[3] Tracy Rector earned her BA in Native American studies and communications from Evergreen State College and her master's degree in education and teacher certification from Antioch University’s First Peoples Program.

[5] Her first feature project, Teachings of the Tree People: The Work of Bruce Miller, brought oral tradition into a contemporary storytelling format while also identifying how Coast Salish communities wanted to be involved in the filmmaking process.

[6] Her second feature-length film was the documentary March Point, a collaboration with Longhouse Media co-founder Annie Silverstein and three young Swinomish filmmakers.

This environmental documentary received an All Roads Film Project Seed Grant and was recognized by UNESCO as an example of indigenous grassroots mobilization in response to climate change.

She has also worked as a native naturalist for the Olympic Sculpture Park and developed curriculum for IslandWood, an environmental education center in Bainbridge Island, Washington.