Octaviana Trujillo is a Professor at Northern Arizona University. She has worked over the past three decades in the area of educational programme development for Indigenous Peoples. She was the founding Director of the American Indian Graduate Center at the University of Arizona, where she later was Assistant Professor in the Department of Language, Reading and Culture and affiliated faculty with American Indian Studies. In 1994, Octaviana became the first woman to become chairman of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona.