CEO/OWNER/PRINCIPAL TRIBAL CONSULTANT
BRANDI LIBERTY
Brandi Liberty is the owner and CEO of The Luak Group and provides tribal consulting services for Tribes and Tribal entities. With over 14 years of experience and over $50.1 million in federal and state level grant awards working in Indian Country her specialties include: Business Development, Indian Housing and NAHASDA, Grant Writing, Grants Management, Tribal Housing Human Resources, Technical Assistance and Training, Economic Development, Policy Development, Compliance, and Strategic Planning.
She has served as a training and technical assistance provider for over eight years, providing subject matter expertise to multiple organizations that are funded by federal agencies and programs such as Housing and Urban Development, Department of Interior, Department of Justice, Department of Energy, Department of Commerce, Department of Treasury, and others. Ms. Liberty was the keynote speaker for the Healing the Circle in Our Tribal Communities Symposium hosted by the Seminole Tribe of Florida in 2019 and a speaker for the Families Are Sacred Summit hosted by the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma in 2023. She has been interviewed by High Country News about harassment in the BIA and by the Associated Press on the confirmation of Deb Haaland to the Department of Interior. Currently, Ms. Liberty is a monthly columnist for Verite News in New Orleans, LA, addressing indigenous culture, issues, and events for the Tribes located in the state.
Ms. Liberty graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a BA in History. She holds a master’s degree from the Center of Indigenous Nations Studies at the University of Kansas, where her focus was Tribal Human Resources. Ms. Liberty also holds an Executive Leadership Certificate from Harvard Business School’s Leading People and Investing to Build Sustainable Communities Program through Native American Finance Officers Association (NAFOA). She resides in New Orleans with her two children.
LUAK GROUP STAFF
KRYSTAL CEDENO - DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
Krystal Cedeno has over five years of experience in Training and Development, where she successfully oversaw, moderated, and facilitated 425 onsite trainings, virtual trainings, webinars, technical assistance requests, podcasts, and online professional development courses for Tribes and Tribally Designated Housing Entities from all Housing and Urban Development – Office of Indian Programs regions. She was instrumental in ensuring the knowledge and skills she, her staff, and team of subject-matter experts provided to Indian Country would improve the quality of life for Native Americans, Tribes, Tribal communities, and those working with Tribal communities. Miss Cedeno is a certified Building Native Communities: Financial Skills for Families Trainer through Oweesta Corporation. Krystal was born and raised in sunny South Florida and currently lives in New Orleans LA.
LISA SCHOTT- EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
Lisa offers over 20 years of operations leadership in charter school education, healthcare, and non-profits. Her work includes successfully partnering with boards to recruit for CEO, CFO, School Superintendent, and other positions. Additionally, she has partnered with healthcare and education organizations to successfully write over $1 million in grants and advising the University of Texas School of Nursing on integrating disability content into nursing education and presiding over a $16-million capital campaign and $40-million new campus construction project.
In Memorial to my Ancestors
Josephine Ethel “Josie” Campbell Simmonds, January 1898 -January 1977
(Great-Grandmother)
Born on the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska reservation in 1898. On her honeymoon in 1914 she was denied a room at the local hotel in White Cloud KS for being Indian.
Ethil Simmonds Liberty
June 1915 – April 1991
(Grandmother)
The eldest of 21 siblings, my grandmother was born in White Cloud, KS on the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska reservation in 1915 to a Ioway mother and French father. This photo was taken of my grandmother on the day she became a US citizen, following the Indian Citizen Act of 1924, when she was about 9-10 years old. The oldest of 17 siblings, she was born on the lands of the Ioway but was not afforded the right to be a citizen of the United States until this day in 1924.
Linest Parfait Sr.,
July 1900 – January 1963
(Great-grandfather)
Born in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana in 1900 to Jean Marie Parfait and Mary Billiot, Linest Parfait Sr. (United Houma Nation) was a trapper and worked in the fields down the bayou in Lousiana.
Mable Parfait Andrues,
May 1926 – November 2008
The eldest of 15 siblings, my grandmother, Mable Parfait Andrues (United Houma Nation) was born in Bayou Dularge, Louisiana to Linest Parfait Sr. and Lydia Trosclair Parfait in 1926, helping to raise her younger siblings.