Richard Boland is a member of the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe of California and Nevada. He was born in Los Angeles and, from the age of eleven, lived on his ancestral homelands in Death Valley National Park. After graduating from Pasadena City College, he returned to Death Valley to work for his tribe. In that capacity, he was responsible for assembling a coalition that eventually created his tribe’s first reservation of 7,500 acres of land located in two states and three counties. Boland left the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe to work for the steward of his tribe’s aboriginal homelands: the National Park Service, where he served as a conflict resolution specialist and coordinator of Death Valley National Park’s Government Performance and Results Act program.

Boland joined the Lee Business School’s Center for Business and Economic Research in 2008 as the research and grants coordinator. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 2007 from UNLV. He volunteers for the United Way of Southern Nevada’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program and is a lifetime member of the National Congress of American Indians.