▸ Honors, Accolades, and Milestones
Brook Thompson is one of 88 winners of a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. Also, she was profiled in the Spring 2023 issue of American Indian Graduate, the magazine of the Native Forward Scholars Fund. For more on Thompson, see her profile in AISES People.
Dr. Kenneth Roemer was on the committee that created a new Native Studies curriculum for public schools across Texas. The Texas Education Agency has now approved the course as a full-year ethnic studies Innovative Course, counting as an elective for grades 10 through 12 beginning this fall. For more on this effort and Dr. Roemer’s role, see the Spring 2022 issue of Winds of Change.
President Joe Biden has appointed Johnpaul Jones to the Institute of American Indian Arts Board of Trustees. The lead design consultant for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and a founding partner of the architectural firm Jones and Jones, he and his firm have long been associated with works that reflect Indigenous design sensibilities, the natural world, and sensitivity to the surrounding landscape. Jones received the AISES Technical Excellence Award in 2006.
Danielle Boyer, founder of the nonprofit The STEAM Connection, has been named a 2023 NDN Changemaker Fellow. A relentless advocate for STEM education, Boyer invents, manufactures, and donates robots to make learning accessible to every child. So far, The STEAM Connection has reached 600,000 students worldwide. For more on Boyer, see the Spring 2021 issue of Winds of Change.
The late Horace Axtell has been inducted into the Chief Joseph Days Rodeo Hall of Fame. He and his wife, Andrea, were beloved inaugural members of the AISES Council of Elders. As active participants on the CJD Commemorative Dance and Encampment Committee, they were instrumental in ensuring that the annual rodeo celebration in eastern Oregon showcased the traditional culture of the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) people, which it continues to do. For many years, “Grandpa Horace” Axtell rode his horse in the CJD parade wearing traditional regalia.
Dr. Henrietta Mann was inducted into the inaugural Native Forward Scholars Fund Hall of Fame at the organization’s 50th Anniversary Gala held at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. For more on Dr. Mann, see “Last Word.”
Frances Zoloth is the 2023 American Indian Seventh Generation Presidential Scholarship recipient at Montana State University. A senior majoring in environmental science, she serves as treasurer of the MSU AISES chapter.
Anna Quinlan is among the new graduates of Stanford University. A computer science major, she served as president of the AISES College Chapter and collaborated with Rewriting the Code, supporting Indigenous women in technology. Read more about Quinlan in the Fall 2018 issue of Winds of Change.
With his new master’s degree in mechanical engineering, James LeMoine participated in McMaster University’s Indigenous Graduation celebration with his family and friends. He is the founding president of the AISES College Chapter and a PhD student at this Ontario school. For more on LeMoine, see his profile in AISES People.
Caleb Locklear and Seth Lowery are members of the rocket team at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, which won the Public Outreach Award and a Next Step Award and placed third for their written report at NASA’s 14th First Nations Launch High-Power Rocket Competition.
In August the American Bar Association Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice presented the prestigious Thurgood Marshall Award to John E. Echohawk, who has served as executive director of the Native American Rights Fund since 1977. The first graduate of the University of New Mexico’s special program to train Native lawyers, Echohawk has been a leader in expanding Indigenous rights under law, and the National Law Journal recognized him as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America. He is the father of AISES President Sarah EchoHawk.
UC Santa Barbara has presented the Thomas More Storke Award for Excellence, its highest honor, to Cameron Bahnsen for both her scholarship and service to the university community. A co-leader of the AISES College Chapter, she earned her BS in environmental studies with a minor in American Indian and Indigenous studies.
Kristy Kinlicheenie and Melanie Kirby are among five faculty and staff members from tribal colleges and universities and one state university selected to learn about USDA research opportunities, programs, and services through the Terra Preta do Indio Tribal Fellowship. Program goals include encouraging tribal economic development opportunities, workforce development, and food security. Kinlicheenie is an assistant extension agent working with youth development at the University of Arizona and Kirby is a land grant program extension educator at the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Dick Pierce is marking 30 years of leading the research on the Top 200 Colleges for Indigenous Students, published annually in the Winds of Change Special College Issue. AISES is grateful to Pierce for his three decades of creating this unique resource for our students.
Ben Jacobs is a new member of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. He was also recently included in coverage of Indigenous chefs and restaurateurs by KUNC, NPR for Northern Colorado. For more on Jacobs, see “Nourishing Our Communities.”