Page 27 - 2023 February Report

Horizons
Arizona and New Mexico Trip Report
by Sherry Salway Black
Introduction
January 24 – 27, 2023
Bobby and I had wanted to visit with Levi Esquerra for some time so we planned this visit to him at the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ and decided, since we were “in the neighborhood,” to go to New Mexico as well and visit with Angelique Albert at Native Forward Scholars Fund (formerly American Indian Graduate Center). We were also able to visit with New Mexico Community Capital in Albuquerque. Below are the reports on each visit.
ARIZONA
University of Arizona
Levi put together an amazing and jampacked one day visit for us (full agenda with names of all attendees available). Just to set the stage and remind folks, JSF met and funded Levi when he was at Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff. He headed the Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. The JSF funding went mostly to the work Levi was doing in financial literacy with many of the 22 tribes in Arizona – and also business assistance – we believed in what Levi was doing and supported it – and him.
Levi Esquerra
Levi moved to the University of Arizona almost two years ago. He is now the Senior Vice President of Native American Advancement and Tribal Engagement in the Office of the President. This is a new office created in 2020 out of crises as the President had given some insensitive remarks that were not well received in the Native community in Arizona. The Native population in Arizona is between four and five percent of the state’s population (and own 27 percent of the land in AZ) but are less than two percent of U of AZ student population (about 1.4%). Levi is the perfect person for this position because of his background at NAU, his relationship with and knowledge of all tribes in the state and his role as a former tribal chairman and council member.
Below is a brief statement about the initiative. Levi provided us with a seven-page description of the many efforts and accomplishments over the two short years. I will work with Lady to have this put into Diligent. We were able to meet with President Robbins who not only seems very supportive of the efforts and of Levi but has put the resources of the institution behind it. Robert Robbins, MD has been President since 2017 and came to U of AZ from Texas where he
headed the Texas Medical Center and is a cardiologist by specialty. Two million dollars of institution resources have been committed for the Arizona Native Scholars program that provides gap funding for every Native student from any of the Arizona tribes for up to four years. It started just this past August.
“Our mission is for the University of Arizona to be the leading Institution serving all Native Americans.” – N. Levi Esquerra
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