Meet the EARTH Team
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Executive Director, Founder & Board President
Noshene Ranjbar, MD
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Noshene Ranjbar, MD is originally from Iran and migrated to the US as an adolescent. Dr. Ranjbar now lives in Tucson, Arizona, the homelands of the Tohono O'odham Nation and of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. Informed by the intersection of her life experience, education, and personal healing journey, Dr. Ranjbar is motivated to support the health and wellbeing of traumatized, marginalized, and underserved persons and communities. Since 2010, she has been working to develop trauma-informed programs using a train-the-trainer model of mind-body medicine for Indigenous communities across the Americas, as well as in the Middle East. Dr. Ranjbar is devoted to teaching health care professionals how to deliver decolonized approaches to health care that closely consider the sociocultural determinants of health and wellbeing. Dr. Ranjbar completed undergraduate studies and medical school at University of Virginia, followed by Family Medicine Internship at Middlessex Hospital in Connecticut. She went on to complete psychiatry residency at the University of Arizona, child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, and Integrative Medicine Fellowship at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine. She currently serves as Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Integrative Psychiatry Program at the University of Arizona, Faculty and Initiative Advisor with The Center for Mind-Body Medicine, Faculty with Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine and Integrative Psychiatry Institute, and is a Robert Wood Johnson’s Culture of Health Leader. Dr. Ranjbar is Co-Founder and Executive Director of EARTH: Empowering All Relatives To Heal.
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Cultural Sovereignty Steward, Co-Founder & Board Secretary
Emily Shoteen Si'al
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Emily Shoteen Si’al (Tlingit & Haida) is the grandchild of the Eagle Frog Kuus Gaa Dii and a descendant of the ShangukeidÃ. A founding board member of Empowering All Relatives to Heal (EARTH), she is an advocate for traditional ways of life, which she sees as the bedrock for community well-being, encompassing communal, spiritual, ecological, and physical health. Emily currently serves as Research Program Coordinator for the University of Arizona’s Indigenous Nursing (INCATS) program, where she supports Native healthcare pathways, facilitates culturally grounded mind-body medicine groups, and collaborates with tribal partners to strengthen Tribal workforce capacity, resiliency, and economic sovereignty. She contributes to community-based research in Traditional Food Sovereignty with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and culturally-centered wellness research through the American Indian Youth Energy and Mental Health Balance project. As a Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Delegate and board member of the San Francisco Community Council, Emily advocates for self-determination through the restoration of traditional lifeways. She is committed to uplifting Indigenous youth to move forward on their paths with love and confidence, strongly grounded in their community and cultural values. Emily holds a B.S. in Neuroscience (Integrative Neuropsychiatry emphasis) and a double B.A. in Russian and Creative Writing from the University of Arizona.
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Founding Board Member
Kimber Olson, PhD, MSW
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Kimber Olson (Apache/Cayuga/Haudenosaunee/European), PhD, has over thirty years of experience working in, with, and for Tribal communities in the human and social services field, twenty of these within mental health. She has been a Head Start and Child Care programs director and a manager for Workforce Development and Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation programs. She has also worked in the substance abuse and child welfare fields and has been an adjunct instructor for Northwest Indian College and the Kachemak Bay Branch of the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Kimber is an author, an international trainer, and a meditation teacher. Her business, Juniper & Pine Consulting, works closely with Tribal, Alaska Native, and First Nation communities to contribute to capacity building through strategic planning, corporate retreats, and healing-centered work. She is a supervisor within the Indigenous Initiative at The Center for Mind-Body Medicine and a board member of Empowering All Relatives to Heal (E.A.R.T.H.). Her current position as a Tribal Early Childhood Program Specialist with the Tribal Early Childhood Division of the Administration of Children and Families focuses on early childhood systems building within Tribal communities. Kimber’s education includes bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work, and her PhD research focuses on Grief Psychology, emphasizing Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Healing. She is expected to graduate in mid-2025. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on Re-Storying Indigenous Mind-Body Medicine. Kimber holds certificates in Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation, Trauma-Informed Care and Counseling, Indigenous Cultural Competency and Trauma Informed Training, Change Management, and Ethical and Inclusive Leadership. She is expected to graduate with an Addictions Psychology certificate in May 2025 and a Wholistic Healing Practices and Decolonizing Trauma Certificate from Wilfred Laurier University in the fall of 2025. Kimber is of mixed descent with Cayuga (maternal), Chiricahua Apache (paternal), and European heritage and belongs to the adopted lineage of the tlish diyan and Grandfather Ten Bears. She has lived, worked, and studied with Indigenous communities for over 30 years.

Founding Board Member
Alta Piechowski-Begay, PhD
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With over 30 years of experience as a school psychologist, counselor, and special education administrator, primarily within Indigenous communities in Arizona and New Mexico, Alta is a leader in addressing historical traumas impacting the Navajo people. A retired school psychologist and counselor, today she is the Founder and Chairperson of the Hozho Voices of Healing Center, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to the education and healing of Dine’ communities. Under Alta’s guidance, the Hozho Voices of Healing Center was established to decolonize historical traumas and foster traditional Dine’ practices. This center creates a dedicated space for healing and cultural revitalization, aiming to restore balance and harmony within Dine’ communities for a healthier and more resilient future. She also serves as Faculty and Supervisor for the Indigenous Initiative at The Center for Mind-Body Medicine. Alta earned her Doctorate in Native American Supervision and Leadership from Arizona State University, in addition to degrees and certifications in counseling, psychology, and Indigenous studies. She is a Dine’ (Navajo) Zuni Edgewater clan member. Fluent in Dine’, Alta integrates traditional healing methods with modern therapies, including mind-body medicine, in her professional practice.

Consultant & Neurodivergence Specialist
Mathieu Erb, PT
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Matt is certified in Mind-Body Medicine, and is passionate about sharing the science of mind-body medicine, stress, trauma, and integrative wellness with others. Matt currently owns and operates a clinical practice, Embody Your Mind, where he works with persons experiencing acute and chronic health conditions and uses an integrative model of care. Matt is also a guest lecturer at the University of Arizona/Banner University physician residency programs, and an instructor at the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. He is also an Advisor with Sharing Culture, an organization devoted to increasing awareness around historical trauma in minoritized, aboriginal, and indigenous populations. He also runs a teaching and consulting business. Matt graduated from the University of Iowa with a BA in Biology and an MA in Physical Therapy. He currently lives in Tucson, AZ, where the Sonoran Desert serves as a mirror and teacher to his inner world.

Consultant, Senior Advisor
JoAnne Riegert, PhD, LPC
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Certified in Mind-Body Medicine, Dr. Riegert shares the wisdom of her Ojibwe ancestors and perspectives of Native American communities with CMBM. She is Ojibwe of the Crane Clan from the White Earth Indian Reservation, and her spirit name is Lead White Cloud Woman. She facilitates Mind-Body Skills Groups both online and in-person on several first nations reservations in Northwest Minnesota. Dr. Riegert is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. She educates and trains new clinicians, following the principles of the Seven Grandfather Teachings of the Anishinaabe. She is professionally trained in indigenous trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, indigenous restorative justice circle processes, suicide prevention and intervention, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, grief and loss, and men’s domestic violence re-education. Dr. Riegert is also adjunct faculty at North Dakota State University. Dr. Riegert received her PhD from North Dakota State University, where she wrote her dissertation on the impact of a Mind-Body Skills Group in a rural community. In her leisure time, she enjoys spending time with her family, especially her grandson. She enjoys participating in cultural activities, gardening, canning, and home improvement projects.
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