Please join Maral Attallah and Ronnie Swartz for this year’s public conversation on Altruism with seasoned academics, researchers, practitioners, and educators who join a new generation of those interested in possibilities for doing good.
Cheryl A. Seidner
Cheryl A. Seidner’s passionate work on behalf of indigenous communities has enriched the lives of people throughout our nations. She is recognized for her ability to foster cooperative activism among American Indians at the regional, state and national level. Ms. Seidner has taken leadership roles with a number of organizations and on a number of issues. Her work has included serving on the Executive Committee for the National Congress of American Indians and the Northern California Indian Development Council. As the Tribal Chair for the Wiyot Tribe, Ms. Seidner dedicated herself to numerous efforts to honor Wiyot worldviews and cultural practices. She oversaw the repatriation of Tuluwat, a sacred site for her people, and was instrumental in bringing back the Wiyot young woman’s coming-of-age ceremony. Ms. Seidner helped organize an annual candlelight vigil as a memorial to those who died in the massacres of 1860, and drove revitalization of the world renewal ceremony that was held once again in 2014. Ms. Seidner is a published writer and poet whose work has appeared in the Humboldt Historian and News from Native California, as well as books including California Fault and Gold, Greed, and Genocide. She has given lectures about the Wiyot people throughout California and worked in the Educational Opportunity Program at Cal Poly Humboldt for 30 years. She is a visionary, a leader, and a community-builder.
Videos of previous conversations available at
altruism.humboldt.edu
The purpose of the Altruistic Behavior Institute is to seek out ways to enhance altruism and
prosocial behavior in society. Founded in 1982 by Sam and Pearl Oliner, innovators of research
on altruism, compassion, forgiveness, heroism, and reconciliation, the institute is developing a
web-based Oliner Altruism Research Archive and provides annual multidisciplinary dialogues to
honor their work.
