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Faculty Development

Colette Patt
Director of the Research University Alliance
UC Berkeley

Colette Patt is the Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access in the Mathematical & Physical Sciences Division (MPS), at the University of California, Berkeley. As the MPS Division’s chief diversity officer, she generates, facilitates, and leads efforts across the division to increase diversity and achieve equitable outcomes at the undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, and faculty levels. Her scholarly work focuses on academic life, identity, race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, disability in higher education, and institutional change. Dr. Patt received her BA in English and Women’s Studies in 1985, and her Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Studies in Education at UC Berkeley in 1995.

Jennifer Harrington
Member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa

Graduate Program in Resource Conservation at the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation at UM

Jennifer Harrington is Cree and Metis, and a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe of North Dakota. Jennifer is finishing her graduate program in Resource Conservation at the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation at UM.  Jennifer has been working with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to develop recommendations on improving consultation between federal agencies and tribes, particularly in regard to environmental degradation and restoration on reservation and aboriginal territories.  Her work with tribes has given her a new perspective on resource management that is far more sustainable than the more recent colonial view of natural resources as a commodity.  Ms. Harrington is interested in continuing work with tribes on environmental issues that include the indigenous perspective and needs into restoration plans, to improve environmental health and to improve the government-to-government relationship between tribes and the federal government.

Programs supporting local Native American tribes
and Indigenous students pursuing STEM fields

UC Berkeley hosts two NSF AGEP programs, The California AGEP Alliance (CA Alliance AGEP), and the Research Universities Alliance AGEP (RUA AGEP), which partner with ten universities: UCB, UCLA, Stanford, Caltech, Univ of Washington, Univ of Texas at Austin, Univ of Michigan, Harvard, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. California AGEP and RUA AGEP will work with the Alliance to: 1) provide NA graduate students and postdocs with research and mentoring opportunities at ten universities in the RUA, including networking events, access to mentors, training materials, job announcements, and an online community-of-practice, and 2) disseminate state-of-the art knowledge to Alliance partners about equitable and inclusive educational and mentoring practices for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

University of Montana, Salish Kootenai College, Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, Sitting Bull College – Willow Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (Willow AGEP) will share its model to advance NA faculty among Alliance partners. Willow will: 1) share its Indigenous Mentoring Program for Native STEM faculty through online modules, facilitator’s handbook, and workshops; 2) share the Willow Grant Writing and Management Guide for Native faculty in STEM; and 3) produce and share short-videos describing the Willow Alliance Model to enhance success of Native faculty in STEM.

The WILLOW Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate is a collaboration between University of Montana in Missoula, and Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Montana to develop, implement, and study a model for the professional success of faculty and instructional staff in science, technology, engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) who are enrolled in, and/or descendants of, Native American tribes. The WILLOW Alliance project is funded by the National Science Foundation and aims to increase success of Native American STEM Faculty and advance knowledge about issues impacting their career progression in STEM fields. The WILLOW Alliance project includes:

A mixed methods participatory approach research component will examine: 

  • the personal, relational, and collective experiences that enhance or inhibit professional development and career advancement of Native American STEM Faculty
  • the underlying institutional issues affecting promotion and advancement
  • the approaches Native American STEM Faculty use to support promotion and advancement
  • the ways different types of universities and colleges (tribal vs. non-tribal) support Native American STEM Faculty
  • the climate of STEM departments (comparing how non- Native American STEM Faculty and Native American STEM Faculty experience professional development, promotion and advancement)