Dr. Karletta Chief promoted to UA Associate Specialist and Professor
July 2, 2018
Dr. Karletta Chief, director of the UA SRP Community Engagement Core and University of Arizona Extension Specialist, has been promoted to Associate Specialist and Professor.
Chief has been an Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist at the UA since July 2011, working in the Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science. One of her major SRP contributions has been her work with the Navajo Nation to define and understand the impacts of the 2015 Gold King Mine spill. Her work has involved research and community engagement in equal parts and Chief has been featured many times in the press for these efforts. A recent example is her Science Friday video entitled “Bitterwater: Protecting the Waterways of the Navajo Nation”.
As a result of her hard work Chief has received numerous awards including the 2016 American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) Professional of the Year Award and the 2017 “Women of the Year” award from the Phoenix Indian Center.
Finally, Chief has been successful at building her research program with her latest success being a $3M NSF training grant “Indigenous Food, Energy, and Water Security and Sovereignty” to develop a diverse workforce with intercultural awareness and expertise in sustainable food, energy and water systems.
Dr. Chief said she is both excited and grateful for this important promotion. “I credit the support I got from Dr. Raina Maier and UA SRP, because a lot of my career I built on SRP work,” Dr. Chief said. “Raina provided me one of my first pilot grants that really stimulated a lot of the activity and the grants I have now.”
Please join us in recognizing and congratulating Karletta Chief on her promotion and accomplishments!