BIO Lyla June

Dr. Lyla June Johnston (also known as Lyla June) is an Indigenous scholar, musician, author, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne), and European ancestry. Her interdisciplinary work brings together Indigenous wisdom, scientific research, and creative expression to promote personal, collective, and ecological healing. She earned her undergraduate degree in Environmental Anthropology from Stanford University and a graduate degree in Education from the University of New Mexico, focusing on American Indian Education.

Her doctoral research, titled “Architects of Abundance: Indigenous Regenerative Food and Land Management Systems and the Excavation of Hidden History,” examines precolonial Indigenous land and water management techniques—such as Holocene fisheries, regional soil management, and grasslands pyro-management—to challenge the myth of a “pristine wilderness” in the Americas. Johnston’s work highlights the sophisticated ecological stewardship of Indigenous Nations and their regenerative food systems that sustained both human and non-human life across Turtle Island.

Beyond academia, she is an accomplished musician and public speaker who uses her multi-genre performances to inspire environmental consciousness, Indigenous cultural revitalization, and social transformation around the world.

To learn more about Lyla and her work, you can watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH5zJxQETl4