Catherine Retana

Catherine Retana serves as a Tribal Law Specialist for TLPI’s Healing to Wellness Court Project and the Tribal State Collaboration Project. Catherine has experience working with tribal courts, federal Indian policy and tribal law.  Catherine has provided training and technical assistance (T/TA) to Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts, Tribal State Court Forums, and Joint Jurisdiction Courts and has coordinated T/TA efforts on this front nationwide. Catherine has also researched, drafted and presented TLPI resources on Tribal-State Collaborations and Tribal Healing to Wellness Court implementation, planning, and enhancement.  Her legal work experience also includes serving as a student tribal code drafter in the UCLA Law Tribal Legal Development Clinic. Prior to joining TLPI, Catherine served as an Education Law Advocate with California Rural Legal Assistance where she helped tackle the School-to-Prison Pipeline by protecting students in Kern County from unlawful discrimination, suspensions, and expulsions. She is a graduate of UCLA School of Law's David J. Epstein Public Interest Law and Policy program, where she focused her courses on federal Indian law and completed research on the interplay of the National Labor Relations Board, federal employment law, and tribal governments.