2022 Haury Program Tribal Resilience Awardees Honored at Special Evening Event

Assistant Vice Provost, Native American Initiatives

Dr. Francis Begay has served the UArizona for decades in directly connecting the UArizona with tribal nations and supporting Native student pathways in collaboration with academic units and colleges. As a team member who co-developed the landmark UArizona Tribal Consultation Policy, she generously gave her time as one of the first advisors to the Haury Program in the proper protocols with working with Native Nations and continues to guide in this way. She recently completed the Native American Initiatives Strategic Plan 2022 – 2027, A Collective Approach to Nurturing Indigenous Student Success. The plan uniquely incorporates Indigenous culture, such as the 4 sacred directions, as its framework.

Director, Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions (CCASS)

Director Jacobs has spent her career bringing people together to solve the most challenging social and environmental projects with equity, diversity, and inclusion always the foundation. She worked tirelessly with Dr. Karletta Chief, now Director of the Indigenous Resilience Center (IRes), AIR Director Jim Buizer, and the Haury Program to create and build out IRes– doing background work for the Center inception and launch, helping to procure initial funding, and working with Dr. Chief to identify distinguished faculty candidates and to successfully recruit them to UArizona as IRes-affiliated faculty. She continues to serve as an advisor to IRes and to mentor the new faculty hires.

Director, Native Peoples Technical Assistance Office (NPTAO)

As NPTAO’s director, Ms. Nelson brought more than 35 years of experience working with Arizona’s Native communities, turning that experience into education and resources for UArizona faculty, researchers, and students. She has enabled UArizona to serve the 22 Federally recognized tribes in Arizona by teaching respectful tribal engagement and best practices, and by sharing cultural competencies. NPTAO’s many achievements include the creation of a searchable database which contains all the projects with which UArizona is engaged in Indian Country and launching the Native American Advancement Initiative and Research (NAAIR) website -- the go-to source for all things Indigenous on the UArizona campus.