Research

During my time as an undergraduate at UC Davis, I was heavily involved with the Indigenous community on campus, both academically and socially, which has become instrumental in how I approach my scholarship and relationships with others. I conducted social justice work at the Student Recruitment and Retention Center (SRRC) in the American Indian Recruitment and Retention (AIRR) program, conducting youth outreach to various reservations and rancherias in Northern California and hosting Indigenous high school students on campus to demystify the college application process. Through this work, it became increasingly apparent that there were physical, social, and financial disparities across Native and non-Native spaces, leading me to my first research question and the field of planning: What are the factors that contribute towards the differences in living conditions between Native/Indigenous communities and non-Natives?

After graduating, I worked as an intern in the Neighborhood Services Division of the Planning Department for the City of Milpitas. Here, I was exposed to the daily activities associated with local government and solidified my decision to pursue graduate school in the field of Urban Planning. I subsequently enrolled in the (then) Master of Planning program at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California, specializing in Preservation and Design of the Built Environment. While the program equipped me with the theoretical and technical skills to become a planner, I found myself wanting to understand how these concepts applied in Indian Country given each tribe’s unique historical and cultural contexts. I looked to works on Indian Gaming, Tribal Governance, and Tribal Planning to explore how planning subfields were being practiced in a Tribal context but ultimately found myself realizing the significant cultural differences between Indigenous worldviews (generally) and settler societies. With this newfound knowledge that the scholarship on Indigenous Planning was relatively thin compared to other planning sub-disciplines, I decided to pursue a doctoral program at Cornell University to help “fill in the gap” in scholarship regarding forms of planning that materially (and immaterially too) improves the lives of Indigenous peoples. I am fortunate to currently work at the University of Washington’s department of Urban Design and Planning as an Assistant Professor.

Dissertation Research
My dissertation titled “Water Rites and Water Rights: Characterizing Cultural Values in Water Planning Activities on the Cherokee Reservation, the State of Oklahoma, and the United States Federal Government” investigates the characteristics of cultural values that are embedded within Water Planning strategies. Using fieldwork I conducted in Northeastern Oklahoma on the Cherokee Reservation from 2019-2020 and frameworks developed on Value Orientations, I employ autoethnographic methods to understand my own acculturation into Oklahoma as an Indigenous person, observing the norms, values, and cultural practices vis-à-vis Indigenous-State relations. Given the impacts of the ongoing pandemic, I utilize digital media and archives to construct a history of State water management strategies and conduct a thematic analysis to identify trends in cultural values to describe the relationship between Settler governments and the environment. In doing so, I characterize how Tribal and Settler governments manifest and operationalize their cultural values through Environmental planning practices, laying the groundwork for future planning approaches to center Indigenous values and create futures where Indigenous cultural and environmental restoration can prosper.

Current Research
Some of my current explore the environmental initiatives performed by Community Land Trusts (CLTs), developing approaches to heritage planning in Indian Country, and understanding the development of Indigenous Language-scapes in built environment.