#15 - Achieving Success: Advice from Indigenous Professors in Academia - Guests: WILLOW AGEP Alliance Fellows

Released Thursday, 13th August 2020

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#15 - Achieving Success: Advice from Indigenous Professors in Academia - Guests: WILLOW AGEP Alliance Fellows

Thursday, 13th August 2020

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In the episode, the IRC team speaks with The WILLOW AGEP Alliance Fellows. The Willow AGEP Alliance brings together three institutions - University of Montana, Salish Kootenai College, and Sitting Bull College. The WILLOW AGEP Alliance includes interconnected components focusing on retention and support for NAF-STEM via a mentoring program, grant preparation, and management program, and institutional support program. The development of a model to increase the success of NAF-STEM will provide more effective ways to strengthen their participation through professional development and systemic institutional change. This is an AGEP-T: Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate – Transformation under these NSF HRD grant numbers: #1723248 - University of Montana (UM), #1723006 - Salish Kootenai College (SKC), and #1723196 - Sitting Bull College (SBC).

The IRC team asked the WILLOW Fellows the following questions: In Western Academics, what has been considered a victory to you? In the current state, how do victory and success look in the future?

Guests include:
Dr. Annie Belcourt (Otter Woman) is an American Indian Assistant Professor in the College of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Montana Pharmacy Practice and School of Public and Community Health Sciences Departments.
https://health.umt.edu/pharmacypractice/Faculty%20and%20Preceptors/Directory.php?ID=3227

Renae Schmitt is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. She is an instructor in the Environmental Science Program at Sitting Bull College
https://sittingbull.edu/sitting-bull-college/programs/environmental-science-masters-program/

Dr. Robert Smith is an Associate Professor at the University of Montana in the Computer Science Department.
http://hs.umt.edu/cs/facultyAndStaff/default.php?s=Smith3075

Dr. Aaron Thomas is a member of the Navajo Nation. He is the Director of Indigenous Research and STEM Education (IRSE) at the University of Montana, in addition to his role as Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
https://hs.umt.edu/chemistry/people/faculty.php?s=Thomas2104

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