Haury Program Announces 2026 Indigenous Resilience Graduate Research Award Recipients
The Agnese Nelms Haury Program has selected eleven University of Arizona graduate students to receive its 2026 Indigenous Resilience Graduate Research Awards, supporting research and degree completion for projects developed in partnership with Indigenous communities.
Established in 2020 as part of the Haury Program's Indigenous Resilience Initiative, the Graduate Research Awardssupport master's and doctoral students whose research advances priorities identified by Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities. As a university-embedded funder, the Haury Program developed this awards program in response to the University of Arizona's commitments as a land-grant institution to strengthen respectful engagement with Tribal Nations and expand Indigenous resilience pathways across the university.
Rather than defining Indigenous resilience in advance, the Haury Program supports Indigenous communities and knowledge holders to identify the priorities, questions, and approaches that matter most to them. Each January, the Haury Program invites applications from University of Arizona graduate students conducting Indigenous resilience-related research. Throughout the application process, the program works closely with the university's Native Peoples Technical Assistance Office (NPTAO) to ensure awardees understand and follow university guidelines for respectful Tribal engagement and research.
Executive Director Toni Massaro described these awards as powerful evidence of “how the Haury Program’s unique position as a University-embedded philanthropy has enabled us to better support Indigenous resilience research and outreach, and advance the UA’s abiding commitment to graduate student success.”
The 2026 award recipients are, in alphabetical order: Alana Bitsuie, Mira Busch, Brooke Damon, Deandra Jones, Breanna Lameman, Anna Ortiz, Patrick Robinson, Emily Rockey, Noah Schlager, Michael Spears and Alison Watson.
Their research addresses a broad range of Indigenous resilience topics, including water sovereignty, seed and food sovereignty, arsenic exposure, soil health, tribal preservation, linguistic innovation in tribal governance, and black bear conservation. For the first time, the program also supports research conducted with two Indigenous communities outside the United States, expanding the geographic reach of the awards while maintaining its commitment to community-driven research.
The eleven 2026 recipients join a growing network of thirty graduate researchers who received awards between 2020 and 2025. Since its launch, the program has invested more than half a million dollars in graduate research spanning sixteen University of Arizona colleges and academic units.
Please read the full story and the profiles of all 2026 Graduate Research Award recipients at the Haury website by following this link.
You are also invited to meet the new cohort by attending a Meet and Greet activity featuring “Research Bingo” with the 2026 award recipients on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Arizona Institute for Resilience, ENR2 Building, Room 595. Formal introductions of the award recipients will take place starting at 10:30 am with a Zoom option available then. The event is free and open to the public.