Source: NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY submitted to
TRAINING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE LEADERS FOR MANAGING RESILIENT FORESTS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1029455
Grant No.
2022-38420-38620
Cumulative Award Amt.
$260,500.00
Proposal No.
2022-04918
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 15, 2022
Project End Date
Sep 14, 2027
Grant Year
2022
Program Code
[KK]- National Needs Graduate Fellowships Program
Recipient Organization
NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
FLAGSTAFF,AZ 86011
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Managing resilient agroecosystems with a diverse and adaptable workforce is the major focus of the USDA's strategic goals. However, minority representation in forestry remains the lowest among the disciplines within Targeted Expertise Shortage Area (TESA) areas. The project goal is to produce the next generation of science leaders who can bring diverse cultural perspectives to improve quality of decisions in public land management agencies, as well as diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in TESA areas. Measurable objectives are: 1) to build a culturally responsive graduate training program; 2) to train four Master's-level and one Ph.D. level graduate Fellows; 3) to expand diverse representation in forestry graduate education. The project activities will include training activities for the NNF Fellows in forest science while developing dual cultural and scientific identities, and aligning personal and professional values, and experiential learning in the process of developing research projects and international collaborations. Fellows will work with K-12 teachers from Native-serving schools in the region to develop community service projects and provide mentoring to undergraduates and college-ready students from underrepresented populations. Fellows will be recruited through existing programs at NAU, networks of alumni/professionals, and selected for their leadership potential and lived experiences. Each fellow will develop a graduate career development plan with their academic and professional mentors. Professional careers of the Fellows and their impacts will be tracked through personal contacts and social media networks. Annual progress, as well as long-term impacts, will be tracked through surveys, self-reporting, and personal contacts.?
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
12306101070100%
Knowledge Area
123 - Management and Sustainability of Forest Resources;

Subject Of Investigation
0610 - Conifer forests of the North;

Field Of Science
1070 - Ecology;
Goals / Objectives
The project goal is to produce the next generation of science leaders who can bring diverse cultural perspectives to improve quality of decisions in public land management agencies, as well as diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in TESA areas. Measurable objectives are: 1) to build a culturally responsive graduate training program; 2) to train four Master's-level and one Ph.D. level graduate Fellows; 3) to expand diverse representation in forestry graduate education.
Project Methods
We anticipate a graduation rate of 100% for the five Fellows supported by our proposed project, which is greater than average for our graduate students. Our plans to ensure high retention and graduation rates include: a) careful recruitment and selection of Fellows; b) supplementing the NNF stipend with additional financial support to reduce financial stress on the Fellows; c) to facilitate team building and support; d) engaging Fellows in diverse communities on and off campus to build a sense of purpose and leadership through experiential learning activities; e) meeting weekly in class, and communicating at least monthly with all Fellows for periodic evaluation of their well-being, as well as academic advising and mentoring; f) drawing on the support services of the university as described under "Recruitment and Selection of Fellows."PD Kim will map each Fellow's progress towards meeting milestones specified in their own graduate career development plan with their advisors, and collect data about each Fellow in each year of the project, and for five years after graduation. Data collected for each Fellow during the project duration will include: their academic status and progress, as well as their professional development and the self-rating of progress toward their academic career goals and milestones. With active community engagement, we expect the number of BIPOC graduate students in the program will grow beyond this project. Additional tracking data collected from all Fellows for five years after graduation to evaluate program training and workforce pipelining will include details about their current employer and their current job title. Impacts of the project on the TESA will be quantitatively assessed via: 1) percentage retention and graduation rates of the Fellows; 2) percentage of Fellows professionally employed in permanent positions in the TESA workforce within five years after graduation; 3) number of BIPOC students in the program.

