Emi Aguilar

Director of Membership & Radical Collaboration

Emi Aguilar (Coahuiltecan) (they/she) is a facilitator, researcher, culture-bearer, community organizer, and multidisciplinary artist. Emi is based among the homelands where the Coahuiltecan people have continuously resided for over 14,000 years (or, what is recently known as Central Texas to Northern Mexico). She is the former Director of Research + Action for IllumiNative, and has led partnerships with Netflix, Apple, Disney, National Geographic, AGBO, NBCU, Warner Media, and Lionsgate, among others. Emi holds an MFA in Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities from The University of Texas at Austin, a certificate in Arts and Cultural Management from the LBJ School of Public Affairs, a certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies, and a BFA in Theatre (summa cum laude) from Niagara University. Previously, Emi served as the Assistant Director of Pop Culture + Media at IllumiNative, on faculty at Bowling Green State University, and has guest lectured at The University of Texas at Austin, Dallas College, Vassar College, Brooklyn Public Library, and New Jersey Performing Arts Center, among others. Emi is the creator of @IndigenizingArtsEd, through which she conducts speaking engagements and workshops on decolonization, Indigenizing arts education, the Land Back movement, repatriation, and compulsive settler-colonialism.