Join the Native American Student Association, in partnership with the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Multicultural Center, and the Student Diversity Advisory Council, in learning about what we can do to acknowledge the history of Indigenous people and to respect their culture and contributions.
This discussion will address the importance of diversity in the sciences, Indigenous identities, and identity ownership, while providing a foundation as to how to build meaningful belonging, access, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (BA-JEDI) initiatives within STEM disciplines. This discussion will consider Indigenous and Western knowledge systems, components vital for education equity such as, Place, Belonging, and Identity, that collectively create a secure space for diverse scholars in academia and will examine language and behavioral expectations that sometimes conflict with cultural responsibility of diverse scholars. The goal of this discussion is to empower diverse scholars, encouraging faculty, staff, and administration to be good allies and to provide foundational knowledge as to how to engage in meaningful allyship.
Wendy F. Smythe, Ph.D. is Alaska Native Haida from Hydaburg, Alaska. Her Haida name is K’ah Skaahluwaa, from the Xáadas Nation of the Sáangaahl ‘Láanaas Sdast’as clan (Fish egg house).
Dr. Smythe is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth in Duluth Minnesota and holds a joint appointment between the Departments of American Indian Studies and Earth & Environmental Sciences. She was selected as the 2019 Professional of the Year by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) for her interdisciplinary research in geoscience, Native Education, and policy. In 2020 Dr. Smythe was elected to the AISES Board of Directors.
Dr. Smythe has a dual Ph.D. in ocean science and environmental science and engineering from Oregon Health & Sciences University. Her geoscience research focuses on examining microbial ecology and molecular diversity, biogeochemistry, and biomineralization in metalliferous, iron and manganese rich groundwater ecosystems from deep-sea hydrothermal volcanoes to hydrothermal springs in Southeast Alaska and Yellowstone National Park. In addition, she conducts research and training of science faculty, researchers, and federal agencies to gain a better understanding, appreciation and respect for diverse students, faculty, and communities, and is a signatory for the “Call to Action for an Anti-Racist Science Community from Geoscientists of Color (https://notimeforsilence.org).
In 2021 she founded the Indigenous Geoscience Community (IGC), as a sustainable community of Indigenous geoscientists to come together to share knowledge using a relational framework, such that Traditional Knowledge and Western knowledge can be expressed within culturally specific protocols without disciplinary boundaries. She is a co-founder of the Indigenous Women’s Water Sisterhood in Duluth, Minnesota. The IWWS works to provide knowledge to researchers, students and Minnesota residents as to the Indigenous history of Minnesota and Lake Superior as well as the importance of water and Indigenous women’s role as water protectors.
Over the last 14 years Dr. Smythe has had the honor of partnering with her tribal community after founding The Geoscience Education Program working to couple STEM disciplines with Traditional Knowledge in K-12 education by incorporating language and cultural values. She serves on the board of directors for the Xáadas Kil Kuyaas Foundation a 501 (C)3 whose mission is to promote, preserve, and perpetuate the highly endangered Northern Haida language. Through her work, she seeks to increase the number of Native American- – Alaska Native students represented in STEM disciplines thereby increasing diversity and innovation, and to teach the next generation of Native leaders to embrace their Native identity.