Updated: Sep 14
Michael Yellow Bird
IMTA, CMT-P, MSW, PhD
Board Co-chair
Michael Yellow Bird, PhD, Professor and former Dean of the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba, will join the University of Toronto’s FactorInwentash Faculty of Social Work in July 2027 as the inaugural endowed Lee Wu Kee Ming Chair in Indigenous Social
Work. He has held senior faculty and administrative positions across major universities in the US and Canada and served a Distinguished Visitor or Visiting Scholar at institutions including the University of Auckland, Trent University, and Simon Fraser University. He is Faculty Emeritus, Cal Poly Humboldt.
A citizen of the MHA Nation, Dr. Yellow Bird is an internationally trained mindfulness teacher and scholar. He is a Research Affiliate with the Centre on Aging, CoChair of the Mindfulness Council of Canada, and serves on multiple national and international advisory boards. His research spans decolonization, neurodecolonization, Indigenous aging, neuroscience, ethnobotany, AI and Indigenous youth, and Rez dog culture. He is the author or coauthor of numerous scholarly works.
For Indigenous Eyes Only: The Decolonization Handbook, 2005 (revised in 2012)
Indigenous Social Work around the World:Towards Culturally Relevant Education and Practice, 2008
Decolonizing Social Work, 2013.
His mindfulness and neurodecolonization work has been featured in several mind body and mindfulness podcasts, magazines, newspapers, and scholarly publications.
His professional/academic mindfulness and neurodecolonization website can be found at: https://www.indigenousmindfulness.com/
His most recent press article can be found at: https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/health/meaningful-mindfulness-576071502.html
In 2021, his mindfulness teaching and work was featured in Mindful magazine along with three other Indigenous mindfulness teachers: https://www.mindful.org/all-our-relations-four-indigenous-lessons-on-mindfulness/
His most recent podcast interview with the Prison Mindfulness Institute discussing his work using Neurodecolonization with Indigenous Incarcerated youth can be found at: https://prisonmindfulness.podbean.com/e/neurodecolonization-with-indigenous-incarcerated-youth-with-michael-james-yellow-bird/