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Featured Speaker/Facilitator Profiles

ISEEN is honored to welcome, along with the Verde Valley School, a special slate of speakers and guest facilitators who will contribute to making the 17th Annual Winter Institute memorable and transformational.

Ophelia Watahomigie-Corliss (Opening Speaker)

Ophelia Watahomigie-Corliss has been an elected tribal councilwoman for the Havasupai Tribe and just completed serving her second term. She received her two bachelor degrees in communications at Northern Arizona University. She has held her current state and National pharmacy technicians license since 2008. During her time on Council, these skills designated her as the lead on Indian Health Service projects and issues paving her way as the community’s public health advocate. The Phoenix area Indian Health Service (IHS) appointed her as their primary representative on the National Tribal Advisory Committee in Behavioral Health to the current IHS Director. Ms. Watahomigie-Corliss has also been the tribal council lead on telecommunication issues and projects and has been working in collaboration with MuralNet to build the tribe’s first high-speed internet network. These projects have prompted Ms. Watahomigie-Corliss to look for public health solutions for her community through broadband expansion opportunities to raise the spiritual wellness, health, and education of the Havasupai Community.

Jason Nez (Experiential Education in Action Facilitator)

Diné archaeologist Jason Nez has spent much of his career working at the Grand Canyon.

Simon Bosman (Experiential Education in Action Facilitator)

Simon has spent decades mountain bike racing and coaching. After moving to Sedona, he helped pioneer Sedona red rock riding and became one of the first instructors in the nation to be certified by the International Mountain Bike Association. Simon trains advanced beginner to pro level riders, and applies his unique combination of theory and technique to help riders ride with more control over the trail.  He promises you’ll have fun safely honing the skills you need to ride smoother, faster and more confidently.

Natalie Rockwell  (Experiential Education in Action Facilitator)

Natalie Rockwell, MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, is a licensed advanced practice nurse, who holds a Master’s degree from Case Western Reserve University, and who currently practices as a psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner.  Her clinical experience includes working with individuals with serious mental illness and substance abuse disorders, as well as high-risk adolescents.  Natalie also has twenty years of experience in caring for women and families in the capacity of a certified nurse-midwife.  In this role, she identified and treated a broad range of behavioral health issues, including anxiety and depression, suicidality, addiction, and domestic violence. 

Logan Phillips (Experiential Education in Action Facilitator and Closing Speaker)

Logan Phillips is author of Sonoran Strange (West End Press / University of New Mexico Press, 2015). He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona where his recent work won a 2021 Academy of American Poets Prize. Born and raised in Cochise County, Arizona to a family of Irish-Slavic ancestry, Phillips lived in and around Mexico City 2006-2011, where he contributed to organizing and hosting the country's first regular poetry slam series. A serial collaborator, Phillips has worked on a wide range of performance, music and community-centered projects in the US, Mexico, Colombia and beyond. He also co-directed the youth-centered arts and social justice organization Spoken Futures, Inc., 2013-2018 whose programs included the Tucson Youth Poetry Slam. He lives in Tucson with his family and teaches in the Department of English at the University of Arizona. 

Lor Sabourin  (Experiential Education in Action Facilitator)

Lor is a professional rock climber and mental training coach based out of the Southwest US. Their work uses climbing and experiential education to explore the ways that risk and adventure overlap with mental health and social justice.  

Outside of climbing, Lor works with LGBTQIA2S+ youth in crisis and is pursuing a Masters degree in Adventure-based Counseling. They were recently featured in the film “They/Them,” a Patagonia Films production that humanized the story of a transgender athlete participating in sports. 

Azlan Smith (Experiential Education in Action Facilitator and Closing Speaker)

Azlan Smith is an MFA candidate in Creative Writing: Fiction at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Before that they taught High School for nine years. Their research interests center on storytelling's participation in culture, genre fiction as modern mythology, and Public Humanities projects which use narrative for community building and activism. Over the last eight years they've developed Voices, a collaborative project that builds a stage for participants' stories, offering communities another way to see, share, and support themselves. They enjoy listening to poetry read aloud, rock climbing, cooking, and looking for a long time at trees.