ASU alumna works her way up to become CEO of Special Olympics Arizona

November 26, 2018

The Special Olympics Arizona board of directors named Jamie Heckerman the president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit this fall. Heckerman is an alumna of Arizona State University's School of Community Resources and Development, where she majored in therapeutic recreation.

“I am thrilled to hear of Jamie’s appointment to president and CEO of Special Olympics Arizona because of her tireless commitment to empowering children and adults to experience the joy of sport,” said Kelly Ramella, coordinator of ASU's therapeutic recreation program. “It is a source of pride for the ASU therapeutic recreation program to know that one of our alumni has had and will continue to have a positive influence on the accessibility of sport for all and improvement of health in Arizona.” Jaime Heckerman Jamie Heckerman. Download Full Image

Heckerman earned an athletic scholarship to the University of Arizona. But the wheelchair basketball player gave it up after working with Special Olympics in Tucson. She found her calling and came to Phoenix to study therapeutic recreation at the School of Community Resources and Development.

“In therapeutic recreation, you work with so many different types of populations of people or groups of people,” Heckerman said. “I work with (an) intellectually disabled population and I really enjoy it.”

Heckerman understands the important role sports can play in the lives of people who otherwise may not be seen as athletes.

“You know, I was born with a disability. I was born with spina bifida, so I'm a full-time wheelchair user,” Heckerman said. “I got engaged in sport at a very young age, I played wheelchair basketball and got a scholarship to go to the U of A.”

She also wants to give back. She credits recreation therapists with opening the door for her.

“So it's working with a group of people that have a disability. And they're looking to not necessarily overcome it, but be a part of their community in any way that they can and act as a normal, everyday citizen, and that's what we're allowing them to do through therapeutic recreation,” Heckerman said. “Maybe it's getting them back out in the community to go out with friends, go see a movie. What we can do to make those things easier for them."

Heckerman worked in adaptive sports for the city of Peoria after graduating in 2009, which allowed her to remain involved with Special Olympics. She later joined the organization as a sports manager working with athletes and coaches. Heckerman worked her way up through a number of positions until she was called upon to serve as interim CEO earlier this year.

Jaime Heckerman at a Special Olympics flag football game

Jamie Heckerman at a Special Olympics Arizona flag football game. As the president and CEO, she oversees athletics events for more than 25,000 athletes.

“Jamie’s proven record of success in Special Olympics Arizona will ensure that our more than 25,000 athletes and almost 23,000 volunteers will have a strong leader to advocate for them moving forward,” said Peoria Police commander Douglas Steele, board chair of Special Olympics Arizona.

Heckerman will be tasked with expanding the organization’s programs, moving the location of its headquarters, and increasing the number of athletes and volunteers.

“Being able to see this organization grow and stay on the same track that we were on in terms of growth and program development is tremendous,” Heckerman said. “Personally, I get to grow as an individual. I get to increase my leadership skills and I get to meet new people and work with donors and development.”

She is also mentoring a new generation of public service leaders.

"Jamie serves as a role model for many young professionals and students and has given me an opportunity to achieve my personal goals," said Angelica Raya, a student intern from the School of Community Resources and Development. "I know that her office is always open, and (she) will always have our best interest in mind."

Paul Atkinson

assistant director, College of Public Service and Community Solutions

602-496-0001 paul.atkinson@asu.edu

Solutions

ASU clinic hopes to offer safety, confidence with transgender voice therapy

November 19, 2018

Program at Speech and Hearing Clinic serves clients who want to match voice to gender ID

At first glance, you might think Arizona State University grad student Abby Goff is in need of a sweater. Vibrating her lips as she breathes out slowly, the universal sound of one chilled to the bone fills the room: “Brrr!”

In actuality, Goff is demonstrating a lip trill. As a student clinician at the College of Health Solutions' Speech and Hearing Clinic, it’s one of the exercises she teaches clients as part of transgender voice and communication therapy, one of the many services offered by the clinic.

Film and media production undergrad Julie Tjalas, one of the six transgender clients the clinic has served since it began offering the specialized therapy over the summer, says training her voice to match her gender identityAverage feminine voice pitch is considered 155-245 Hz. The average masculine voice pitch is 85-180 Hz. A range of 150-185 Hz is considered "gender acceptable" for a transgender woman's voice. is partly about self-confidence and partly about safety.

“I like having control of who knows whether or not I’m trans,” she said. “I don’t mind if people think I’m cis unless I tell them otherwise. If I can have that layer of control, I feel safer, because not everyone has positive opinions about trans people.”

Tjalas’ comment is underscored by the observation Tuesday of the international Transgender Day of Remembrance, which draws attention to the continued violence endured by the transgender community and memorializes those who have been victims of it.

Clinic director Myra Schatzki said transgender women sometimes try to train their voice on their own, which can be harmful.

“If they are trying to strain to reach a certain pitch range, which is much higher than a masculine pitch range, and trying to sustain that over a period of time without using proper breath support, they can definitely begin to develop a pathology,” such as strained muscles and hoarseness or loss of voice, she said.

(Voice isn’t usually as much of an issue for transgender men because of testosterone treatments.)

The Speech and Hearing Clinic’s transgender voice and communication therapy program is designed to help patients achieve their goals incrementally, focusing on maintaining a healthy voice along the way.

After an initial vocal health assessment that determines a client’s baseline pitch and sets out a plan of action, clients visit the clinic for a 50-minute session with a graduate student clinician once a week, for 10 weeks each semester.

At any given session, clients might find themselves humming along with a keyboard to match a certain note, reading sound charts into a microphone while computer software tracks their pitch range, or performing relaxation techniques — including those lip trills.

The graduate student clinicians tailor each session based on individual clients’ needs, backing every lesson plan up with evidence-based research.

Goff and fellow grad student clinician Rebecca Abraham agree it’s experience they wouldn’t be getting anywhere else and are happy to see transgender voice therapy becoming a more recognized facet of the speech and hearing field.

Grad student clinicians Abby Goff (left) and Rebecca Abraham work on therapy techniques at the College of Health Solutions' Speech and Hearing Clinic. Photo by Jamie Ell/ASU Now

“Being able to speak at a pitch that accurately represents your gender is something a lot of us take for granted,” Abraham said.

But voice is way more than just pitch, they’ve learned. There’s also resonance, intonation, body language and more.

“We're trying to look at the whole package,” Goff said. “Not just the sound of your voice but the way you use it — the way you use your body when you're communicating. Every aspect of communication, we're trying to target. The goal is for the client to be able to integrate all of that for a sustained time, without any concentration and without straining their voice.”

And in addition to learning more clinical fundamentals, such as how to develop a plan of care and document client progress using an electronic medical record, the students learn “how all clients deserve to receive proper care with dignity,” Schatzki said.

In just the few short months since she began treatment in September, Tjalas has noticed improvements that have made a big difference in her life.

