Directory  

Get to know the faculty, resident elders, and staff in the Department of Applied Indigenous Studies.

Faculty

 

Lomayumtewa Ishii, Chair (Hopi), PhD, Associate Professor (BS, MS, PhD, Northern Arizona University - 2001) and Chair of the Applied Indigenous Studies Department. He has worked for Northern Arizona University since 2004 and specializes in Native American history and historiography, the American West, and borderlands.

E-mail: lomayumtew.ishii@nau.edu 

 

Karen Jarratt-Snider (Mississippi Choctaw), PhD, Assistant Professor (BS, MPA, PhD, Northern Arizona University - 2006).  She has worked at Northern Arizona University since 2008 and specializes in indigenous environmental justice, forestry policy and indigenous people, tribal community participatory research models, federalism-American Indian intergovernmental relations, tribal administration, federal Indian policy and law, and indigenous peoples rights in international law and policy. 

E-mail: karen.jarratt-snider@nau.edu 

  

Priscilla Sanderson (Navajo), PhD, Assistant Professor (BA, Southwestern College; MS, Oklahoma State University; PhD, University of Arizona - 2005).  She has been at Northern Arizona University since 2005 with specializations in public health, vocational rehabilitation, rehabilitation counseling, and career prevention and control. 

E-mail: priscilla.sanderson@nau.edu 

  

Octaviana Trujillo (Yaqui), PhD, Professor (BA, MA, PhD, Arizona State University - 1991).  Since 2002, she has been part of the Northern Arizona University faculty and specializes in native language policy and literacy development, and American Indian education.

E-mail: octaviana.trujillo@nau.edu 

Affiliated Faculty

 

Thomas Alcoze, PhD, Professor (BS, MS, University of North Texas; PhD, Michigan State University - 1981).  Since 1990, he has taught at Northern Arizona University and is specialized in restoration, ecology, and land-use practices of Native American nations in the Southwest.

E-mail: thom.alcoze@nau.edu 

 

Jeffery Berglund, PhD, Professor in English, Affiliated Faculty (BA, Creighton University; MA, Washington University; PhD, Ohio State University - 1996). He has been with Northern Arizona University since 1999 and specializes in Native American literature and American literature. 

E-mail: jeffery.berglund@nau.edu 

Marianne O. Nielsen, PhD, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice and Department Interim Chair of Applied Indigenous Studies. (BA, University of Calgary; MA, PhD University of Alberta - 1993). She has worked at Northern Arizona University since 1993.
E-mail: marianne.nielsen@nau.edu 

 

Dean Howard Smith (Mohawk), PhD, Associate Professor in Economics. (BS, Clemson University; MS, Oklahoma State University; PhD, Texas A&M University - 1989). Since 1989 he has been part of faculty at Northern Arizona University and teaches under the W.A. Franke College of Business. He specializes in economics, Native American economic development, spatial economics, mathematical economics, public economics, environmental economics, pricing strategies, and energy policy.

E-mail: dean.smith@nau.edu 

 

Michael Vasquez, PhD, Professor of Anthropology, Affiliated Faculty, (BA University of California- Berkeley; MA, San Francisco State University; MS, PhD, University of California-Davis - 1989). He has been at Northern Arizona University since 1989 with specializations in applied anthropology; indigenous agriculture; cultural ecology; and rural and agricultural development in North and Central America, and the U.S. Southwest.

E-mail: michael.vasquez@nau.edu 

Resident Elders

 

Bob Lomadafkie (Hopi), Resident Elder (BS, Northern Arizona University - 1972). He is a public speaker, teacher, jeweler, and designer. He also is an advocate for Hopi art and community service and has worked for Northern Arizona University since 2006.

E-mail: bob.lomadafkie@nau.edu 

 

Marina Xoc Castillo de Vasquez(Mayan), Resident Elder (BA, Northern Arizona University - 1999). She has worked with Northern Arizona University since 2006 and is dedicated to bilingual-multicultural education in the local schools and community service programs. She is also a master basket maker specializing in traditional pine needle baskets.

E-mail: marina.vasquez@nau.edu 

Staff

Information coming soon.