Progress 09/15/23 to 09/14/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience isstudents interested in natural resources management graduate programs that come from an historically excluded background in this field. We recruited broadly across the US with more focused in-person recruitment in the southwest. We targetted this region because we recognize that students from Native American and Latine backgrounds prefer to study close to home because of proximity to family and because of the applicability of regional research to their home communties. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Scholars were able to participate in a three-day training workshop, have guided coursework each semester and have been able to participate in an 8 session workshop on R (funded through an NSF RaMP. Fellows are interacting with professionals in USDA Agencies to think about career paths, and are learning how to navigate USA jobs. Scholars are identifying international opportunities for training and conference opportunities. All scholars will give a conference presentation this year, and many have already presented. Scholars have built webpages to highlight their interests and accomplishments and are building a professional portfolio to prepare for next steps. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Outreach activities at the Flagstaff Festival of Science and local K-12 classroom visits continue. In addition, we are sharing our programing with the SEA Change Community which will include a conference talk at AAAS in February. and will present our program results at the ACES conference in an invited talk this winter. We will be planning more outreach and conference activities in the coming months. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue work on our major goals and expect to expand our outreach, professional development, international programming and curriculum development. We will work with our NNF Fellows to help them develop IDPs and work on goals for their personal plans.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have made significant progress on our major goals. 1) to build a culturally responsive graduate training program We have co-convened the NNF fellows with another MS program with similar themes funded by A.P. Sloan Foundation from the start. Scholars participate in 4 semesters of coursework aimed at helping them to develop into scientists, stay on track on their projects and timelines, and build a scientific identity that includes their cultural and personal identities as well. This cohort includes 10 graduate students in STEM, all from historically excluded backgrounds. We started the program with a three-day retreat where we set our intentions, built a code of conduct and explored how cultural and science identity intertwine to build stronger research. Scholars are beginning the 3rd semester of programming and many already given conference presentations. The NAU SoF Faculty is engaged in building culturally responsive content into all course work. Course plans in all existing and new courses have been revised for this purpose. In addition, we have built trainings around anti-racsit and equity-oriented teaching, mentorship and research into faculty meeting. Eight faculty in SOF have completed or started the A.P. Sloan funded year-long Faculty Community of Practice: building anti-racst and equity oriented mentoring and research practices. 2) to train four Master's-level and one Ph.D. level graduate Fellows We are in the second year of training for these fellows. One fellow withdrew from NAU due to medical need. We have recruited another scholar into the program to replace this lost student. 3) to expand diverse representation in forestry graduate education. Our students include Latine, Native American, third gender, first generation and non-traditional students, and are predominantly women. This work is diversifying our School of Forestry graduate program. We are working with students to identify career paths and have partners at USDA agencies to help students apply for agency positions.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: " Scoresby, S., E. Spencer, R. Crowhurst, C. Epps, T. Graves. 2024. Bighorn Sheep Population Structure in Dinosaur National Monument. Arizona-New Mexico Joint Annual Meeting, The Wildlife Society Conference. Flagstaff, Arizona. February 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Scoresby, S., F. Walker, S. Ramos. Understanding the Full-Taxa Diet of Sierra Nevada Red Foxes through Fecal DNA Metabarcoding. SACNAS National Diversity in STEM (NDiSTEM) Conference. Phoenix, Arizona. October 2024
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: "Scoresby, S., F. Walker, S. Ramos. Understanding the Full-Taxa Diet of Sierra Nevada Red Foxes through Fecal DNA Metabarcoding. The Wildlife Society, Annual International Conference. Baltimore, Maryland. October 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Scoresby, S., F. Walker, S. Ramos. Understanding the Full-Taxa Diet of Sierra Nevada Red Foxes through Fecal DNA Metabarcoding. Oregon Section, The Wildlife Society Conference. Hood River, Oregon. February 2024
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: SACNAS Portland, October 2023 Amphibians as Biomonitors in Rice Agroecosystems, Amber Born, Dr. Alejandro Grajal-Puche, Dr. Catherine Propper)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: ? Amber Born, Dr. Kara Skye Gibson, Dr. Derek Uhey, Dr. Anita Joy Antoninka) Investigating fire severity effects on soil arthropod prey for the endangered Jemez Mountains salamander (Plethodon neomexicanus) SACNAS Phoenix, October 2024
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: ? Amber Born, Dr. Kara Skye Gibson,Dr. Derek Uhey, Dr. Anita Joy Antoninka Investigating fire severity effects on soil arthropod prey for the endangered Jemez Mountains salamander (Plethodon neomexicanus) Entomological Society of America (ESA) Phoenix, November 2024


Progress 09/15/22 to 09/14/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience was students interested in natural resources management graduate programs that come from an historically excluded background in this field. We recruited broadly across the USwith more focused in-person recruitment in the southwest. We targetted this region because we recognize that students from Native American and Latine backgrounds prefer to studyclose to home because of proximity to family and because of the applicability of regional research to their home communties. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have already offered a three day workshop, and are hosting an 8 session workshop on R (funded through an NSF RaMP program co-PIed by Antoninka). Fellows are interacting with professionals in USDA Agencies to think about career paths, and are learngin how to navigate USA jobs. We are exploring international opportunities and will have more to report once we are further into the prgram. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Outreach activities are being planned or the Flagstaff Festival of Science andlocal K-12 classroom visits. We will be planning more outreach and conference activities in the coming months. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue work on our major goals and expect to xpand our outreach, professional development, international programming and curriculum development. We will work with our NNF Fellows to help them develop IDPs and work on goals for their personal plans.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have made significant progress on our major goals. 1)to build a culturally responsive graduate training program We have coconvened the NNF fellows with another MS program with similar themes funded by A.P. Sloan Foundation (Transforming Institutions, Co-PIed by Antoninka) to build a cohort of 10 graduate students in STEM, all from historically excluded backgrounds. We have a four semester curriculum to build community and support students as they navigate graduate programs and next steps. We started the program with a three day retreat where we set our intentions, built a code of conduct and explored how cultural and science identity intertwine to build stronger research. The NAU SoF Faculty is engaged in buidling culturally responsive content into all course work, and to date, 8 people have completed or started the A.P. Sloan funded year longFaculty Community of Practice: building antiracst and equity oreitned mentoring and research practices. In addition, we have started our SoF community of practice to continue the work on action plans. 2) to train four Master's-level and one Ph.D. level graduate Fellows We have successfully recruited these students and all have started their programs at NAU. 3) to expand diverse representation in forestry graduate education. Our students includeLatine, Native American, third gender, first generation and non-traditionasl studensts, and are predominantly women.

Publications