“It’s something that makes me feel better about myself,” she said. “It might feel goofy at first, but it’s sort of like a drama or theater class. After you get over the initial awkward curve, you get use to making weird sounds on a weekly basis, and it becomes fun. And it’s a very positive and welcoming environment.”

Anyone interested in the College of Health Solutions' Speech and Hearing Clinic transgender voice and communication therapy should contact the clinic at 480-965-2373 to schedule an initial evaluation appointment. The clinic offers accessible prices and accepts most major insurance plans.

Video by Jamie Ell/ASU Now

Emma Greguska

Reporter, ASU Now

(480) 965-9657 emma.greguska@asu.edu

Creativity

Breaking down the borderlands through poetry

Tempe campus

November 16, 2018

ASU English Professor Natalie Diaz presents visiting poet Eduardo C. Corral in conversation about the vital importance of border issues

In recent years, talk of border security, child separation, caravans of migrants and building — or not building — “the wall” has dominated U.S. headlines. Borders and borderlands, it seems, are at the forefront of America’s collective consciousness.

ASU English Professor and recent MacArthur genius grant recipient Natalie Diaz believes that borders can have many purposes, for better or worse, and that people who live in borderlands aren’t the only ones who need to be thinking about them.

“Some of the worst abuse of power, people, wildlife, land and water happen in our borderlands — this will ultimately affect all of us,” she said.

In the hopes of starting a much-needed conversation on the topic, Diaz and the civic-minded artistic collaborative program [archi]TEXTS will present “Borderlands Poetry with Eduardo C. Corral” at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 19, in the Pima Auditorium of the Memorial Union on ASU’s Tempe campus.

Felicia Zamora, manager of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing will facilitate the discussion, which benefits No Mas Muertes (No More Deaths), a humanitarian organization based in southern Arizona dedicated to increasing efforts to stop deaths of migrants in the desert. The event will also be livestreamed.

Corral, an assistant professor in the master of fine arts program at North Carolina State University, is the author of “Slow Lightning,” a collection of poems that transcends both literal and figurative borders.

In anticipation of the event, ASU Now spoke with Diaz — whose own work and life has transcended many borders — to get her take on the importance of the topic and her own experiences with it.

Question: Why is the topic of borders and borderlands especially salient at this point in time?

Answer: The borderlands have always been an important place. It is the place of our ancestors and families. It is the land where our languages and stories come from. Borderlands are always the sites of traumas, because the border is something that has been imposed there, with fencing, war, water shortages or water pollution, maquiladoras, brutality toward women and children, racism — and yet from these lands, we are also a vibrant, joyous, beautiful people who are part of the fabric and clay of America today. There is no future of America without the peoples of the borderlands — these people have helped to build and maintain America. Also, imagine what American food might be like without the contributions of the peoples it is always trying to keep outside of its borders!

Q: Why is it a topic everyone, not just those who live near borders or cross them, should care about?

A: America is a country of indigenous or natives, and a country of immigrants. Every one of us is complicit in what happens in this country. We are each responsible in some way for the future we leave for the next generations. America shows its worst self at the borders, although it hides behind words like military might and patriotism. However, those words are disconnected from the bodies of everyone involved. We must treat all living things equally, no matter what side of the border you live on, no matter when your family migrated to America. Some of the worst abuse of power, people, wildlife, land and water happen in our borderlands — this will ultimately affect all of us.

Q: How do you hope Eduardo Corral’s visit to ASU will change the way attendees think about borders and borderlands?

A: My hope for bringing Eduardo here to be in conversation with Felicia Zamora is that we begin to acknowledge a conversation that is necessary and that might not have an immediate solution. These conversations have to start and have to be maintained. This one starting point, to join some of the other conversations that are being started on campus and across our off-campus communities. I don't know that it will change the mind of someone, but I know that it will help to give voice and language to some of our students and faculty and community members who are looking for ways to speak out about their experiences living in the borderlands.

Q: What kind of borders have you experienced in your life/profession as a writer who is also Latina, indigenous and a woman?

A: The first border I learned and broke was the border of girls and boys — I had a gift for sports, and I was lucky that my parents saw this as a borderless place. I grew up playing with the boys. It was the greatest gift to me. Living on the reservation is always a border, as well as being of mixed race and living on the reservation. I'm not full-blooded. My father's family is from both Spain and Mexico, another complex border. We all have borders we navigate or hurdle or butt up against. Sometimes it's money or class, sometimes it's race or color, sometimes it is about sexuality or gender. The amazing thing to me is that if the border were to come down — be it a wall, or a fence or an imaginary line in your mind — if a bridge were to be built in its place, we could stand next to one another. We'd still have differences and we'd not always agree on things or understand one another, but we'd be able to stand side by side to imagine this world together, to figure out how to save our waterways together, to acknowledge that we are each human and alive and deserve joy and love and family and futures.

Emma Greguska

Reporter , ASU Now

(480) 965-9657 emma.greguska@asu.edu

Creativity

Dispelling the myths of drag performance

November 15, 2018

ASU's Project Humanities event opens up the complex, fascinating world of drag kings and queens as part of series revealing truths

Forget everything you thought you knew about drag.

“It’s not (about) gender. Drag is everything; whatever you can imagine,” said local Valley drag performer Miss X on Thursday night at an event hosted by ASU’s Project Humanities, an initiative created to bring people together to listen, talk and connect.

“Dispelling the Myths: Drag Kings and Drag Queens,” half drag show, half question-and-answer session, took place at FilmBar in downtown Phoenix as part of the initiative’s 2018 season of events focused on revealing the truths behind the myths and stereotypes that surround such topics as death, PTSD and religion.

“We like going into spaces where people don’t often go, not for shock value but to think differently about topics that are less commonly talked about,” said Neal Lester, ASU English professor and director of Project Humanities.

While the success of shows like "RuPaul’s Drag Race" and a general lack of knowledge about the history and realities behind drag culture have led many to believe that it’s all about men in dresses, the performers at Thursday’s event begged to differ.

“You can be a man and do drag, you can be a woman and do drag, you can be trans … you can be an alien,” said Austrid Aurelia, another of the night’s featured performers. “I consider club kids drag performers. I consider cosplayers to be on the spectrum of drag performers.”

Event facilitator and self-proclaimed “local hip historian” Marshall Shore gave the audience a brief history lesson before the show began.

Drag, it turns out, is nothing new. There’s evidence of male drag performance as far back as the ancient Greeks, extending from Japanese Kabuki theater to Shakespearian plays, where all the roles were played by men. Less attention has been paid, though, to women dressing as men, and more recently, transgender individuals dressing in personas that defy gender norms.

“Transgender people are like unicorns,” said Mia Inez Adams, who danced and lip-synched to Whitney Houston before the evening’s discussion. A transgender woman who has made a career of performing drag across the country for 37 years, Inez Adams bemoaned the lack of recognition of trans performers in the industry.

“We don’t fit in with gay men or gay women,” she said. “We are sometimes shunned from clubs.”

