Jamie Nakama is living a multifaceted, passionate life! She is originally from the island of O‘ahu where she performed with a number of local dance companies including IONA Contemporary Dance Theater, Samadhi Hawai‘i, Wai Company, and Tau Dance Theater. Her diverse movement background includes contemporary, aerial dance, hula, West African, Afro-modern, and capoeria.
In addition to her passion for dance, Jamie has been dedicated to the field of environmental education since 2001; she held positions as Environmental Educator, Curriculum Specialist, and Education Program Manager in Hawai‘i and now continues the work in northern California where she currently resides. Jamie performs with Lizz Roman and Dancers in San Francisco and enjoys teaching yoga and capoeira in her spare time.
Jamie holds a master’s degree in Ecological Anthropology from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and has been teaching cultural and biological anthropology at community colleges since 2006. She is currently a professor of anthropology at Diablo Valley College. She joined LandPaths, whose mission is to foster a love of the land in Sonoma County, first as a board member in 2017 and then as staff in 2018. She is passionate about teaching human evolution (and our dysevolution) in the context of our current socio-ecological crisis and climate emergency. Her classes focus on the solutions for a sustainable and just future which are dependent on the integration of traditional knowledge systems and modern science.
