Greg Sarris
Greg Sarris is serving his seventeenth consecutive elected term as Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. In addition to serving as Chairman of his Tribe, he serves as President of the Tribe’s Economic Development Board, overseeing all of the Tribe’s business interests, including the Graton Resort and Casino. Formerly a full professor of English at UCLA, and then the Fletcher Jones Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at Loyola Marymount University, Sarris now holds the title of Distinguished Emeritus Graton Endowed Chair in Native American Studies at Sonoma State University, where he taught a number of courses in Creative Writing, American Literature, and American Indian Literature. Sarris received his BA from UCLA and his Ph.D. in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University. He received an honorary Doctorate degree from Sonoma State University in 2024. He currently serves as Chair to the Board of Trustees for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Co-Chair of Smithsonian Campaign, is an appointed member of the University of California Board of Regents, and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. An accomplished writer, he has published several books, including Grand Avenue, an award-winning collection of short stories, which he adapted for an HBO miniseries and co-executive produced with Robert Redford.
