White House Author

Anthony Ciocco is a Crew Leader for the Ancestral Lands Program at Southwest Conservation Corps, leading ecological restoration crews on the Navajo Nation. Under Anthony’s leadership his crews of local Native youth work to rebuild damaged eco-systems and build trials to provide access to the outdoors for local communities. In his work he has accomplished extremely challenging and important conservation projects, while at the same time giving the crew members a deep and hard-earned sense of accomplishment enabling them to move forward in their professional and personal lives. He strongly believes that reclaiming well-being in our Native communities is a highly integrative process including our landscapes, cultures, languages, and our mental and physical health. Anthony, of the Mvskoke tribe, co-founded a non-profit devoted to restoration of traditional language and culture. He has also worked extensively in restoring traditional food systems and received the Live Real Food Fellowship. The University of Colorado Public Interest Internship Experience (PIIE) awarded Anthony a grant to fund his work with the Indigenous Training and Resource Council.