The Professional Awards Program is a unique showcase where the AISES family can recognize outstanding individual achievement. The 2023 winners introduced here were selected by a committee of leaders from organizations that partner with AISES. We are grateful to the members of this group who generously took time to carefully weigh the Professional Awards nominations. This is not an easy undertaking. Because the nominations are all impressive, selecting the winners can be daunting. The winner of the Professional of the Year Award is selected based on overall leadership and technical achievement, and the remaining five awards are made based on achievements in specific categories, with the Indigenous Excellence and Blazing Flame Awards acknowledging individuals who have done substantial work to advance programs and opportunities for Indigenous students and professionals in STEM education and careers. Here are the winners.
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
Above: Photo by David Cournoyer. Below: Courtesy of Joseph Owle
When Joseph Owle was young, he took the beauty of his home in the western North Carolina mountains for granted. “As a kid, we got to run around these mountains and fish in the streams,” says Owle, winner of the Professional of the Year Award. “My mom would just tell us to be back by dusk.”
Since it was all he knew, Owle didn’t think a whole lot about his surroundings. Today, however, Owle serves as secretary of agriculture and natural resources for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and it’s his full-time job to think and plan and act to ensure that future generations can benefit from a healthy and sustainable home. “The vision we crafted is to develop a 100-year plan for the conservation and preservation of our natural resources,” Owle says.
The plan is why his department has been so active raising funds and preparing for the removal of the Ela Dam, which will restore many species to the tribe’s traditional waters, and so proactive about developing solar farms and purchasing electric school buses to help reduce the tribe’s greenhouse gas emissions.
All of which is, to put it mildly, a departure from how Owle expected his life to unfold. Like a lot of young people who grow up in a small community, Owle figured that he would leave for college and never come back. He followed his interest and talent in STEM to an undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville and then a master’s degree in crop science from North Carolina State University.
“I always remembered what former Chief Hicks told us younger kids, which was to go off, get educated, and come back and make a difference. I told my wife, Kelsey, that we have to go back. Our tribe invested in us to get these degrees. Let’s go back and put them to use.”
During his time away from home, Owle’s attitude and life goals changed dramatically. “I always remembered what former Chief Hicks told us younger kids, which was to go off, get educated, and come back and make a difference,” Owle says. “I told my wife, Kelsey, that we have to go back. Our tribe invested in us to get these degrees. Let’s go back and put them to use.”
Which is exactly what Owle has done, working in a variety of positions including as a substitute teacher in the schools he attended, coordinator of a diabetes prevention program, and agriculture extension agent. In 2017, only a few years removed from graduate school, Owle was offered the position of secretary of agriculture and natural resources. The night before he had to decide whether to accept the job, Owle remembers lying awake almost hyperventilating at the prospect of taking on a role with so much responsibility. Finally, Kelsey stopped him. As Owle recalls, “She said,
‘Listen, I have to go to work in the morning. You’re either going to put your suit on and go to work, or you’re not.’ I said, yes, ma’am, and went to bed with my suit on.”
Owle has been working flat out ever since. No workday is the same, but Owle routinely finds himself attending daily administrative meetings and tracking the progress of priority projects. He devotes significant time to keeping tribal government officials and citizens up to date on the work his staff is doing and future projects and initiatives. Owle also makes sure he and his staff take time to reach out to young students, including bringing in over 100 second graders to learn more about what the department does. “We want to share what we do with the community and maybe encourage these youth to consider one of the career opportunities we have down the road,” Owle says.
In the six years he has led the department, Owle has gained a lot of knowledge and experience. But his approach to leadership has remained the same from his early days, when he sought out experienced career staff to let them know how much he values their input. “I consider myself a glorified coordinator. I told them my goal is to support them and take their best advice on decisions that require council or leadership action,” Owle says. “I try to stay humble and be clear about what I know, what I think I know, and what I don’t know.”