Grace is a registered tribal citizen of the Sicangu Lakota band of the Rosebud Sioux whose reservation is located in south central South Dakota on the Nebraska border. She earned her baccalaureate degree in English with a minor in Native American Studies in December 2002 from NMU and her master's degree in English Literature in May of 2004, also from NMU. She continued her education at Northern and earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, a terminal master’s degree, with a focus on creative nonfiction graduating with her third degree from NMU in May of 2008.
She began her higher education instruction career in the summer of 2004 at Ferris State University by creating and teaching a course titled Native American Literature. She began teaching the foundation course NAS 204 Native American Experience at NMU in January of 2005, and continues to teach it in the classroom and online during summer. She wrote the curriculum for and teaches two courses whose titles are NAS 315 History of Indian Boarding School Education and NAS 422 American Indian Humor. She also teaches NAS 414 First Nations Women, a course created by April Lindala. Recently, she also taught NAS 330 Native Cultures and the Dynamics of Religious Experience as a fully online course.
Grace worked for three years during her undergraduate schooling at NMU as a peer mentor in the Gateway Academic Program. She was a longtime member of the Native American Student Association, volunteered at the former American Indian Coordinating Council, the Native American Student Empowerment Initiative, the annual Learning to Walk Together Powwow, the annual First Nations Food Taster, and as a writer and copy editor for Anishinaabe News.
She was the recipient of two Graduate Assistantships – one for the 2005 Sweetgrass Cinema Inaugural Native American Film Festival and one for the 2006 UNITED Diversity Conference both of which were held at NMU and she has attended, presented at, and/or volunteered at many conferences across the United States. She was a King*Chavez*Parks Future Faculty Fellow and a Michigan Council of Teachers of English (MCTE) Teachers for the Dream associate. She has been a longtime NMU Coalition for Contingent Faculty and AAUP Committee C member, and she continues to serve her department and colleagues on several additional committees.
From 2008 through 2011, Grace worked with a committee of NMU educators and community members to facilitate the publication of Voice on the Water: Great Lakes Native America Now. Voice is an anthology collaboration of over 80 artists, authors, and writers. Grace coordinated the publication and promotion of this two and a half year book project and, along with NMU editor, Rebecca Tavernini, edited the 252-page text.