Karalee Mahealani Vaughn

Co-Chair

​Karalee Mahealani Chieko Vaughn is currently a consultant working with Tribal Nations, Indigenous Communities and non-profits on code and policy drafting, infrastructure and development.

Prior to serving as a consultant, Karalee served as the: Executive Director of the Southern California Tribal Education Institute, Executive Director of an Upward Bound Program, Assistant Director of the San Manuel Education Department, a Native Hawaiian Grant administrator at Honolulu Community College, and a Director of Outreach for the Pacific Islander Education and Retention Program at UCLA. Additionally, she has served as Director on several boards.

Through her current and previous work, Karalee has been instrumental in helping Tribes and Indigenous communities develop their own education codes, departments, plans, policies, culturally relevant curricula, budgets, grants, and staff and human resource and Federal Indian law trainings.

Additionally, Karalee is currently a Doctoral candidate in Leadership for Educational Justice at the University of Redlands. She holds a Master’s in Education, Policy and Management from Harvard University and a Master’s in Federal Indian Law and Policy from UCLA. In addition, Karalee received her bachelor’s in History and Asian American Studies at UCLA. Her latest area of research focuses on the Native Graduate student experience and Tribal Endowment Agreements with Higher Education Institutions.

Karalee has two daughters which keeps her motivated to improve access and success in higher education for Native students; community partnerships between Tribal and Indigenous communities and Higher Education institutions; and the creation and production of Indigenous research and knowledge.