The Hess Scholar in Residence for 2019/2020 was Winona LaDuke, an internationally renowned activist and writer whose work focuses on environmental and human rights issues, including issues of sustainable development, renewable energy and food systems. 

As program director for Honor the Earth, she works nationally and internationally on issues of climate change and environmental justice with Indigenous communities. In her own community, she is the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, one of the largest reservation based non profit organizations in the country, recognized as a leader in food systems issues, particularly its work in protecting Indigenous plants and heritage foods from patenting and genetic engineering. 

In 2007, LaDuke was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, recognizing her leadership and community commitment. In 1994, LaDuke was nominated by Time magazine as one of America's fifty most promising leaders under forty. She has been awarded the Thomas Merton Award, the Ms. Woman of the Year Award, and the Reebok Human Rights Award. 

A graduate of Harvard and Antioch universities, she has written extensively on Native American and environmental issues. She is a former board member of Greenpeace USA and is presently an advisory board member for the Trust for Public Lands Native Lands Program and the Christensen Fund. She lives and works on the White Earth Reservation in Northern Minnesota, and was a two time vice presidential candidate with Ralph Nader for the Green Party.