Amber L. DuBoise-Shepherd is currently the Director’s Assistant at the OU School of Visual Arts since October 2022. In her position she provides direct administrative support to the Director and overseas various departmental operations including office administration, marketing, website admin for SoVA, course management, events coordination, financial, and working with other departments across campus. She was previously the Manager of Education and Outreach at the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art in Shawnee, OK. She worked with all ages and provided educational art programming through student tours both in person and virtual, art classes and workshops, and providing outreach programs, and worked with highly educated museum docents. DuBoise-Shepherd has an AA from Seminole State College and received her BFA from Oklahoma State University with a minor in Business Entrepreneurship. She is also a painter and draftswoman that depicts contemporary Native American narratives based on her family heritage of Diné/Navajo (Enrolled), Sac & Fox (Affiliated), and Prairie Band Potawatomi (Affiliated). From her Diné side, she is born into her maternal clan Kinłichii'nii and from her maternal grandfather Tó’ahaní. From her Sauk side, she is born into the Mahwêwithowa, Wolf Clan, and her Sauk name is Mokehmêhshe.
Her mixed media pieces and oil paintings reference an illustrative quality. She has exhibited in over thirty-five exhibitions since graduating from OSU in 2016, and curated 4 exhibitions, including the Tkenagen Mnowabmenagwet: The Beauty of Indigenous Cradleboards in 2022, with cradleboards from the Museum of The Red River, and two from her own family. In 2025, she was invited back to her alma mater, to be a guest curator and work with OSU Department of Art faculty and students, to share her cultural knowledge and provide insights for the Community, Creativity, and Continuity: Native American Art in Everyday Life exhibition at the OSU Museum of Art. This exhibition highlights Native American artwork from the Charles Little Collection, and DuBoise-Shepherd provided four cultural objects that correlate back to the artwork from her own family’s collection.
DuBoise-Shepherd was commissioned by the First Americans Museum, in 2020, to create and design an original oil painting that was converted into a large mural that is on display for the public in the FAM gallery. She was commissioned by the Sierra Club Magazine to create the Fall 2023 cover and two digital illustrative works for an article over the Land Back Movement that was sent out nationally. She also worked with the previous Dean of the Tulsa University’s Library, Dr. Bob Pickering, to create watercolor images to be utilize in his book, Luck is a Fortune. DuBoise-Shepherd has been a part of various committees involving the arts to help share her cultural knowledge. She also provides lectures for different events, special interests groups, college courses, & conferences over her Native art and culture. In September of 2023, Amber was awarded The Rising Star Alumni Award at the Oklahoma State University, College of Arts & Science Hall of Fame ceremony. The Rising Star award is given to previous graduates who have excelled in their careers within 10 years of graduating from OSU.
