Ali Meders-Knight, a Mechoopda tribal member, is the Executive Director of California Open Lands, where she works to form partnerships for federal forest stewardship contracting and tribal restoration programs on public lands. A Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) practitioner for 20+ years, she has collaborated on environmental education and land restoration projects with, among others, Chico State, the City of Chico, and Tehama County. She serves on the Tribal Relations Strategic Planning and Implementation committee for the U.S. Forest Service in Region 5 and has testified in Congress on the merits of TEK in wildfire management and forest regeneration. Ali was recently conferred an honorary doctorate by Syracuse University.