rosebudshirley

Shirley K. Sneve is the Executive Director of Native American Public Telecommunications, whose mission is to share Native stories with the world by supporting the creation, promotion, and distribution of Native media. She moved to Nebraska from Amherst, MA, where she was director of Arts Extension Service, a national service organization, based at the University of Massachusetts, from 2001-2004. A member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota) in South Dakota, Shirley was a founder of Northern Plains Tribal Arts Juried Show and Market, the Oyate Trail cultural tourism byway, and the Alliance of Tribal Tourism Advocates. She has been the director of the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science Visual Arts Center in Sioux Falls, assistant director of the South Dakota Arts Council and minority affairs producer for South Dakota Public Broadcasting. Shirley has been adjunct professor in Native American Studies at Augustana College and the University of Sioux Falls. She is a graduate of South Dakota State University in journalism, with minors in music, Native American Studies and German. Shirley chairs the board of The Association of American Cultures (TAAC) and is secretary of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) She also serves on the Working Films and Arts Extension Institute boards of directors, Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center liaison, and is a member of Lincoln Rotary Club #14. She is married to visual artist Thomas Rickers, and has two daughters: Bonita, a freshman at the University of Nebraska Lincoln and Joan Gunderson Palmer, who works at St. Paul’s Minnesota Children’s Museum.