Haury Program Awards Six 2025 Tribal Resilience Graduate Research Awards
The Agnese Nelms Haury Program within the Arizona Institute for Resilience is a unique University-embedded philanthropy created by a major bequest in 2014 to honor the life and work of Mrs. Agnese Nelms Haury. The Tribal Resilience Graduate Research Awards program was designed in 2021 to strengthen the academic pathways at the University of Arizona for Native American and Indigenous Resilience students and scholars.
“We are delighted to announce this year’s Haury Program Graduate Research Awards,” shared Toni Massaro, Haury Program Director. “All of the grantees are committed to using their advanced training here to advance tribal environmental resilience goals with skill and respect. Few things make us prouder to be part of the U of A team that shares these goals, and to use our resources to support them.”
The 2025 awardees are Shawnell Damon, LaCher Pacheco, Chrisa Whitmore, Nieves Vázquez, Majerle Lister, and Matthew Tafoya. Their graduate research projects address a wide range of Indigenous Resilience topics relevant to water, energy and food. Five of the projects are taking place on or close to the Navajo Nation, and include studies of the intersection between the Covid 19 vaccine uptake and water security, water quality, impacts of frozen land tenure, access to healthy foods and storytelling in picture books. The sixth project is tackling a more general subject of science communication in water and soil quality research. The graduate students are pursuing graduate studies across the campus, such as at the Zuckerman College of Public Health, College of Education, Department of Environmental Science, College of Agriculture, Life & Environmental Sciences, School of Geography, and Department of American Indian Studies.
Nancy Petersen, Haury Program Assistant Director added: “This is our fifth year supporting graduate students in the research stage of their journey at University of Arizona. What started as a means to recruit students with an interest in tribal climate resilience, these award have become a hallmark of the Haury Program. We are grateful to learn alongside such talented students, improving practices for universities collaborating with community to address our most serious challenges.”