She/Her
Geography and Environmental Systems (GES)
Autumn Powell is a recent ICARE NRT graduate who’s thesis project focuses on how restoration and conservation programs is not realistic or ideal if there are no Indigenous people involved. For instance, The Chesapeake Bay watershed flows into six different states and is heavily invested with various programs ranging from biologists, policymakers, local government agencies, academic institutes, and businesses. Yet there is little to no information mentioned of collaborating with 21st century, existing communities of Indigenous people. The purpose of her project was to investigate institute program’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as being inclusive by acknowledging local tribal’s ecological knowledge as its own set of knowledge, between governmental institutes and tribal members residing in the state of Maryland.
Autumn is Naahiłii dóó Diné asdzáán (Black and Navajo woman) from Window Rock, Arizona.
UMBC Mentor: Maggie Holland
Partner Mentors: Ashley Minner Jones (Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian)
Partner Mentors: Ashley Minner Jones (Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian)
Community Stakeholders: Maria Day & Megan Craynon (Maryland State Archives)