Student Affairs Announces Inaugural Position for Native and First Nation Affairs
UC Davis Student Affairs recently announced that Michelle Villegas-Frazier has been named the inaugural Senior Strategic Advisor for Native American/Alaska Native and First Nation Affairs, and Nora Zade is assisting with tribal affairs development as program coordinator. Zade works with the analytical and non-empirical research to support tribal affairs development and supports universitywide Native American projects.
The Strategic Advisor and Program Coordinator roles:
Act as the point-of-contact for Native American organizations, communities and individuals by providing campus visits and tours, as well as coordinating Tribal Nations connections to UC Davis’ academic and auxiliary departments. Currently, they are working with Tribal nations to connect them to university entities such as the School of Medicine, Transportation Services and the brewery departments.
Facilitate and guide relationships between university and Native American communities/Tribal Nations. They are working with various faculty to build relationships to include Native Nations in their research and grants which include the delta waterways, land usage with UC Davis Reserve system and prescribed burns.
Assist in the development of policies and procedures that help center Native American presence and perspective at UC Davis. They have co-developed the land acknowledgment tool kit, which included the campus policy on land acknowledgments as well as led discussions on homeland history, and relationship and engagement with tribes.
Provide conceptual and cultural leadership on Native American affairs to university leaders and departments, as well as advising on internal and external strategy as it relates to Native American communities. They are co-leading the Grand Challenges pillar Reimagining A Land Grant University on how UC Davis shows responsibility, recognition and reciprocity as a Land Grant University.
Villegas-Frazier will also remain as the Director of Native American Academic Student Success Center and continue to lead all Student Affairs related work for Native communities.
Land acknowledgement toolkit
In her new role, Villegas-Frazier collaborated with staff from the Native American Academic Student Success Center, Grand Challenges Initiative, Student Affairs Marketing and Communications and the Strategic Communications teams to develop a new land acknowledgement marketing toolkit. University units have requested to use the land acknowledgment for meetings and events, display in their spaces and post on their communication channels. The toolkit was created to provide a cohesive design universitywide and includes tools such as LCDs, social media graphics and flyer and presentation templates. In addition to the toolkit, university leadership has also recorded a new video reading of the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement.