Jonathan (Hidatsa, Ho-Chunk, and Prairie Band Potawatomi) has been teaching and developing curriculum in higher education since 2010. Jonathan has a PhD and a Master of Communication, Native Voices Option from the University of Washington. Jonathan undergraduate degree is a BS in Information Systems Management from California Baptist University. Before joining the alliance, Jonathan has been an instructor and curriculum developer in the fields of communication, Anthropology, Sociology, and American Indian Studies.

Before coming to Seattle to attend graduate school, Jonathan worked for nine years at Sherman Indian High School (SIHS), one of the last three off reservation boarding schools (ORBS) run by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) first as a home living assistant, a dormitory manager, a counseling technician for the Intensive Residential Guidance (IRG) Program and represented students and their families in school hearings.