Saundra Mitrovich, she/her, Tyme and Yahomee Maidu, is serving as the National Congress of American Indians External Engagement/Civic Engagement Lead. In her current role, she works in coalition with National Native serving organizations, Tribal Nations, American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) citizens to strengthen voter access, education, and engagement across Indian Country and advancing AIAN data equity. In this role, she also leads the collective work for the NCAI Census Information Center and researches and compiles data to furnish regional reports for NCAI’s 12 regions. Saundra serves in various task force groups to enhance and promote civic education, data collection, and election protection as part of NCAI’s mission to enhance, promote, and protect tribal sovereignty.

Prior to her work at NCAI, Saundra worked for decades in higher education to develop and expand college and career pathway programs for American Indian and Alaska Native youth. Her research interests include, creation and promotion of education and access to voting in AIAN communities, best pathways to strengthening civic participation, and advancing policy related to voting rights and equal representation of AIAN data across all federal data collection. Additionally, Saundra works with the NCAI youth Commission in support of youth leadership development. Finally, she has helped manage and lead several grant funded programs in supporting civic engagement initiatives, youth development programs, and overall community development.

Saundra is an alumni of several organizations including McNair scholars program, AmeriCorps VISTA, United National Indian Tribal Youth, and founded the Indigenous Research Institute for Student Empowerment (IRISE) at the University of Nevada, Reno. Saundra resides in Numu (Northern Paiute) and Wasiw (Washoe) lands in northern Nevada with her partner Sam and their daughter Sasha.