Theresa Stewart-Ambo is a William T. Grant Scholar examining the characteristics of and initiatives across universities that influence the educational outcomes of Indigenous youth. She has served on twelve dissertation committees and mentored Indigenous students in education studies. Stewart-Ambo’s goals include developing a mentoring framework that marries doctoral program milestones with Indigenous ways of knowing. With this award, she intends to emphasize non-hierarchical mentorship models and prepare ethical and community-engaged scholars who are assets to their communities. Stewart-Ambo’s mentee, Chenoa Pellytaay Aschoff Musillo, is an Indigenous doctoral student in their third year at the University of California, San Diego, and a member of the Kumeyaay community whose lands the university occupies. Musillo’s goals include strengthening their existing knowledge of research practices and designing research protocols rooted in decolonial, queer, and antiracist frameworks. Musillo will work with the Kumeyaay community to develop a dissertation that explores what tribal members and descendants believe San Diego public school teachers should teach about Indigeneity. Stewart-Ambo will support Musillo’s progress toward degree completion by advising the development of the literature review and research proposal that will comprise the dissertation project
With this award, Stewart-Ambo intends to emphasize non-hierarchical mentorship models and prepare ethical and community-engaged scholars who are assets to their communities.
