Haury’s 2026 Perspectives on Indigenous Resilience Event Celebrates University of Arizona Graduate Researchers

On April 30, more than 60 participants gathered in person and online for the 2026 Perspectives on Indigenous Resilience event, hosted by the Agnese Nelms Haury Program (Haury Program) in collaboration with the Arizona Institute for Resilience. The annual event highlights the work of recipients of the Haury’s Indigenous Resilience Graduate Research Awards as well as creates opportunities for community-building, interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration.

This year, seven University of Arizona graduate students from the 2025 award cohort presented research addressing a broad range of Indigenous and tribal resilience topics: Shawnell Damon, LaCher Pacheco, Chrisa Whitmore, Majerle Lister, Matthew Tafoya, Byron Upshaw and Nicholas Wilson. Recordings of all presentations are available online.

Toni Massaro, executive director of the Haury Program, opened the event by discussing the program’s role as an embedded philanthropy at the University of Arizona dedicated to supporting Indigenous environmental resilience and strengthening pathways for Indigenous scholars and communities.

“The Graduate Research Awards program emerged in response to tribal leaders’ calls for stronger pathways to and within the University of Arizona for research and learning that matter to tribal communities,” Massaro said.

Launched in 2020 as part of the Haury Program’s Indigenous Resilience Initiative, the Graduate Research Awards program has supported a growing network of Indigenous resilience scholars across the university. Between 2020 and 2025, the Haury Program awarded 30 research grants, including support for master’s and doctoral research, undergraduate research at Diné College and a special faculty research award at the University of Arizona.

To date, the program has awarded more than $508,000 in funding, with an additional $120,000 budgeted for 2026 awards. The program has achieved a 96.6% project completion rate for cohorts from 2020 through 2023, while 12 students from the 2024 and 2025 cohorts are currently completing their degrees.

Awardees have represented 15 colleges and academic fields across the university, including public health, education, environmental science, natural resources, geography, American Indian studies, anthropology, human rights practice, Indigenous people’s law and policy, engineering, applied biosciences, nursing, arid lands resources and law.

According to program feedback and assessment, the awards program has contributed to strengthening Indigenous resilience pathways at the University of Arizona, building capacity among emerging scholars and practitioners, supporting respectful research partnerships with Indigenous communities and advancing priorities identified by tribal communities.

Following the research showcase, graduate students, other Haury awardees and program partners gathered for a networking lunch led by Nancy Petersen, associate director of the Haury Program.

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“For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Haury Program intentionally invited our awardees and partners to come together as a Haury community formed through shared work and aspirations in service to Native Nations, students, faculty and staff,” Petersen said. “We shared stories about arriving at the university, experiencing our first monsoon, learning from Native Royalty and recognizing the importance of creating opportunities for those who have historically been excluded. I was deeply grateful for everyone in the room, for the relationships they bring and for the possibility of continuing to strengthen one another,” shared Petersen.

The Haury Program’s 2026 call for applications for the Indigenous Resilience Graduate Research Awards is now closed. The program received a record number of applications this year and looks forward to announcing the next cohort of awardees soon.

For more information about the Haury Program and future opportunities, visit the Haury Program website.