LAWRENCE, Kan. – Haskell Indian Nations University recently named indigenous and American Indian studies professor Julia Goodfox as the first scholar of the Dr. Gerald E. Gipp Scholar Exchange Program.
Goodfox is an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. She is active in her discipline with projects that include sponsorship of the American Indian Studies Club, co-directorship of the Indigenous & African Experiences in the Americas Seminar (sponsored by the Hall Center for Humanities at the University of Kansas) and the development of the Haskell Writing Center. Goodfox has taught at Haskell since August 2005.
The scholar program is one of three new initiatives designed by Haskell President Linda Sue Warner to honor Haskell’s former American Indian presidents.
The program is a multifaceted educational opportunity established to promote academia. In addition to academic exchanges between colleges and universities, the program features a professional development capacity building component, where Gipp scholars are provided with the opportunity to pursue post-baccalaureate degrees through reduced teaching loads and sponsored sabbatical leave. As a Gipp Scholar, Goodfox will assume a full sabbatical leave for the 2008 calendar year to complete her dissertation at the University of Kansas in American studies.
Gipp served as Haskell’s first American Indian president from 1981 through 1989. He is currently the executive director of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, a nonprofit organization committed to serving as the voice of tribal colleges and universities. The consortium is comprised of 37 higher education institutions representing 15 states and one international program. Gipp has served as a program director at the National Science Foundation and executive director for the Intra-Departmental Council on Native American Affairs.
He was also the first American Indian appointed to be the deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Indian Education, as well as the first American Indian director of the American Indian Leadership Program at Penn State University. He is an enrolled member of the Hunkpapa Lakota Nation from the Standing Rock Reservation in North and South Dakota.
Additional initiatives include the Dr. Robert ”Bob” Martin International Education Program and the Dr. Karen Gayton Swisher Instructional Mentorship Program. The Martin program is a comprehensive program created to globalize Haskell. There are three elements to the Martin program: co-curricular exchange between tribal colleges and universities, study abroad initiatives and service learning/field school outreach projects. Martin served as Haskell’s second American Indian president from 1989 through 1999. He is currently the president of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., and is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
The Karen Gayton Swisher Instructional Mentorship Program is designed to provide practiced K – 12 teachers with mentorship strategies to enhance the quality of experience for the first-year teacher. The Swisher mentor will engage in training at Haskell during the summer months to assist in the transition of the first-year teacher to the K – 12 setting. Swisher served as Haskell’s third American Indian president and Haskell’s first female president. Swisher is an enrolled member of the Hunkpapa Dakota/Nakota/Lakota Nations from the Standing Rock Reservation.
The Haskell Presidential Honor Programs are directed by the newly formed Haskell Research Education Dissemination Center. The role of the RED Center is to become a centerpiece for research – a national repository and clearinghouse for indigenous research by and about indigenous people. Academic foci include business, education, environmental studies, indigenous and American Indian studies, and health.
The selection of Goodfox as the first Gipp Scholar initiates the role of the RED Center in developing capacity-building opportunities at Haskell and for Indian country.
