Chrissie Castro (Navajo and Chicana) is a citizen of the Navajo Nation, and a social justice consultant working on equity for all peoples, including supporting the leadership, self-determination and political power of American Indian/Alaska Native communities.
She is the Chairperson of the Los Angeles City-County Native American Indian Commission, which promotes the development of programs and funding resources to serve urban American Indians and American Indian organizations. In that role, she co-led the change to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day in the city and county of Los Angeles, co-led the removal of the Columbus Statue in Grand Park, and is co-leading efforts to Indigenize public spaces in Los Angeles.
She is the Network Weaver of the Native Voice Network, a national network of more than 40 Native-led organizations that mobilize through Indigenous cultural values. She has co-launched two organizations to address the underlying roots of underrepresentation of Native Americans in the political landscape and build Native community and political power – in her home state, the California Native Vote Project and nationally, Advance Native Political Leadership. She also co-founded Indigenous Women Rise, which organized the Indigenous women’s contingent of 1,000 Indigenous Women at the Women’s March in DC in January 2017.
Chrissie has more than 15 years of senior management experience in the nonprofit sector, and has been consulting for the past 13 years. She has substantive expertise in community organizing, community building, and strategic planning in the fields of violence prevention, economic development, child welfare, mental health, youth development, and with Native American/Alaskan Native populations. Throughout her career, Chrissie has been a strong advocate in promoting justice and equity both within and outside of the nonprofit sector.
She was born and raised in traditional unceded territory of the Tongva people, is a lifelong resident of Northeast Los Angeles, and is the oldest of eight siblings.