UCLA NAGPRA Committee
By 1993, the UCLA NAGPRA Committee was created to ensure the repatriation of human remains at UCLA to the proper tribes. The committee included representatives from multiple academic disciplines, faculty, staff, and students as well as members of off-campus Native American communities. The committee was charged with providing the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor recommendations on policy and procedures, decisions regarding cultural affiliation or dispositions, and overall implementation of NAGPRA.
In September 2018, California passed legislation that outlines the composition of the UC and UC campus committees. UCLA will reconstitute the NAGPRA Committee to meet the new requirements once committee members are approved by the Native American Heritage Commission.
Current Members (effective July 1, 2021)
Repatriation Project Staff
Michael Chavez, MA
Archaeological Collections Manager, NAGPRA Project Manager
Michael Chavez (Tongva) is the Archaeological Collections Manager and NAGPRA Project Manager at the Fowler Museum at UCLA and facilities the daily implementation of UCLA’s campuswide NAGPRA and CalNAGPRA operations. He fosters community participation with tribes by promoting consultation and access to UCLA’s tribal holdings. Michael has a BA in public and oral history and MA in history with specializations in museum sciences and California Native American studies from California State University, San Bernardino. His collections and curation work includes the exhibit, “Through Their Eyes: Selections from the Dorothy Ramon Learning Center,” in which he collaborated with the Southern California Native American institution to present tribal art from tribal viewpoints. He presently is contributing to a book targeted to fourth-graders on tribal perspectives on the California Missions.
Allison Fischer-Olson, MA
Repatriation Coordinator and Curator of Native American Cultures
Allison Fischer-Olson is the Repatriation Coordinator and Curator of Native American Cultures at the Fowler Museum at UCLA. The Repatriation Coordinator is responsible for ensuring UCLA campus compliance with the UC Native American Cultural Affiliation and Repatriation Policy, including consultation with Tribes, repatriation, disposition, and tribal access to Human Remains and Cultural Items. Allison has a BA in Anthropology and an MA in American Indian Studies from UCLA. She worked previously at the Fowler Museum at UCLA as Assistant Curator of Archaeology, and was involved as a project coordinator in UCLA's Mapping Indigenous L.A. As the Head of Research for The ONWARD Project, Allison led research around a 1930's era Expedition into the Southwest US with goals of reuniting extracted ethnographic archival materials with their communities and foregrounding Native voices and knowledge in narratives around this historical event. She also spent 8 years working in the museum community in Oregon, where she served as Co-Executive Director at the Lane County History Museum and worked in collections and on NAGPRA at the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History.
Jessica Strayer
Repatriation Assistant
Jessica Strayer is the Repatriation Assistant at the Fowler Museum at UCLA. She assists with the implementation of NAGPRA and CalNAGPRA and facilitates tribal consultation and repatriation. Jessica earned her BA with a double major in History and Archaeology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2018. She is currently pursuing an MA in Museum Studies through the University of Oklahoma. She has archaeological field, laboratory, research, and curation experience and assisted with NAGPRA cases while at UCSB. Jessica is passionate about returning ancestors and belongings to their home communities and is honored to continue this work at UCLA.