Next Tuesday, Nov. 20, marks the international Transgender Day of Remembrance. Eddie Broadway, a transgender man and drag performer who works at a psychiatric hospital, noted that it’s a good time to think about the next generation of LGBT youth who are often victims of violence — either outward or self-inflicted.

“I continue to do this for all the youth who are scared or who feel they’re not worthy,” he said. “I do it for them. And I think a lot of us do it for them.”

Melissa, who also goes by Dagoberto Bailon, agreed. An advocate of undocumented queer youth, she performs drag solely to fundraise for initiatives that work to give that underrepresented population voice and a sense of community.

“For me, it’s about opening up conversations about gender identity … (as well as things like) immigration and LGBT rights,” she said.

Social media has also provided a space for the LGBT community and drag performers to connect and feel empowered.

Inez Adams recalled when she first began performing drag, not long after the Stonewall riots served as a catalyst to bring the gay rights movement to the forefront in America. Back then, she said, you could still get arrested for dressing in drag.

Nowadays, she said, through the magic of social media, “(members of the community) can see a collective of people around the country who do the same thing.”

Lester closed out the evening with a brief message about the significance of having open, honest conversations about so-called “taboo” subjects in our communities.

“A lot of people will walk out of here tonight and say, ‘I’m really confused,’” he said. “And that’s OK, because that’s an opportunity to educate yourself, and talk to somebody and learn.”

Mia Inez Adams dances and lip-synchs to Whitney Houston before the evening’s discussion Thursday at FilmBar. A transgender woman who has made a career of performing drag across the country for 37 years, Inez Adams bemoaned the lack of recognition of trans performers in the industry. “We don’t fit in with gay men or gay women,” she said. “We are sometimes shunned from clubs.”

Photo by Marcus Chormicle/ASU Now

Eddie Broadway performs at the ASU Project Humanities event. Broadway, a transgender man and drag performer who works at a psychiatric hospital, noted that Nov. 20, the Transgender Day of Remembrance, is a good time to think about the next generation of LGBT youth who are often victims of violence — either outward or self-inflicted.

Photo by Marcus Chormicle/ASU Now

Historian Marshall Shore speaks at FilmBar

Event facilitator and self-proclaimed “local hip historian” Marshall Shore gives the audience a brief history lesson, from ancient Greece to Japanese Kabuki theater to Shakespearian plays.

Photo by Marcus Chormicle/ASU Now

Top photo: (From left) Melissa, Austrid Aurelia and Miss X answer questions about their experiences as drag kings and queens living and working in the Phoenix area during the ASU Project Humanities event "Dispelling Myths: Drag Kings and Drag Queens," at the Film Bar in downtown Phoenix. Historian Marshall Shore (right) was the event facilitator. Photo by Marcus Chormicle/ASU Now

Emma Greguska

Reporter , ASU Now

(480) 965-9657 emma.greguska@asu.edu

Arizona Impact

The healing power of pursuing a dream

Tempe campus

November 15, 2018

Iconic Native American athlete visits ASU to speak about turning tradition and spirituality into motivational fire in life and sport

When Billy Mills beat the pack on a muddy cinder track in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, it was one of the greatest upsets in sports history.

The grainy black-and-white video shows his graceful, effortless stride in the 10,000-meter race. But those steps were part of a difficult journey that left Mills, an Oglala Lakota, so despondent that he almost killed himself before he won the gold medal.

“That moment was magical to me. I felt as if I had wings on my feet,” Mills told a crowd at Arizona State University on Thursday night. He spoke at an event titled “Indigenous Identity and the Athletic Experience with Billy Mills,” sponsored by the Alliance of Indigenous Peoples, the Global Sport Institute and the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. The talk was held at the Tempe campus, which is on the homeland of the Akimel O’odham and Pee-Posh peoples.

Mills was raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When he was 8, his mother died, and his father told him, “It takes a dream to heal broken souls. The pursuit of a dream will heal you.”

“He told me to take our culture, our traditions and spirituality and extract from them the virtues and values that empower them,” Mills said.

His father died when he was 12, but Mills found his passion in running and won an athletic scholarship to the University of Kansas.

“I was not ready for the lack of understanding that Americans had for me,” he said.

Billy Mills, the Sioux Olympic gold medalist who won the 1964 Tokyo 10,000 meters, gives a hug to Rhiannon Worker, a nutrition sophomore, before addressing around 100 people at the "Indigenous Identity and the Athletic Experience" event Thursday in Tempe.

Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now

Billy Mills' 1964 victory is considered one of the greatest Olympic upsets because he was a virtual unknown going into the event.

Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now

Delores Begay, along with Ken Begay, has Olympian Billy Mills sign her kélchí, or red moccasins, for her grandchildren.

Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now

Exercise and wellness sophomore Kiana Billiman gets her photo taken with the former Olympian.

Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now

Billy Mills signs a copy of his 1990 book "Wokini" for Summer Kirk, a senior in justice studies and American Indian studies.

Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now

He was told he could not join a fraternity or be roommates with his white and black friends. And when he was named an NCAA All-American cross-country runner, he was told to not appear in the official photograph.

“By then I knew something inside of me was broken, but I didn’t know what. I was locked out of the American dream.”

He opened the window of his fourth-floor hotel room and looked down, but heard his father’s voice telling him not to jump.

Then he met Patricia, to whom he has been married for 56 years.

“Instantly, I’m in love,” he said. “Now I have a partner.”

Mills earned a degree, took a commission in the Marine Corps and made the U.S. Olympic team.

At the race in Tokyo, Mills knew he was running a scorching pace, but didn’t think he could keep it up. He felt his blood sugar plummeting, his vision blurring. Also, he was in fourth place. Then he stumbled. He briefly thought of quitting, until he saw Patricia in the crowd.

“She was crying because I was pursuing a dream and she was my support team. I was pursuing a dream to keep from thinking of suicide again,” he said.

“She knew I was taking the virtues and the values of my culture, my traditions, my spiritualty and I was putting them into my Olympic pursuit and my marriage.”

He surged to the finish and was briefly confused when he won.

“Did I miscount the laps? Do I have one more lap to go?”

When Mills returned to the United States, the country was in the midst of civil rights protests.

“The games inspired me to go on a journey into my past to understand footprints laid by my indigenous ancestors and my European ancestors, and what I found is what we face today in America,” he said.

He visited the black church in Birmingham, Alabama, where four little girls were killed by a bomb, and he studied the history of oppression against people of color, up to the “war on drugs” that fueled the growth of gangs on reservations.

He decried the backlash against former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled during the national anthem to protest police brutality against African-Americans. Mills said that as a veteran, he supported the protest.

“He’s not disrespecting me. It’s a cry for unity,” he said.

The event also featured Amanda Blackhorse, a Navajo and a social worker who was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that sought to revoke trademark protection of the term "Washington Redskins,” a slur against Native Americans. She said she was thrust into the world of sports when she took on the mascot issue.

“I didn’t grow up saying, ‘Someday, I’m going to take the Washington NFL team to court,’” she said.

“A lot of times in social justice and activism, the issues just happen. We don’t seek them. They come to us.”

Blackhorse said she has always admired athletes who take a stand on political issues.

“I was delighted to hear that Billy Mills spoke out against the name of the Washington team. I thought, ‘Yes, an icon is on our side.'"

In 1986, Mills founded the nonprofit group Running Strong for American Indian Youth, and he travels more than 300 days a year, speaking to young people about healthy lifestyles and taking pride in their heritage. Now 80 years old, he said the United States is in “strange times,” but he’s optimistic.

“I know we can come together and complete the maturity of our democracy,” he said.

Top photo: Retired ASU environmental graphic designer Randy Kemp (left) shares a laugh with Billy Mills, the Sioux Olympic gold medalist who won the 1964 Tokyo 10,000 meters. Kemp took part in a 500-mile ultramarathon in 1979, sponsored in part by Mills, and had him sign his finisher's certificate. Mills later addressed around 100 people at the "Indigenous Identity and the Athletic Experience" event on the Tempe campus on Thursday. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now

Mary Beth Faller

Reporter , ASU Now

480-727-4503 marybeth.faller@asu.edu

Discoveries

Investigating the role of film and media in World War II fight against Nazism

Tempe campus

November 14, 2018

ASU and U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum co-host event examining how Hollywood and government combatted the enemy with their own propaganda

During World War II, cartoons, posters and screwball comedies were just as deadly as panzers and Thunderbolts.

And they unified the troops to beat the Nazis, according to an Arizona State University professor.

“It was really the first time the government and Hollywood came together trying to create the themes, the iconography, the characters and the stories that helped sell the war at home and to the troops,” said Kevin Sandler, an associate professor in ASU’s Film and Media Studies program, in front of a crowd of about 250 people at Old Main in Tempe on Wednesday. “Bugs Bunny was never bigger than any time during the war. He seemed to capture that go-getter attitude, standing in the face of any enemy — and winning.”

Sandler’s appearance was part of the presentation “What Were We Watching? Americans’ Responses to Nazism Through Cinema, Radio and Media,” co-hosted by ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

He was joined by Daniel Greene, a curator at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Mi-Ai Parrish, a Sue Clark-Johnson Professor for Media Innovation and Leadership in ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, who served as the evening’s moderator.

The 90-minute event couldn’t have been more timely and relevant, said Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, ASU Regents’ Professor of history in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, and director of the Center for Jewish Studies.

Associate Professor Kevin Sandler addresses the audience, describing how Hollywood approached films and cartoons prior to World War II during the "What Were We Watching?" lecture. Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

“Anti-Semitism indeed has a long and complex history that resulted in the Holocaust — the planned annihilation of the Jewish people. If we had imagined the victory of the allies in World War II would mark the end of anti-Semitism we were mistaken,” Tirosh-Samuelson said. “Anti-Semitism did not disappear and in the past decade has reared its ugly head all over the world. A few weeks ago, 11 Jews were massacred during Shabbat services in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, reminding us that America is very vulnerable to anti-Semitic, hateful propaganda and destructive actions.”

The majority of Wednesday’s discourse was offered to demonstrate how stories about World War II and the persecution of Europe’s Jews were a constant presence in American cinema and living rooms throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Award-winning films such as “Mrs. Miniver,” “The Great Dictator” and “Casablanca” helped shape Americans’ understanding of the Nazi threat while newsreels and radio programs offered a brief glimpse into world events and the range of opinions on the war effort.

Though that effort took some time to gear up — years in fact. Greene said a majority of Americans and U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt were resistant to entering another world war when the Nazis came into power.

“In the 1930s, World War I is only 15 years in the rearview mirror for Americans and most Americans believed that entrance into World War I was a mistake,” Greene said. “You also had the Great Depression, and the recovery in the United States in the 1930s is not linear. There was another terrible recession in 1937 and 1938 … and oh, we also have our own xenophobia. There’s racism in America with Jim Crow and anti-Semitism, which is on the rise in the 1930s.”

Sandler said major film studios comprised about 80 percent of the spectator amusement pie at that time in America and derived almost a third of their income from Europe. A big portion came from Germany, and the industry was reluctant to badmouth the country when the Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939, which signaled the start of World War II.

“What you had was an industry that was separate from state in terms of product,” Sandler said. “The industry controlled the marketplace and could determine pretty much what was going to be shown, where it was going to be shown, and how it was going to be shown … Hollywood by its very definition is in the industry of business and the risk averse.”

Audience members listen during the "What Were We Watching?" lecture on Wednesday evening. Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

Greene said the public was aware of Nazism through newspapers and newsreel footage, usually shown at the beginning of every film. He said one newsreel, “Inside Nazi Germany,” was very powerful.

“You see the separation of Nazi Germany at the time before mass murder has begun,” Greene said. “Americans certainly had access to information about the persecution of Jews through these newsreels.”

They chose, however, to take their lead from President Roosevelt, who emphatically stated that the country would remain a neutral nation two days after the invasion of Poland. Even pilot Charles Lindbergh, the most famous American at the time, touted the idea of avoiding all foreign entanglements. Nine in 10 Americans agreed, according to Greene.

“They wanted to defend America's borders, but stay out of war,” he said.

Sandler said the tide began to change when a Warner Brothers studio rep was beaten up in Germany in 1933, and they ceased doing business with the country. Five years later they made “Confessions of a Nazi Spy," starring Edward G. Robinson, who later became one of the leading anti-Nazi activists in the movie industry.

“It was a decision made by two individuals (Jack and Harry Warner) which was selfless and led to this cycle of films like ‘Foreign Correspondence’, ‘Gunga Din’ and ‘Sergeant York,’” Sandler said. “These were films that didn’t deal directly with the events but indirectly about totalitarianism and Nazism.”

Sandler added that Charlie Chaplin’s 1940 film, “The Great Dictator” was Hollywood’s first parody of Hitler and Nazism. It also proved to be a big hit with audiences, further spreading the anti-Nazi sentiment in America.

Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, director of the Center for Jewish Studies, warmly greets the audience as she introduces the speakers of the "What Were We Watching?" lecture. Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

Full-on collaboration between Hollywood and the United States government didn’t take place until after Dec. 7, 1941 when Pearl Harbor was attacked, Sandler said.

"After Pearl Harbor happened pretty much all the studios get behind the war effort,” Sandler said. “What’s at stake is obviously very clear.”

Hollywood and leaders of entertainment and the government entered into an alliance and battled for the hearts and minds of Americans. They employed any means necessary, including using cartoons to sell war bonds and motivate the troops. They enlisted Daffy Duck to fight Nazis and Mickey Mouse to do battle with the Japanese. They also hired heralded filmmaker Frank Capra to produce seven short films for American troops, and Theodore Geisel to produce propaganda cartoons for newspapers.

