Karanikola Working on $2M Grant to Support Tribal Community Projects

CHEE assistant professor Vicky Karanikola is a co-investigator on a project that supports Indigenous experts, scholars and outreach specialists in developing local solutions to climate issues.

The University of Arizona Indigenous Resilience Center will expand its efforts to help tribal communities develop local solutions to climate-related issues thanks to $2 million in funding from the Waverley Street Foundation to support the two-year project "Climate Resilience Through Indigenous Co-Design at the Food, Energy and Water Nexus."

The gift was announced Nov. 3 as part of the public launch of the university's $3 billion fundraising campaign, Fuel Wonder. The launch, coinciding with Homecoming celebrations, included the announcement of $118.65 million in new gifts that will ignite the aspirations and goals of students, faculty and staff.

The funding will maintain and expand existing programs at the center, known as IRes, sustain new Indigenous scholars and other personnel, and support additional outreach efforts with Native nations.

The Indigenous Resilience Center was launched in 2021 to partner with Native nations in order to address environmental challenges in ways that respect Native and Indigenous sovereignty and knowledge, and to train the next generation of community leaders with that knowledge. IRes is a program within the university's Arizona Institute for Resilience and is supported by the institute's Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice.