Faculty Advisory Committee

The UCLA American Indian Studies Center Faculty Advisory Committee comprises of members from different departments all over the campus. Click on each individual members’ research focus to read more about them.

Members of the FAC are available for contact by the media: Media Contact List.

2022–2023

Faculty Advisory Committee Chair


  • Assistant Professor Ananda Marin
    (Choctaw)
    Department of Education
    Email: marin@gseis.ucla.edu
    Research Focus

Members of the Faculty Advisory Committee


  • Assistant Professor Tria Blu Wakpa
    Department of World Arts and Culture/Dance
    Email: triabluwakpa@arts.ucla.edu
    Research Focus


  • Associate Professor Jessica Cattelino
    Department of Anthropology
    Email: jesscatt@anthro.ucla.edu
    Research Focus


  • Associate Professor Erin Debenport
    Department of Anthropology
    Associate Director of the UCLA American Indian Studies Center
    Email: erindebenport@ucla.edu
    Research Focus


  • Professor Paul Kroskrity
    Department of Anthropology
    Email: paulvk@ucla.edu
    Research Focus


  • Assistant Professor Kyle T. Mays (Saginaw Anishinaabe)
    Department of African American Studies
    Email: mayskyle@ucla.edu
    Research Focus


  • Professor Teresa McCarty
    UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies
    Email: teresa.mccarty@ucla.edu
    Research Focus


  • Professor Nancy Marie Mithlo (Chiricahua Apache)
    Department of Gender Studies
    Email: mithlo@ucla.edu
    Research Focus


  • Associate Professor Stella Nair
    Department of Art History
    Email: snair@humnet.ucla.edu
    Research Focus


  • Professor Angela R. Riley (Citizen Potawatomi Nation)
    School of Law
    Email: riley@law.ucla.edu
    Research Focus


  • Dr. Gaspar Rivera-Salgado
    Project Director at the Labor Center
    Email: grsalgado@irle.ucla.edu
    Research Focus


  • Assistant Professor Desi Rodriguez-Lonebear (Northern Cheyenne & Chicana)
    Department of Sociology
    Email: desisr@soc.ucla.edu
    Research Focus


  • Rey Soto, ex officio
    Staff Representative
    MACS Data Manager, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology
    Email: reysoto@ucla.edu

  • Professor Shannon Speed, ex officio (Chickasaw)
    Director of American Indian Studies Center; Department of Gender Studies and Anthropology
    Email: sspeed@aisc.ucla.edu
    Research Focus


  • Associate Professor Aradhna Tripati (Fijian)
    Institute of Environmental & Sustainability, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences
    Email: atripati@g.ucla.edu
    Research Focus