LaCher Pacheco

LaCher Pacheco is from Santo Domingo Pueblo, New Mexico. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies in the College of Education with a focus on children's & young adult literature and environmental & sustainability education. LaCher’s dissertation, Responding to Picture Books about the Environment, bridges science and Indigenous ways of knowing. Her research focuses on reader response theory with her advisor, Dr. Kathy Short. 

As a School to Garden Workshop (SGW) Intern, LaCher has led educator workshops on Traditional Ecological Knowledge, agrivoltaics, and arts based education using picturebooks and storytelling. She is working with the SGW team and the Service to All My Relations Charter School to develop a Northern Arizona Almanac, an educational resource linking classroom learning with local agricultural knowledge and cultural storytelling. NSF-funded her 2024-2025 research which focused on career pathways in food, energy, and water systems within Native American communities (Native FEWS Alliance).