Past Scholarship Recipients
The Virgil Masayesva Native American Environmental Education Scholarship Fund
Siigrid Lii’bilNaghahi
Siigrid Lii’bilNaghahi, a member of the Navajo tribe, is currently attending her sophomore year at Northern Arizona University (NAU). At NAU, she majors in Biomedical Sciences with a minor in Studio Arts. After earning a bachelor’s degree, she plans on continuing her education at the University of Pennsylvania to earn a medical degree in Orthopedic Surgery. Her ultimate goal is to improve the medical care and the quality of hospitals in Native American communities.
Tisheena S. Talk
Tisheena is a Navajo from Shiprock, New Mexico. She is currently attending Northern Arizona University (NAU) on the Flagstaff, Arizona campus. At NAU, she majors in Biology with a Wildlife Management emphasis. In the future, she would like to assist in protecting natural resources on the Navajo Nation. Her vision includes that the Navajo Nation is a safe place to reside – with fresh air quality, healthy plant life and sufficient or abundant clean water resources for all living Beings. In her career, she plans to apply Tribal Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as part of her stewardship.
Michael Jordan
Michael is a student at Northern Arizona University (NAU) with a focus on wildlife management and forest management. With a decade of experience in firefighting, he brings a knowledge of eye-witness accounts of the effects of wildfires on different species, animals, and soil, as well as the environment in general. His vision emphasizes the environment with a connection and responsibility as a Native American to protect Mother Earth.
Shanya Whitehorse
Shanya comes from Aneth, Utah, the northern part of the Navajo Nation. She is a Environmental Engineer major at Northern Arizona University (NAU). Her goal of becoming an engineer came from living on the reservation where oil drilling is an economic support and a part of everyday life, as her grandparents and community struggled from contaminated soil, water and air daily. This has motivated her to get her degree to protect not only her community, but Indian Country from the environmental effects such as pollution to improve the environmental quality.
Josephine Louise Kamkoff
Josie is of Lummi and Yupik descent. Born in Anchorage, Alaska, she spent her school years in Alaska, and her summers in Lummi, Washington. She graduated for the Northwest Indian College with a Bachelor’s of Science-Native Environmental Science in June, 2016. From there, she began as a Master’s of Professional Science-Climate Science and Solutions major at Northern Arizona University. She now works for ITEP with the EEOP and TAMS Center as the Community Program Coordinator.
Chad Brown
Chad hails from the proud tribes of Santo Domingo Pueblo, Santa Clara Pueblo, and the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. He studied in the Bachelor of Science program of Forestry at Northern Arizona University where he graduated in 2017. He strives to one day become a silviculturist for his tribe to fulfill the many responsibilities as a steward of the forest.
Mariah Ashley
Mariah is Diné from the community of Chichiltah in New Mexico. She attended Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona and received an Associate of Science (A.S.) Degree in 2013. She then transferred to Northern Arizona University and received her B.S. Degree in Environmental Science with a Geology emphasis in 2016. She currently works with the National Tribal Air Association to advance air quality programs among Tribal nations across the country.
Darrien Benally
Darrien is a member of the Navajo tribe. I was born and raised in Flagstaff, Arizona. She transferred to NAU from Coconino Community College to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Indigenous Studies with a minor in Environmental Sustainability. She believes that as Indigenous peoples, it is important that we are educated using our own traditional ecological knowledge to understand climate change and work towards building more sustainable communities by combining western knowledge with traditional knowledge.
Dawnylle Smith
Dawnylle is a Northern Arizona University alumnus with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a minor in chemistry. She is a Diné woman who worked with young Navajo high school students in her hometown of Ganado, Arizona as an educator. She attended NAU as a Climate Science and Solutions Professional Science Masters student with and graduated in December 2016.
Deon Ben
Deon is a member of the Navajo Nation from the community of Tohatchi, NM. He is working on completing his Masters of Science in the school of Environmental Science & Policy with an emphasis on incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) into Navajo community land use planning to address climate challenges and applications. Deon completed his MS degree in 2016. "The importance of addressing our environmental concerns is overdue and it is eminent that young experienced Native Americans return to their Nations and become practical players in decision making and leadership; we talk about our future in so many components but we have to come to the realization that the future is the present."
Erin O'Keefe
Erin, a Northern Arizona University (NAU) student, from Gallup, NM is Diné of the Water That Flows Together clan born for the Anishinaabe Eagle clan. She has a BA degree in Applied Indigenous Studies (AIS) and a BS in Communication Studies from NAU, and is currently working on a Master's in Sustainable Communities at NAU. Erin’s educational program and extracurricular activities support one of Erin’s career goals, which is working with Native American youth back on her reservation and educating them in environmental sustainability.
Riley Smith
Riley was a Master's student in the biology program at Northern Arizona University. She is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area in California and is Shoshone from the Shoshone-Bannock Nation at Fort Hall. Riley graduated from San Francisco State University with a double major in ecology (BS) and Native American Studies (BA). And received her Masters Degree from NAU.