbara in 2000, and in 2008, received his Masters of
Science in Social Work from Columbia University. He is also a 2010
graduate of the Center for Progressive Leadership Fellowship Program -
Colorado State office. Lastly, Matt is a current member of the Harm
Reduction Action Center’s Syringe Exchange Advisory Board, as well as
the Chinook Fund’s Grantmaking Committee.
Back to top