“The government knew what it wanted but didn’t explain it very well to the people who knew how to make films,” Sandler said. “These films helped the troops become better soldiers.”

Top photo: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum curator Daniel Greene (center) addresses the audience during the "What Were We Watching?" lecture at Old Main on the ASU Tempe campus on Nov. 14, 2018. The lecture presented American responses to Nazism through media and examined the American perspective toward Nazi Germany and Jewish persecution. Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

Marshall Terrill

Reporter , ASU Now

480-727-5176 marshall.terrill@asu.edu

ASU 3D print lab creates opportunity for plastic recycling

November 14, 2018

It’s 27 hours and 14 minutes into a 40-hour 3D print job when the 3D printer hiccups and takes over your masterpiece/prototype/capstone project piece/replacement part that will save you $10,000. The next 12 hours and 46 minutes worth of the print job ends up as a frizzy nest of plastic spaghetti. It’s a total loss. Toss it.

Or, if you’re working in Arizona State University’s 3D Print and Laser Cutting Lab on the Tempe campus, you can recycle it. Three students work with the 3D printing plastic recycling tool. A team of staff and students in the Arizona State University Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering built a system to recycle 3D-printer plastic and make their lab more sustainable. Pictured: Ruy Garciaacosta, mechanical engineering senior; Kenny Truong, mechanical engineering sophomore; and Morgan Kennedy, computer science freshman. Photographer: Erika Gronek/ASU Download Full Image

The 3D Print and Laser Cutting Lab was established about three years ago to help students in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering introductory course FSE 100 — more than 500 each semester — develop their first engineering projects with 3D printing.

Other students also use the lab to 3D print and laser cut prototypes for entrepreneurial projects, pieces for student organization competitions and components for capstone projects. Faculty can also request prints for models and parts, and the lab is also available for staff to use.

Myrna Martinez, an academic facilities specialist, runs the lab with help from Fulton Schools students, including mechanical engineering sophomore Kenny Truong and mechanical engineering senior Ruy Garciaacosta.

As more students and faculty at ASU use the lab, more plastic could have potentially ended up in the trash, but YouTube provided a solution.

The 3D printing life cycle 101

Mistakes and extra “waste” plastic are all part of a 3D printer enthusiast’s life. Breakaway parts called rafts and other stabilizing support structures are necessary for many designs — “because physics,” Truong said. Additionally, designs may not turn out as expected or end up being structurally unsound.

However, with the right tools these failed, subpar and extra pieces are all recyclable.

Most consumer 3D printers use a type of plastic called polylactic acid, polylactide or PLA. Printers use spools of PLA thread called filament to print a 3D structure layer by layer in a single, continuous line of plastic.

PLA is a biodegradable plastic created from renewable sources such as corn starch or sugarcane. While much friendlier to the environment than petroleum-based plastics — like the high-density polyethylene used to make the grocery bags sea turtles mistake for jellyfish — referring to PLA as “biodegradable” is a bit misleading. PLA still takes hundreds of years to biodegrade in a typical landfill.

But PLA is recyclable in a way that’s similar to “recycling” crayon stubs. The general principle is the same: Cut up the pieces into small pellets, heat them up and mold the now-pliable, hot material into the desired shape and cool it down.

Subpar prints, structural support pieces and printer failures can all cause waste PLA plastic when 3D printing. Photo by Erika Gronek/ASU

For PLA 3D printer filament, this involves a reclaimer that acts like a woodchipper, an extruder that heats up the pellets and pushes the heated plastic through a tube like a spaghetti maker and a fan that cools the material before it is spooled on a regular 3D printer filament spool.

Martinez and Matthew McWhorter, who is also a Fulton Schools academic facilities specialist, saw an open source Filabot extruder system on YouTube a couple years ago and thought it would be an excellent addition to the lab.

With enthusiastic support from ASU Zero Waste and Fulton Schools Vice Dean for Academic and Student Affairs James Collofello, who directs the lab, Martinez and McWhorter got approval to use the system and got to work building the extruder in January. Because it was all plug-and-play, setup was a breeze and all the students had to do was design and print an adapter for the winding tool to use their existing spools.

Sounds easy, but the recycled plastic must be extruded in a precise way to get a uniform thickness required to prevent jamming a 3D printer nozzle. It took Truong and others on the lab team about seven hours of testing over the summer to get their filament right.

So far, they’ve created two spools of recycled material, averaging two days to create one spool of filament at uniform thickness. They’ve created a few test prints with their recycled material, including a USB drive holder.

Three students hold items that represent different parts of the recycling process.

Mechanical engineering sophomore Kenny Truong holds waste PLA pieces from the lab. Computer science freshman Morgan Kennedy holds a bag of pellets made of new plastic from manufacturer Filabot that the lab team used to test the extruder tool. Mechanical engineering senior Ruy Garciaacosta holds a spool of recycled filament.

Photo by Erika Gronek/ASU

A student holds a piece of plastic over the reclaimer tool.

Waste plastic is first inserted into the reclaimer, which acts like a woodchipper to turn large pieces of PLA plastic into smaller ones called pellets.

Photo by Erika Gronek/ASU

A student demonstrates where the plastic pellets go into the extruder.

The PLA pellets are then inserted into the extruder, which heats them up and forces them through the nozzle to create new filament.

Photo by Erika Gronek/ASU

The filament is drawn over a fan which cools it.

The new filament crosses over a fan to cool it down.

Photo by Erika Gronek/ASU

The finished recycled plastic is wound onto a spool.

The spool is motorized and pulls the recycled filament across the system at a particular speed to keep it an even thickness.

Photo by Erika Gronek/ASU

“It was super cool to use the material for the first time,” Truong said. “We made it ourselves and we’re turning what would just be thrown away into another useful project for a student.”

The filament extruder system — dubbed “Bob Ross” because “it takes our filament mistakes and makes them into happy little 3D-printed trees,” Garciaacosta said — helps students involved in the lab develop sustainable habits and consider the environment in their work.

Closing the loop

When Martinez and McWhorter first proposed the idea of an extruder system in their lab, ASU’s Zero Waste Associate Director Alana Levine was immediately on board.

The system plays into the bigger trends of recycling, sustainability and circularity at ASU and beyond.

People and businesses are becoming more aware of the need to reduce their use of single-use plastics. Starbucks, American Airlines and other major companies, for instance, recently stopped using plastic straws.

Global economic policies have also made local recycling solutions more important.

“China, for example, has really cracked down and created a lot of policy to not take a lot of waste material,” Levine said. “It’s paramount to find downstream solutions for these types of materials we’re generating as waste.”

Items on a tray printed with recycled 3D printer plastic filament.

A USB drive holder made out of recycled PLA plastic created in the 3D Print and Laser Cutting Lab. Photo by Erika Gronek/ASU

Levine emphasizes the importance of circularity, or putting these waste materials back into the marketplace as another useful material or item.

