Jordana R. Bass (Hataža Mani Winga) is from the Bear Clan of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska (Hocak Nisoc Haci). Ms. Bass has an Associates of Arts degree in Media Design from Salish Kootenai College (SKC) from the Flathead reservation in Pablo, MT. She also has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Cinematic Arts and Technology from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, NM. Currently she is studying Writing for Film/TV from the Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood, CA

She has worked as a Production Assistant for Blue Earth Marketing, a subsidiary of Ho-Chunk, Inc. for 5 years upon her graduation from SKC, then enrolled at IAIA in 2018. During her tenure at IAIA, in her freshman year she was awarded the Master Storyteller Award from the George RR Martin Literary Foundation for a short screenplay titled “Rez Cars.” Which awarded her $15,000 per year to pay her tuition up until she graduated in 2021.

Recently Ms. Bass was the journalist and editor of her community tribal newspaper the Winnebago Indian News (WIN). As a first-time journalist, she re-branded the newspaper and implemented an Indigenous way of journalism that consisted of learning from elders and tribal leaders and complimented traditional values. She also participated in the Native American Journalist Fellowship, which is now the Indigenous Journalism Association.

Today she is the Project Coordinator at Vision Maker Media and is a part of the Projects team and will work in Community Projects with the Native Youth Media Project, Creative Shorts Program, public programming, and any new initiatives. Jordana’s passion is to bring opportunities to work in media and filmmaking to youth in Native communities throughout the country. Such were not available opportunities that she had as a youth growing up on the Winnebago reservation. She looks forward to seeing the Native Youth Media Project grow and working with the entire Vision Maker Media team.