Advisory Board Members

Royleen J. Ross, PhD, is from the Pueblo of Laguna, Village of Paguate, in New Mexico.  She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Dakota, as a member of the Indians into Psychology Doctoral Education program.  She serves as a consultant with Pretty Fire Consulting LLC. She was previously employed with a southwest consortium as a cultural psychologist and prior, she worked as a clinician in the Norton Sound region in remote northwest Alaska.  At present, she serves as the American Psychological Association (APA), Division 45, Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race president.  Dr. Ross is also an APA guest liaison on the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Native American Child Health, serves on the CoNREPA Leadership Development Institute as the Society of Indian Psychologists (SIP) Executive Committee representative, and serves as a board member for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. She was a member of the APA Health Equity Committee and the secretary for the Society of Indian Psychologists. She is an active member of the APA Division 35/45 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Task Force. Dr. Ross is first author on a book examining child maltreatment through a Native lens and she has coauthored chapters on health equity and depression.  She is involved in other projects related to the intersectionality between mental health and law enforcement in Indian Country, attributed in part to her former career experience as an FBI Agent and New Mexico State Policeman. Her professional interests include policy development, social justice, advocacy at the tribal and federal levels, and the advancement of mental health for Indigenous Peoples.