In practice, this circularity loop can be at the global scale, but the smaller the loop, the less impact there is on using additional resources to ship materials and recycled products.

“Ideally it would be great if we can have local reprocessing for our waste materials,” Levine said.

The extruding tool at the 3D Print and Laser Cutting Lab is an example of local reprocessing.

“I love that there was an opportunity to demonstrate a fairly complex process of waste material production, collection, reprocessing and getting that product back into a stage where it can then be useful again, where we’re directly recycling and not downcycling the plastic or making it less valuable,” Levine said.

Future steps

PLA can’t be recycled infinitely. Martinez notes other labs that use similar recycling systems recommend only recycling the same material a couple of times. So she and the students find other ways to reduce waste.

However, not everything that’s printed will be thrown away and it isn’t an immediate concern for the team.

Garciaacosta says the students who help manage the lab also try to find optimal ways to design each print to minimize material usage and other factors. The goal is to design smarter, not harder.

“I sometimes suggest people use a combination of 3D printing and laser cutting wood, for example making their base out of wood and 3D printing the joints for a job that uses much less plastic and is faster to produce,” Garciaacosta said. “It makes people think how they can optimize designs and make them more environmentally friendly because they’re using less material.”

Martinez is also working with other campus labs with 3D printers to collect their waste PLA material. She’s also contacting labs that produce plastic waste compatible with recycling into 3D printer filament. For example, syringe caps from biomedical engineering labs can be recycled using the extruder tool.

Levine is also helping to reach out to corporations and companies outside of ASU to provide their waste materials to ASU recycling programs like this one.

“The ultimate goal is to collect so much recycled material that it would be too much for us to handle to reuse here as finished spools,” Martinez said. “We talked about donating recycled PLA to K–12 STEM programs that have 3D printers at their schools to reduce their expenses.”

Martinez believes this is a good practice for her students to take with them to industry.

“The idea is to incorporate recycled plastic and other materials into their existing engineering builds,” she said. “It helps them create good habits and consider the environment.”

Monique Clement

Communications specialist, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

480-727-1958 monique.clement@asu.edu

Sun Devil Life

Public Service Academy member engineers a new life after Hurricane Maria

Tempe campus

November 8, 2018

Jairo Ramirez serves in the Next Generation Service Corps and hopes to use his experience to offer assistance to others facing disasters

If you had to choose one word to sum up the life of Arizona State University freshman Jairo Ramirez, it would be "resilience."

A little over a year ago, Ramirez and his family sheltered in their home for 11 hours while Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc on their Puerto Rican neighborhood and went on to devastate the entire island. This year, he is attending his first year at ASU and upping his academic game.

Despite the hurdles of striking out on his own, leaving his family behind and learning a new language, Ramirez is thriving in this new environment. And he wants to give back.

He is doing just that through ASU’s Public Service Academy, where he serves in the Next Generation Service Corps. He hopes one day that he’ll be able to assist others when a disaster strikes them.

ASU Now spoke to Ramirez about surviving Hurricane Maria and the new ASU chapter of his life.

Question: You and your family were living in Puerto Rico when Hurricane Maria devastated the country in September and October of 2017. Tell me about that experience and how it affected you and your family.

Answer: Getting news of a hurricane or storm coming was a normal thing during hurricane season in Puerto Rico, yet no big hurricane had hit us in decades. This made everyone overlook warnings, and Maria was no exception. People were not ready for it; I was not ready for it. The eye came in sometime around 6 a.m. and came out at around 5 p.m. Those were the longest 11 hours of my life. During the time of the hurricane, the wind made noises that will forever be etched in my mind. Water came into the house through every corner, and our street flooded about three feet. Once the winds started to calm down, we had to go into the street and unclog the sewage systems to prevent the flooding from increasing anymore. Once the winds stopped, there was just dead silence. I went out of my house and could not believe the magnitude of the disaster; I could not even recognize the streets I grew up on.

For a week we had no water, and for three weeks I could not attend school. For nine weeks we had no power. The first weeks were chaotic as there was no power anywhere, no communication, the lines for gas were at least three hours long. We knew it was bad, but we had no idea of the gravity, as there was access to absolutely nothing. My dad’s work as an insurance broker was probably one of the worst jobs you could have had after the hurricane because hundreds of clients were trying to make claims — and with extremely poor communication. It was next-to-impossible to work. Insurance companies were refusing to pay claims after the hurricane or were paying at a very slow rate and amounts smaller than what was needed, and now companies are raising policy prices or even denying lifelong clients. It has been a slow recovery, but I strongly believe that Puerto Ricans will rise stronger than before.

Q: Was it hard to leave your family to attend ASU, given that your country has not fully recovered?

A: I lived my whole life back in the island and leaving to pursue my education was something I always wanted to do. I knew leaving my country would be a very hard experience, and leaving it after the hurricane made it even harder. I finished my application to ASU about a month after the hurricane, and the opportunities of getting to work in the energy sector with the support of the Public Service Academy was something that made ASU stand out by the end of my application process. I wanted to help solve the energy crisis before the hurricane and seeing my country’s power system devastated after the hurricane made it even more significant to go into the energy field.

I had set my sights on ASU because of the great work being done in solar energy research, and then many other things, such as the PSA, made ASU the clear choice. I confirmed my enrollment sometime in March, and that was the first time I felt scared of crossing the ocean. During the summer, I would think about everyone I was leaving behind and how hard adapting would be. When I got here, it was relieving to see the community’s support and understanding, and I consider ASU my second home.

Q: Why did you join the Public Service Academy — given that you were living in a foreign country, speaking a second language and taking on a rigorous academic schedule?

A: I joined the Public Service Academy even though it was very far from home because I saw in it the potential to help me reach my goals and to help me serve while doing something that I love. I have always believed that the challenge I want to tackle, energy scarcity, is a challenge that needs to be attended by all sectors, not only the engineering one. Technology is there and ever-growing, but policy and education are big hurdles to the advancement of renewable energy sources such as solar power. The Public Service Academy has acknowledged this fact and seeks to create leaders that can bring all sectors together to work on a common goal.

I knew becoming part of this program while being an engineering major and being part of Barrett (The Honors College) would be a challenge, but I have always loved being challenged as it makes me grow as a person, student and leader. Back home I was part of the JROTC program in my school; once, a former battalion commander gave a speech to our battalion challenging us to go for the three diamonds, the highest rank in JROTC, and I did not make it to the three diamonds, but I became Battalion XO, the second in command of the battalion, and got two diamonds. It has been very challenging to adapt to this new culture, language and people, but I have slowly been adapting — especially to the new language. All in all, my life at ASU and the Public Service Academy has just started and I am very excited to see all the opportunities I will be presented here and I am eager to work on them.

Q: What specifically do you enjoy about being in the Public Service Academy?

