About Faculty of Color Awards
- Mentorship - Recognizing a faculty member who has provided exemplary efforts to positively impact students of color’s educational experiences.
- All Around Support - Recognizing a faculty member who has provided exemplary efforts to positively impact the educational experiences of students of color including academic development, leadership initiative, social support & networking, and mentorship. (Ex: Research, teaching and service.) Note: This is inclusive of the mentorship category, listed above, but with further requirements.
Faculty of Color Awards Nomination Process:
To nominate a UNM faculty member that you would like to recognize, please fill the FoCA Nomination form in its entirety.
The nomination form requires nominator and nominee contact information and a one page letter of recognition. The decisions of the award committee will be based on the content of the letters received. Please be sure to include all appropriate and significant information for the nomination and category. In order for a nominee to be considered for more than one category, a separate letter of support must be submitted for each category. Nominators are asked to attend the awards ceremony in April and introduce award winners.
Letter of Recognition Format:
- 500 words /single spaced page minimum
- 12pt Times New Roman
- Include header with nominator full name and date
- Single Spaced
2024 Recipients
Dr. Lloyd Lee, Native American Studies
2024 ALL-AROUND AWARD RECIPIENT
Lloyd L. Lee, Ph.D. is an enrolled citizen of the Navajo Nation. He is Kiyaa’1anii (Towering House people), born for T[’11sch77 (Red Cheeks people). His maternal grandfather’s clan is !sh88h7 (Salt clan) and his paternal grandfather’s clan is T1b22h1 (Water’s Edge people).
He is Chair and Professor of the Department of Native American Studies (NAS), Director of the Center for Regional Studies (CRS), and editor of the Wicazo Sa Review journal. He is the author of Diné Identity in a 21st Century World (2020), Diné Masculinities: Conceptualizations and Reflections (2013), co-author of Native Americans and the University of New Mexico (2017), edited Nihikéyah: Navajo Homeland (2023), Navajo Sovereignty: Understandings and Visions of the Diné People (2017), and Diné Perspectives: Reclaiming and Revitalizing Navajo Thought (2014), and co-edited The Yazzie Case: Building a Public Education System for Our Indigenous Future (2023) with Wendy S. Greyeyes and Glenabah Martinez His research focuses on Indigenous identity, masculinities, leadership, philosophies, and Native Nation building/Indigenous community building.
Dr. Michael Lechuga, Communication and Journalism
2024 ALL-AROUND AWARD RECIPIENT
Michael Lechuga is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of New Mexico, he researches and teaches Rhetoric, Settler Colonial Studies, and Cultural Studies. His research broadly focuses on how settler colonial logics are mapped onto Turtle Island (North America) and the interventions anti-colonial agents and thinkers make in resistance. Additionally, Lechuga studies the relationship between technologies and new media and the Indigenous ways of knowing become adopted, coopted, or negated by these technologies. https://cjdept.unm.edu/people/faculty/profile/michael-lechuga.html
Dr. Steven Verney, Psychology
2024 All-Around Award Recipient
Steven P. Verney, PhD, is an Alaska Native (Tsimshian) Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of New Mexico. He received his doctoral degree from the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. His research and professional interests include cultural factors in cognitive assessment, cognitive aging, cultural psychology, and health inequities in underserved populations, especially American Indians and Alaska Natives. He is one of the Principal Investigators of the UNM Transdisciplinary Research Equity and Engagement (TREE) Center for Advancing Behavioral Health, an NIH Center of Excellence in Health Disparities. Dr. Verney teaches courses in cultural psychology, psychology of prejudice, health disparities, and research with diverse populations.
