Renée Gokey is the Teacher Services coordinator at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. She is an enrolled member of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma and is also Shawnee, Sac-n-Fox and Myaamia from her paternal Grandparents. In 2000, she graduated magna cum laude from the University of New Mexico in Anthropology and Native American Studies, where she also began studying and performing flamenco dancing. She received a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction (Transformative Teaching) from George Mason University in 2018. She has been working with cultural museums for 17 years, beginning at the National Museum of the American Indian in 2000 as a fall intern. Currently, she works on NMAI's Native Knowledge 360° National Education Initiative, designing and facilitating teacher workshops to transform learning and teaching experiences, building partnerships, and creating or advising on classroom resources and pedagogy. She is keenly interested in advocating for tribal knowledge systems, language, and cultural practices from her position at NMAI and in her work with her own tribal nation. She also has an interest in Native plants, food traditions, and children’s books.
