She/her/hers
Diné – She is from Naatʼáanii Nééz (Shiprock), New Mexico. Her clans are Tódích’íí’nii (Bitter Water), Tsin Sikaadnii (Clamp Tree), Kin Łichíí’nii (Red House), and Tł’ááshchí’í (The Red Bottom People).
Joy graduated from Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 2023 with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and a minor in Native American Studies. From 2020 to 2022, she served as a Peer Instructor, guiding incoming NAU freshmen in their transition to college life. Her dedication to education extended to her role as a teaching assistant in the History department at NAU in 2023 and previously as a teaching assistant for the Diné Language and Culture Revitalization Program at Apache Elementary School in 2019. In 2023, she embarked on a new chapter by joining the Native American Disability Law Center as the Inter-Tribal Disability Advocacy Council's Project Coordinator and Intake Specialist.