Tonya Kjerland (Connor), MS, is Founder and CEO of Integral Health & Environment Associates (IHEA). Ms. Kjerland has held key leadership and resource distribution roles in health and human services with two Tribes in northern Minnesota. She developed and led the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Institutional Review Board, while also developing a national Tribal IRB discussion group. A certified Trainer in Research Training for Health in Indigenous Communities (rETHICS), Ms. Kjerland has taught rETHICS since 2019 to academic groups and Tribal communities. She has led and served on teams of evaluators in the fields of public health and education for a wide range of organizations serving diverse populations from the local to state level. She is the author of the Wild Rice Monitoring Handbook and Wild Rice Monitoring Field Guide, widely recognized ground-breaking guides for protecting and restoring manoomin (wild rice). She is currently studying Indigenous evaluation and research methods while pursuing a PhD in Indigenous Health at the University of North Dakota.

Selected Publications

“Increased community engagement of Indigenous Peoples in dementia research leads to higher context relevance of results.” Available here.