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Date: April 12, 2023
Time: 12 pm - 1 pm AKST

Date: Feb. 8, 2023
Time: 12 pm - 1 pm AKST

Michael Koskey is an associate professor with the Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, which offers a Master's of Arts and a Ph.D. in Indigenous Studies. While serving in the Marine Corps he received a BS in Anthropology and a BA in Political Science from the University of Central Florida, and afterward received an MS in Anthropology from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the 51��������.

Mike's research focuses on oral history, traditional knowledge, ethnohistory, culture change, decolonization, resource use and allocation, food security and sovereignty, and indigenous cosmology/mythology. He is married and has two grown sons, lives in Goldstream Valley, and enjoys hiking and hunting with family and friends.

Date: Jan. 18, 2023
Time: 12pm - 1pm

Dr. Diane McEachern is a professor of rural human services (RHS) and Human Services (HUMS) at CIS’s Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel.  She has taught there for 19 years and previous to that was the lead social worker for the Lower Kuskokwim School District.

She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Psychology/Philosophy from Missouri State University, her master’s degree in social work from Arizona State University, and her doctorate from Lesley University in Cambridge MA.  

Dr. McEachern’s research and doctoral work was the study of social work education with Indigenous adult learners.  She is program head for an innovative cohort model of education (RHS) that has as its foundation, Indigenous ways of learning and understanding.  This has made the program, taught out of the Kuskokwim and Interior Alaska Campus (IAC) popular among Indigenous adult learners from many rural communities.  

She was the recipient of the Emil Usibelli Award for distinguished teaching among other awards.  She enjoys roaming the tundra, photography, and hiking.

Date: Nov. 9, 2022
Time: Noon AKT

Dr. Charleen Fisher is a member of the Gwich’in, Koyukon, and Dena'ina community from Beaver, Alaska. She currently teaches at the 51�������� as an Assistant Professor.

Dr. Fisher presented on the Co-Create Initiative: Collaborative research in the circumpolar North. Read the paper here:

Date: Oct. 14, 2022
Time: Noon AKT

Tribal Governance faculty Michelle Demmert will presented on the 2022 Violence Against Women Act and the Alaska Provisions. 

Michelle (Jaaghal.aat) Demmert, Tlingit, Eagle, Ḵaax̱ʼoos.hittaan (Man’s Foot) clan is an Assistant Professor in the Tribal Governance Department of the College of Indigenous Studies College. In the recent past, she was the Law and Policy Director at
the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center, served as the appointed Chief Judge for the Tulalip Tribes and the elected Chief Justice for the Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.

While the Chief Justice for her tribe, she served as the co-chair of the National Congress of American Indians’ Violence Against Women Task Force. Professor Demmert has devoted her legal career to advancing improvements and practices in tribal courts and has also worked in various capacities of advancing domestic violence protections for women and children.

Date: Sept. 14, 2022
Time: Noon AKST

Dr. Walkie Charles, Director of the 51�������� Alaska Native Language Center, presented on his research "Dynamic Assessment in a Yugtun L2 Intermediate Adult Classroom."

Walkie Charles (Yup’ik) is an Associate Professor of Yup’ik in the Alaska Native Language Program at the 51�������� (51��������). He also became the first Alaska Native director for the Alaska Native Language Center (ANLC) at 51�������� in 2021. He received his Ph.D. in applied linguistics in 2011. 

His interests include dynamic assessment, sociocultural theory, and Yugtun (Yup’ik) language teaching and learning. His dissertation was titled Dynamic Assessment in a Yugtun L2 Intermediate Adult Classroom. He has extensive experience in public school teaching and bilingual education for over thirty years both in rural and urban Alaskan communities.