Alexandria Murnan

Shawnee Tribe, Cherokee Nation

Director of affordable housing | Travois

My education and professional experiences have been a whirlwind: living in five different states, teaching 20 Haitian immigrants English for a year, working as an economic researcher in Washington, D.C., traveling to countless amazing places worldwide, completing one bachelor’s degree (go Jayhawks!) and one master’s degree (go Tarheels!), and coming to work for Travois.

These diverse experiences have shaped how I approach everything I do, and I couldn’t be happier that my curvy journey has led me to Travois. I always hoped I would someday have the opportunity to work with tribes to develop strategies to meet their communities’ needs. No one understands how to better make these strategies into reality than the Travois team. I manage our team of professionals who are, without a doubt, the best in the industry. We are visionaries, problem solvers and creative thinkers.

We understand that the successful implementation of housing strategies in your community is imperative. Recently, I visited a newly constructed project on a reservation in Arizona. I saw a little boy riding his bike on the freshly paved road in his new subdivision. The little boy laughed and played while his mom watched from the front porch of their beautiful new home. I thought to myself “This is what it is all about.” Because of these new homes, that boy and his mom now live in safe, decent, affordable housing on the same land as their ancestors.

At the end of the day, we know that each new home represents preservation of land, culture and community — but we also know that each and every development is unique.

Sovereignty means there are over 573 ways of doing development. That diversity is Indian Country’s strength. Let’s set up a day for the Travois team to come visit your community and start talking about your tribe’s specific housing strengths, desires and goals. I want to work with you so we can build on the successes other tribes have seen while tailoring a strategy to your community.

Call Travois today so we can start discussing your tribe’s next development.