Dr. Kathy DeerInWater, AISES vice president of programs and research, has been named to the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development 2024 Class of Native American 40 Under 40. Award winners, who are nominated by their communities, must be making significant contributions in their professions and communities and meet other requirements. Also in the 2024 class is Joel Chastain, senior advisor to the lieutenant governor of the Chickasaw Nation, and Anthony Jones, an associate attorney at Dorsey and Whitney in Seattle.
Abby Reigner was interviewed for the article “RIT Undergraduate Student Team Qualifies for First Nations High Power Rocket Launch,” which appeared in the newsfeed on the Rochester Institute of Technology website. Reigner led a multidisciplinary team of six undergraduates who participated in the April competition.
Jairus Rhoades was among the Indigenous student leaders attending a Valentine’s Day vigil for murdered and missing women and relatives organized by the Native and Indigenous Student Association at Yale. Rhoades is the co-president of the AISES College Chapter.
Ashley Lomboy, winner of the 2023 Indigenous Excellence Professional Award, was profiled in a Q&A story in the Border Belt Independent, a publication of the North Carolina Press Foundation. Lomboy is a global information security manager at Corning Optical Fiber and Cable.
AISES Managing Director of Editorial and Special Projects Montoya Whiteman was asked to offer a Land Acknowledgement for Confluence Philanthropy as part of a weeklong conference spent strategizing on social and environmental change. She also gave a presentation to the Littleton, Colo., chapter of the AAUW (American Association of University Women).
In an article in the Bemidji Pioneer, Dr. Casey Dorr cited AISES as a primary source of guidance in his career. Described as a mentor to rising Indigenous researchers. Dr. Dorr is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, where he runs summer Pathways to Research programs for underrepresented students. He also serves as an experienced scientist at the Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute.
Melanie Howard made ribbon skirts and pants for the Queen’s University Q-AISES rocket design team to wear to a First Nations Launch dinner. Melanie, Kanehsatake, has been involved in the Canadian Indigenous Advisory Council.
Dr. Johnny Poolaw was part of a cross-cultural mentoring panel held by the Air Force Materiel Command in observance of Native American Heritage Month. Dr. Poolaw is the AISES director of student success.
Brook Thompson gave a talk on traditional ecological knowledge at the San Francisco Public Library, citing her top 10 books on the subject for a range of ages. Thompson is a PhD candidate in the environmental studies program at UC Santa Cruz.
Salina Riley was interviewed by KUNM, the radio station of the University of New Mexico, about the report “The State of Diversity: The Native Tech Ecosystem” issued by the Kapor Foundation in partnership with AISES. The report underscored the fact that Indigenous people continue to be underrepresented in STEM fields and identified barriers to success. Riley, a third-year biochemistry student at the university, told KUNM that AISES has given her crucial support to stick with her major. Dr. Tiffany Smith, AISES director of research and career support, was also interviewed for the story.
Alyssa Warrior (right) was profiled in UBNow, a publication of the University of Buffalo, where she is a senior physics major. The article highlighted her internship experience at the NASA Glenn Research Center, which she applied to after attending the AISES National Conference and meeting Glenn engineer Dr. Joseph Connolly.
Dr. Crystal Tulley-Cordova was an invited speaker as part of the Zimmerman Lecture Series at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Tulley-Cordova is a principal hydrologist in the Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources. Dr. Tulley-Cordova is the winner of the 2021 AISES Professional of the Year Award.
Dr. Emily Sorroche spoke at an Indigenous Peoples’ Day event, Honoring Native Land: Understanding the Land Acknowledgement, at Michigan State University. The associate director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr. Sorroche is also the university’s AISES College Chapter advisor.
Photos by Joseph Brant/ Queen’s University Smith Engineering Photo (howard); Joe Connolly (Warrior); Khinsley Locklear Portaiture (Lomboy); others: Courtesy images
Courtesy of Claremore Museum of History
Living Legacy:Dr. Rachel Caroline Eaton
This column celebrates pioneering Indigenous people who helped establish a heritage of accomplishment, perseverance, and service. This issue spotlights Dr. Rachel Caroline Eaton, the first Indigenous woman to earn a doctorate.
Believed to be the first Native woman (and only the second person in Oklahoma) to be awarded a PhD, Rachel Caroline Eaton was born July 7, 1869, on the Cherokee Nation. Her mother, Nancy Elizabeth Ward Williams, had walked the Trail of Tears. Dr. Eaton was educated in Cherokee Nation public schools and graduated from the Cherokee Female Seminary in 1887. She earned her undergraduate degree cum laude at Drury College, then went on for her MA and PhD in history at the University of Chicago. Throughout her career she was a progressive educator in public schools and universities and was the first woman to be elected county superintendent of schools in Oklahoma. She was also a prolific researcher and writer who focused on the history of the Cherokee Nation. Her dissertation, John Ross and the Cherokee Indians — published in 1910 — is still consulted by researchers. Well-known throughout the state by the 1920s, she was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1936. Her last work, The History of the Cherokee Indians, was unfinished when she died on September 20, 1938.