Jody Potts-Joseph is a proud Han Gwich’in from Eagle Village, Alaska where she currently resides with her family and trains her dog team. Jody was raised on the lands around the Upper Yukon River country her family is Indigenous. Her parents were trappers and lived a subsistence lifestyle. Jody was raised in the basket of a dog sled and her family's only transportation for the first several years of her life was dog team. She feels right at home in a dog sled and loves being out on the trails traveling the lands she was raised on. Jody raised her children Izzy, Quannah, and Denali hunting, fishing, and mushing dogs.  

Jody has spent much of her life advocating for Indigenous rights, environmental and climate justice work, including MMIW, and storytelling.  Today she dedicates her time ensuring Indigenous voices are represented in the media and fashion industries. She is a cast member of National Geographic Channel’s Life Below Zero: First Alaskans and collaborates with multiple fashion brands on working in partnership with Native Peoples.  

Jody's career focuses on the well-being of Native peoples, in both the public and private sectors.  She currently serves on the Eagle Tribal Council and the Board of Directors of Doyon Limited, a regional Alaska Native Corporation for the Athabaskan people of Interior Alaska.  In her professional career, she has served as Vice Chair of the Governor’s Tribal Advisory Council for the State of Alaska, as a board member for the Alaska Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, and to co-found Data for Indigenous Justice. Her work in protecting the Indigenous ways of life led her to serve as a board member for the Alaska Wilderness League, and as a member of the Eastern Interior Regional Advisory Council to the Federal Subsistence Board.  Jody holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Indigenous Studies and Environmental Management from Northern Arizona University.  

Jody is an active hunter, angler, trapper, and dog musher with her husband and sons on the Yukon River.  She also competed in triathlons around the world for 10 years between having dog teams.  She finished 3 half Ironman distance races, one full Ironman, and numerous Olympic, sprint triathlons, and countless running races. She enjoys fur and skin sewing when not training dogs.