Native FEWS Alliance

Our new NSF includes Alliance, led by a strong number of Indigenous faculty, researchers, and partners, fuses place-based approaches to teaching and diversity with applied research in food, energy and water systems (FEWS) and Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing. The dual vision of the Native FEWS Alliance (the Alliance) is to build a highly skilled Native American (NA) STEM workforce at the nexus of Food, Energy and Water and to co-innovate and deploy Indigenous place-based FEWS education and community partnerships. The Alliance’s goals are to:

1. Address urgent FEWS challenges in Indigenous communities.
2. Co-develop integrated, Indigenous, place-based FEWS curricula, mentoring, and practice experiences. 
3. Transform institutional STEM fields to be relevant and accessible to Indigenous communities.
4. Use curricula and interventions to recruit, retain and graduate Indigenous students to pursue higher education and careers in FEWS and bring their knowledge back to their communities.

To accomplish these goals with an aim to increase and widen career opportunities relevant to NA communities, the Alliance will connect an array of professional FEWS pathways by aligning a network of many Indigenous-focused programs into a cohesive partnership.