Lee Clauss is an applied anthropologist/archaeologist and advocate for Native American communities’ sovereignty and stewardship of cultural resources. She has over 20 years of experience in historic preservation law, regulatory compliance and public policy analysis, with a broad background that includes Indigenous heritage stewardship, archives and archaeological curation, and community-based planning and participatory research. Clauss has also provided Indigenous communities and agencies with training on such subjects as land rematriation and stewardship, Tribal engagement and government-to-government consultation, Indigenous environmental justice, ancestor repatriation, and data sovereignty.

Since April 2023, Lee has been Project Manager on the Southern California Land Protection team for the Trust for Public Land. Prior to her time at TPL, Lee worked for the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians located in Highland, California—initially as the Tribe’s Cultural Resources Management Director and later as their Vice-President overseeing the Cultural Resources, Environmental Resources, and Education Departments. Prior to Lee’s time with San Manuel, she worked for the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo in Willits, CA; Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in Cherokee, NC and; White Mountain Apache in Fort Apache, Arizona.

With regard to prior Board service, from 2020-2022, Lee served on the Board of Directors for the Society for American Archaeology. From 2018-2022 she also served on the Board of the San Bernardino County Museum Association.