Braided Knowledges: Blending Ways of Knowing for Environmental Resilience

American Indian and Indigenous Collective's 13th Annual Symposium

Bren Hall

BH 1414, 1st Floor

University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)

Join the UCSB AIIC's

13th Annual Symposium

Braided Knowledges: Blending Ways of Knowing for Environmental Resilience

We welcome you to UCSB while acknowledging the region's traditional custodians, the Chumash people. We pay our respects to Chumash Elders past, present and future for they hold the memories, the traditions, and the culture of this area, which has become a place of learning for people from all over the world.

When: Friday - Sunday, February 27th - March 1st, 2026

Where: University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), Bren Hall (BH 1414)

Keynote Speakers:

Saturday, February 28, 2026:

Paulette Blanchard

Dr. Blanchard holds a Doctorate of Geography from the University of Kansas, Master of Arts in Geography from the University of Oklahoma, and a Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous & American Indian Studies from Haskell Indian Nations University. Dr. Blanchard was a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Fellow for University Corporation for Atmospheric Research for 2018-2020. She is a CoPI on NSF CoPe Rising Voices Changing Coast’s grant #2103843 that directly engages Indigenous and Non-Indigenous scientists with Indigenous coastal communities to address climate change impacts and variabilities across four regions: Hawaii, Alaska, Louisiana, and Puerto Rico.

Her work addresses the challenges and opportunities that Indigenous Peoples face in relation to climate change and climate justice. Her work also addresses Indigenous science and science education, Indigenous led environmental movements, and activism. She incorporates Indigenous Feminist methodologies and philosophies into her geographic framework. Her work includes social, climate, and environmental justice for Indigenous Peoples and other marginalized populations.

Sunday, March 1, 2026:

Irene Vasquez

Irene Vasquez is a Cultural Ecologist with the Great Basin Institute at Yosemite National Park, where she has worked in Resource Management and Science since 2010 as a restoration worker, crew lead, and biological science technician. Her work focuses on ecological restoration, Tribal partnership coordination, and the integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge into vegetation management and cultural landscape restoration.

She began working in Yosemite as a cultural demonstrator at the Indian Cultural Museum at age 16 and later with the Youth Conservation Corps. Irene holds a Master of Science in Environmental Science and Natural Resource Management from Cal Poly Humboldt and a BA in Environmental Studies and Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. A first-generation college graduate, she was raised in her native Miwuk/Paiute community and brings a deep personal and professional commitment to traditional stewardship. She is the founder of Yosemite Ancestral Stewards, a summer youth conservation program that recruits and mentors traditionally associated Tribal members and others to support restoration projects in the park, advancing workforce development, intergenerational knowledge transfer, and long-term stewardship capacity.

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