A: Being part of the Public Service Academy has been one of the greatest opportunities in my life. In the Public Service Academy, I find myself surrounded by people that have the same genuine desire as I have of changing the world for the better. Being in a setting that nurtures service and focuses on creating character-driven leaders is what I like the most about the PSA. Having the support of faculty and peers is of utmost importance in staying on one’s track. Through the PSA, I have been learning that today’s challenges cannot and will not be solved by a single individual, rather by communities of service-driven leaders who come together under one single mission.

Q: Did the irony hit you that in the Public Service Academy you might be helping people like yourself in the wake of Hurricane Maria?

A: I was raised in a house and a country were serving others is highly valued, and throughout my childhood I had many opportunities to serve my community and even communities in other countries. I had my first big service experience in a mission trip I did to the Dominican Republic in which we helped two small towns close to the border with Haiti in the areas of health care and education focused on children. This experience shaped my life by opening my eyes to real poverty and how big the challenges that come with it are. After the hurricane, I felt compelled to help my country recover and I did so through the American Red Cross. I helped in a couple of supply distribution missions right after the hurricane and during this last summer I volunteered in the ARC recovery program. This program was an incredibly rewarding experience as I got to work in the logistics of installing solar panels in shelter schools, providing health care curriculums for children to small rural clinics, provide microgrants to small farmers and other great initiatives that have helped many people around the island recover. It has been interesting to see that a lot of the work done here at ASU and the PSA resonates with what I have done throughout my life and seek to do my entire life.

Q: What are your plans after you graduate ASU and the Public Service Academy?

A: Here at ASU I am studying mechanical engineering with a focus in energy and environment and I seek to continue in the accelerated program to have a solar energy engineering and commercialization (professional science master's degree). I will use the tools given to me by both ASU and the PSA to work towards the goal of making America and the world shift towards renewable energy, be it through research, education or policy. What I will do after college is uncertain in the sense of my exact path, but anything that helps achieve this goal would be something I would pursue. In any form I can, I will contribute to the public good in the U.S., in Puerto Rico and wherever I have the opportunity to.

Top photo: Engineering freshman Jairo Ramirez poses for a portrait outside the ASU Art Museum on Oct. 11, 2018. Ramirez chose to serve in the Next Generation Service Corps, a decision influenced by his family's experience with Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017. Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

In celebration of Veterans Day, Arizona State University proudly honors veterans and active members of the military through Salute to Service. Your support helps veterans succeed. Text ASUVets to 41444 to donate to the Veterans Education Fund or visit veterans.asu.edu to learn how you can honor a veteran.

Marshall Terrill

Reporter , ASU Now

480-727-5176 marshall.terrill@asu.edu

Sun Devil Life

Military training helps student veteran navigate disability

West campus

November 8, 2018

Future is bright for ASU West student Don Knowles, who lost his vision five years ago

Arizona State University student Don Knowles is his own beacon of light.

The 58-year-old Marine Corps veteran is hopeful and optimistic about his future.

He also lives in darkness.

He lost his sight five years ago but has used the lessons he learned in the military to start a whole new life. So far, he has succeeded. As a returning student, Knowles has made his mark in the classroom and on ASU’s West campus, where he is pursuing a communication degree and serves as a mentor to others.

“I have opportunities I’ve never had before,” Knowles said. “I have met all kinds of new people and have set goals for myself that I would have never done otherwise. I have a couple of job offers waiting for me when I graduate. I feel very comfortable with my life.”

In honor of Salute to Service Week, ASU Now spoke to Knowles about his military service, his extraordinary life and what his future holds.

Question: Why did you join the military?

Answer: I joined the military because I have roots there. My grandfather was in the Army for 20 years. My father did not join the military and I felt compelled to do so at a young age. I joined the Marine Corps when I was 17.

Q: What did you enjoy most about being in the service?

A: The organization of the system. I enjoyed the routine, which I did not have in my childhood. My childhood was very disruptive. I liked the structure and the opportunity to advance through the ranks through my hard work.

Q: What lessons did you learn in the military that you apply in your daily life?

A: I think the greatest lesson I took away from the Marines was — if you get knocked down, get yourself up as soon as you can and move forward so as to not drag everyone around you down. I’ve applied that to my life, especially my situation with me becoming blind. I’ve applied it in the sense that I know I have a responsibility to myself and others to do the best I can. Get up, move forward and do it with a smile.

Q: How did you lose your sight?

A: I was a project manager in commercial construction and had an appendix attack at work. I made it through that day and the next, but by the third day it was obvious that I was in serious trouble. So I went to the hospital and a very young surgeon performed an emergency appendectomy on me. He accidentally cut an artery and I bled out on the table. The trauma team was called and I used up 27 units of unoxygenated blood. It swelled up my nerve bundles and once the swelling went down, they just dissolved and it left me totally blind. I woke up in the ICU and on full life support.

I had been severely injured before, and I came through it OK, so when I was experiencing blindness, I thought it was going to be temporary and thought it would pass. But as the months went by and the more doctors I saw, it became obvious the blindness was permanent. I made a conscious choice to get up off the floor and move forward with my life and accept my fate. I will spend the rest of my life in the dark without seeing anyone smile at me, the trees or a sunset, all things I had taken for granted before, and it’s gone. But instead of being depressed and sad about it, I turned that energy into learning all I can, learning about myself and other people, and it has been an amazing transition. I do feel very optimistic about the future.

Q: How do you like being a college student? What has that transition been like for you?

A: I enjoy the learning aspects of college and the experiences. It has been somewhat of a difficult journey in the sense that as a totally blind student, more often than not I’m the first blind person anyone here has encountered in their life. With that comes a responsibility on my behalf to represent myself in a courteous and respectful manner so that the next blind person they encounter, they can refer back to the experience with me and say, ‘I’ve already met one of these people and they’re OK.’” I make an effort to communicate well with people, be honest with them and be myself. It’s taken me a long way.

Q: What is your goal after you receive your degree?

A: My goal when I receive my degree at Arizona State University is I will continue toward my master’s degree at Western Michigan. It’s a 14-month focused master’s program for blind rehabilitation therapy and I plan to apply as a counselor and a technology instructor for the Veterans Administration Hospital. I have a solid standing job offer with them as well as several blind schools, who also need qualified instructors.

Top photo: Communication student Don Knowles listens to his instructor in a Sept. 21 class for ASU students who have recently transferred from community college at the West campus. Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now

Marshall Terrill

Reporter , ASU Now

480-727-5176 marshall.terrill@asu.edu

Arizona Impact

ASU scholars, students embed in indigenous communities with research in Indian Country

Tempe campus Skysong

November 7, 2018

Sun Devil researchers are making an impact for indigenous peoples around Arizona

NCAA college basketball rarely makes it to the far reaches of the Navajo Nation. But this weekend, the Arizona State University women’s basketball team will take on national powerhouse Baylor University in Fort Defiance, Arizona.

Organized in conjunction with ASU’s Office of American Indian Initiatives, the “Showdown on the Rez” will take place on Veterans Day and serve as a celebration of Native American Heritage Month, as well as provide a platform to recognize and honor Native Americans who served in the armed forces.

