7x7Gen Founder and Native Nations Digital Sovereignty Principle Investigator
Hunga’ maheshi, I’m Curtis Keliiaa, Wasiw’, Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California Citizen, Tsa La Gi (GWY), Cherokee, and Kanaka Maoli, Native Hawaiian. My career began in 1979 as an electronics technician for a top ten fastest growing office automation company, NBI, Inc. in Boulder CO. I retired from Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque NM in 2020 as a Senior Member of Technical Staff. After vocational electronics education, I later left college with a 4.0 GPA as I was working at a professional level beyond that of the STEM education I was pursuing. An alternative path of numerous industry certifications and a penchant for research and writing advanced my career all along the way.
My career comprised ten-years in the network and computing industry, ten-years in federal IT contract work, and twenty-one years at Sandia Laboratories. Service in the National Interest included a two-year Washington D.C. Intelligence Community assignment, ten-years as Principal Investigator for Tribal-Cyber technical assistance, and as a High Performance Computing Security Officer. I am an (ISC)2 Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP), Gold Certified IPv6 engineer, and an American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) professional member.
In retirement, I serve on the Washoe Development Corporation Board of Directors and advocate for Native Nations Digital Sovereignty and Digital Readiness, Education, Advanced Modernization (DREAM). I reside in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and am a proud father and grandfather.