Patina Park, J.D.

Adjunct Faculty ~ Law & Governance

Patina Park, J.D. serves as a senior advisor and Executive Director of Tribal State Relations in the Office of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan where she directs the government-to-government relationship between the Governor’s office and Tribal Nations, and works closely with staff across the Enterprise to advise on issues affecting policy and legislative affairs impacting the Tribal Nations and tribal communities. Over the past 20 years, she has worked with both tribal and state governments, and with urban Native communities in various roles. She has represented Native families in state and tribal courts as an ICWA attorney and served a tribal court appellate judge. She has taught Federal Indian Law as an adjunct law professor and held leadership positions with the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, Minneapolis Division of Indian Work, and the Ho-Chunk Nation Department of Justice. Ms. Park has been faculty with the Falmouth Institute for over 12 years.

Ms. Park is Mnicoujou Lakota, her biological family comes from the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux Tribes and her adoptive family is Osage. She graduated from Arizona State University with an undergraduate in Psychology and obtained her Juris Doctorate from Hamline University School of Law. Ms. Park is married and the mother of 3 boys. She also has 2 demanding cats and a very naughty but adorable dog.