Dr. Karletta Chief Receives the 2021 UArizona Distinguished Outreach Faculty Award
April 1, 2022
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Dr. Karletta Chief, received the 2021 Distinguished Outreach Faculty Award from the University of Arizona. The award recognizes faculty who have made outstanding contributions to outreach at the University of Arizona, in the State of Arizona and the nation.
“It is with great honor that I accept the Distinguished Outreach Faculty Award and join my esteemed colleagues who have been recognized for their outreach to connect with our communities through impactful research,” Dr. Chief said. “I don’t do this work alone. Outreach occurs as a team effort with my community partners, faculty, staff and students who work alongside me.”
Dr. Chief is the Community Engagement Core Director at the UArizona Superfund Research Center. “Native American communities are disproportionately impacted by mining and have the highest rate of diabetes,” she explained. “Diabetes increases when tribal members are exposed to arsenic contaminated waters. Our goal is to engage Native American communities in community-based participatory research to develop and implement intervention and strategies to decrease exposure to arsenic-laden waters and risk to diabetes while providing training, education, capacity building and engagement tools.”
Dr. Chief is also the principal investigator of the National Science Foundation funded Indigenous Food, Energy & Water Security and Sovereignty (Indige-FEWSS) program at UArizona, which is currently training 38 graduate students. “Indige-FEWSS’s vision is to develop a diverse workforce with intercultural awareness and expertise in sustainable food, energy, and water systems (FEWS), specifically through off-grid technologies to address the lack of safe water, energy and food security in Indigenous communities,” she said.
Congratulations Dr. Karletta Chief!
To read more, go to: https://healthsciences.arizona.edu/connect/honors/dr-karletta-chief-rece...