Watch: ESPN2 will broadcast the Showdown on the Rez on Sunday

But athletes aren’t the only members of the Sun Devil family making an impact on indigenous communities around Arizona. The university also boasts another VIP team — faculty, staff, researchers and students who contribute to the well-being and advancement of the 22 tribes in Arizona.

Health care, language preservation, molecular science, sustainability, research methodologies, higher education experiences: ASU has a wide breadth of research and interaction taking place in Indian Country. And this is evident throughout the year, not just in November.

“One of the hallmarks at ASU for our work with tribal communities and Native students is about building capacity and creating futures of their own making,” said Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, President’s Professor, director of the Center for Indian Education and ASU’s special adviser to the president on American Indian affairs. “Our goal is to interface with all 22 tribes and nations and every Native person in Arizona if we can.”

They’re making a good dent in the Navajo Nation. Lamont Yazzie is currently a fourth-year doctoral student in the justice studies program in the School of Social Transformation, where his dissertation work on research methodologies is helping advance Diné learners.

Specifically, his research compares the space between Western society in America and indigenous communities, the structural oppression that exists and how their people have responded to education hurdles in the past.

“It’s paying homage to the knowledge systems of our ancestors because everything we have needed has always been there,” Yazzie said. “Looking at education through a Navajo lens, we can legitimize our thought process, legitimize our perspective and legitimize our way of life.”

Colin Ben, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and a postdoctoral research scholar in the School of Social Transformation, is also researching Navajo education. His paper, “Navajo Student Decision Making,” was presented at the “Doing Research in Indigenous Communities" conference, a partnership between ASU’s Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development and the Office of American Indian Initiatives that was held Nov. 1–2 at ASU SkySong.

ASU President's Professor Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy introduces a panel discussion on "What is indigenous research? What does research in indigenous communities look like?" The Nov. 2 panel was part of the two-day conference on "Doing Research in Indigenous Communities" at ASU SkySong.

Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now

Man in glasses and tie listening to speaker

Justice studies doctoral student Lamont Yazzie listens to a panel discussion at ASU SkySong on Nov. 2.

Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now

Dean of Student Services at Tohono O'odham Community College Naomi Tom (left) and ASU American Indian Studies Assistant Professor Tennille Marley listen to a panel discussion on at ASU SkySong on Nov. 2.

Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now

His research examines decision-making factors influencing Diné students’ pursuit of doctoral education and their experiences of persisting in graduate school despite difficult and discouraging experiences.

Ben discovered that indigenous students face more hurdles than most, including cultural transitions, isolation, financing programs, obligations to the tribal community, taking care of elderly parents, driving long distances to school and maintaining a full-time job.

“There’s a toll that it takes on them, not only financially but physically and mentally. It was wearing them out,” Ben said. “But what pushed them through was the fact that they wanted these advanced skill sets to enhance their career opportunities and trajectory. Also, they had a strong desire to give back to their community.”

Ben said he has shared his findings with his tribal elders, as well as with ASU administrators to address policy issues to better serve Native students.

That’s exactly what Deborah Chadwick is doing in her work as project director of the Center for Indian Education. In 2014, she developed a first-of-its-kind program that trains future teachers on their home reservation with a focus on tribal history and keeping alive the Akimel O’otham language. The first master's cohort graduated in spring 2018.

This year Chadwick is thinking beyond the borders of the Akimel O’otham reservation and has been an integral part of the newly offered online master’s degree program in indigenous education being launched next spring. The 30-credit program will be taught by mostly indigenous faculty and is specifically geared toward Native Americans who live in remote sites and on reservations.

“It’s not just for people in Arizona but nationally and internationally,” Chadwick said. “We’ve had inquiries from around the world.”

Tennille Marley, a citizen of the White Mountain Apache Tribe and an assistant professor in the American Indian Studies program, recently finished research on two papers dealing with diabetes in tribal communities and data sovereignty in the research process.

Her paper “History: A Determinant of American Indian Health” examined how history has impacted diabetes. She said colonization, especially by the U.S. government, heavily influenced dietary practices of Native Americans by placing them on reservations and introducing rations, which many were forced to take for survival.

“They replaced our traditional diets. For example, fry bread and tortillas, which are not traditional dishes, are now a staple,” Marley said. “I’m hoping the paper will encourage Native American communities to go back to our traditional dietary practices and to help health care providers and research better understand diabetes in Native American communities.”

She has a willing ear in David R. Wilson, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and an ASU doctoral graduate. Wilson is the first director of the Tribal Health Research Office at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, which was established in 2015.

Wilson also attended the conference at ASU SkySong, which was a gathering of approximately 175 Native American faculty and researchers at ASU and visitors. Wilson was a keynote speaker, but he was also there to communicate the work that happens across the NIH with tribal nations.

“The overall goal of the NIH’s engagement in this event is to not only introduce the Tribal Health Research Office but also to convey the importance of the NIH’s commitment to health in tribal communities through research,” Wilson said. “An important part of that is to increase opportunities for professional development to the Native American student base that exists here. Also, to collaborate with tribes that are interested in research. The best way to accomplish this is to increase communications between the university, the NIH and tribal nations. A successful collaboration will lead to a more diverse biomedical research community that also understands the cultural competencies that are important and respectful to ethical research in the tribal communities.”

While most of the research being conducted by indigenous scholars at ASU is being carried out in the field and in the classroom, some of it is being done in labs. Gary F. MooreMoore was the recipient of the National Science Foundation’s CAREER grant, a prestigious grant to support emerging academic scholars. This year, he was one of three doctoral advisers recognized nationally as an exceptional mentor by the ARCS Foundation., an assistant professor in the School of Molecular Sciences and a researcher in the Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery, studies what plants can teach us about solar energy storage, which currently is too expensive to use on a mass scale.

“My research group is investigating the molecular science required to produce fuels and other valuable chemicals from sunlight, water and air, thereby replacing fossil inputs and creating renewable processes,” said Moore, a chemist from the Powhatan Pamunkey tribe in Virginia. He is researching methods to harness sustainable energy using approaches inspired by nature’s process of photosynthesis.

He said that although his lab is not currently working with an Arizona tribe, he believes this type of approach has great appeal to nations looking to harness energy in a decentralized fashion and with minimal environmental disruption.

“Each house could become its own power plant,” Moore said. “It’s an approach that could potentially fit well with tribal communities if those communities are willing and receptive to adopting such technologies.”

Read: New magazine, ASU initiatives help Native students reach a ‘Turning Point’

Top photo: ASU Associate Professor Angela Gonzales speaks during a panel discussion on "What is indigenous research? What does research in indigenous communities look like?" The panel was part of the two-day conference on "Doing Research in Indigenous Communities" at ASU SkySong on Nov. 1–2. The morning panel discussion drew around 60 people including several ASU students. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now

Marshall Terrill

Reporter , ASU Now

480-727-5176 marshall.terrill@asu.edu

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