Instructor of Composition and Cultural Studies. Yavanna Brownlee has a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition with a focus in Indigenous Rhetorics from Ohio University, with a certificate in Woman's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and an MFA in Creative Writing, Poetry from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In working at the University of Northern Colorado she returned to the state she grew up in and is happy to be by the mountains again. She works (researches and teaches) at the intersection of identity, culture, language, environmental sustainability, and Feminist and Queer theories. She endeavors to support her students, not just educate them, and to build sustainable relationships with the world and peoples around her.