L’Dawn Olsen is of European and Native American descent. The thankful daughter of an Eastern Shoshone mother, she belongs to the Yellow Bangs clan and lives in Fort Washakie on Shoshone ancestral homelands on what is now called the Wind River Indian Reservation, Wyoming.  Her Native ancestry is her North Star, roots the way she stands in the world, and centers her research. She is Interested in the application of Indigenous methodology and praxis in the areas of Indigenous-feminist foodways and humans as keystone species in Indigenous forest gardens, soil and land-regeneration, and land-stewardship.

L'Dawn is In the Rubenstein School of Science and Natural Resources. She is humbled and excited to work with Luis Vivanco as her advisor at the Gund Institute.  She was a fellow and holds an MFA from Brown University.