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Desireé Reneé Martinez Director of Tribal Relations and NAGPRA/CalNAGPRA Director
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Desireé Reneé Martinez

Director of Tribal Relations; NAGPRA/CalNAGPRA Director
Office of the President

Expertise:

Tribal Engagement and Outreach, Cultural Resource Management, Indigenous Heritage on Catalina Island, Tribal History in the Los Angeles Basin, California Archeology, Archeological Resource Compliance, Native American Ethnographic Research, Museum Curation, Protection of Cultural Sites, Digital Indigenous Mapping, Tribal Cultural Resource Monitoring, Indigenous Data Management and Governance in Archaeology

Desireé Martinez has dedicated her career to documenting and protecting Indigenous sacred and cultural spaces, places and resources in Southern California to combat their destruction and celebrate continued Tribal thrivance. 

 

At Cal Poly Pomona, Martinez serves as the primary liaison between the university and Tribal communities; works to strengthen pipelines for students, faculty, and staff; develops programs to serve Tribal partners; and is responsible for the university’s compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and California NAGPRA.  

 

As a Registered Professional Archaeologist, Martinez has worked on projects relating to the identification of Indigenous cultural sites and resources within the Southern Los Cerritos Wetlands Restoration Project, the Ballona Wetlands and in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. She has also served on multiple projects as a tribal resource monitor. 

 

Her extensive work with museums includes serving as a project manager and research associate consultant for the UCLA Fowler Museum, Archeology Collections Facility and the Harvard University Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology and others facilitating relationships with Native Americans on issues ranging from repatriation of Ancestors and their cultural items to the traditional care of collections. For the Autry Museum of the American West, she worked with tribes across the nation regarding a move of the collection facilitating communication and arranging a blessing ceremony.  

 

As former president of Cogstone Resource Management, Martinez managed cultural resources, engaged in tribal outreach, evaluation and documentation of archeological resources ensuring companies were following federal, state and local cultural resource laws.  

 

Recent Grants and Fellowships:

  • Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Alexandria Archive, Co-Director, FAIR+CARE Cultural Heritage Network, $700,000. (2023- 2026) 
  • Whittier College, Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work, Irvine Fellow in Anthropology, $60,000 (2004-2006)

Selected Publications:

Interviews:

Education:

B.A., Anthropology, Minor: Folklore/Folklife and Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania 

M.A., Anthropology, Concentration in Archaeology, Harvard University  

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