About & Contact

Jordan AG Douglas-Tavani  is the Project Manager for Northwest Indigenous Language Institute (NILI)'s Northwest Native American Language Resource Center (NW-NALRC). His work has focused on language description and revitalization in Oregon. A speaker of miluk tɬiis (Miluk, Miluk Coos), he has worked in partnership with the Confederated Tribe of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians to develop curriculum, compile and edit dictionaries, and contribute to literature in the Tribe's three languages: miluk tɬiis, hanis tɬ'ii'iis (Hanis, Hanis Coos), and wa'as (Siuslaw). He focuses his efforts on expanding NILI's capacities and extending the NW-NALRC's inventory of resources. Jordan is a proud citizen of the Tlingit & Haida Nation

Shahar Shirtz is an Assistant Professor of English at Arizona State University. He is affiliated with the linguistics, applied linguistics, and TESOL programs. His interests include linguistic typology and constructional models of grammar, with a focus on the grammatical and lexical means deployed by language users to express various discourse functions. In his research, he combines quantitative and qualitative methods, and concentrates primarily on Indo-Iranian languages and the languages of the Pacific Northwest.

Joana Jansen is NILI’s Associate Director and a Senior Research Associate II at the UO. She also serves as the Lead PI for the NW-NALRC. Her contributions to language reclamation and revitalization involve teacher education, language curriculum development, project management, and descriptive linguistics for revitalization. A speaker and teacher of Yakama Ichishkíin, she has developed curriculum and assessments as well as contributed to the print literature available for that language. She co- develops and co-teaches courses and workshops for language teachers and learners.

Robert Elliot (Navajo/Diné descendent), is the Director of NILI. He has a master's degree in English/TESOL and worked as an ESL instructor specializing in technology for language learning. He has worked on language revitalization at NILI since 2009 and led its early efforts to develop online teacher training programming to address widely dispersed populations. He has trained Tribal High School youth in using technology to build language learning materials and has led the development of the NILI Resource Center. In 2020-2022, he and Dr. Jansen adapted the NILI teacher training model to an online context due to the pandemic, and in 2022-2023, he led NILI’s Needs Assessment. Mr. Elliott will coordinate and oversee the development of Goal 4 of the NW-NALRC, the Resource Hub..