Grad Student - CRNAI

Arianna Lunow-Luke

Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley

Arianna Lunow-Luke (she/her) is a PhD student in the department of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, where she is the recipient of the Chancellor’s Fellowship. She is also pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Food Systems through the Berkeley Food Institute. Born and raised in Kailua, Oʻahu, Ari is a fourth generation Chinese settler of Kanaka Maoli lands in Hawaiʻi. She received her BA in Biology and Ethnic Studies from Brown University.

Ari’s research is centered on Asian settler colonialism and multiculturalism in Hawaiʻi. She is particularly...

Anna Macknick

Linguistics, UC Berkeley

Anna Macknick is a graduate student in Linguistics and the Designated Emphasis on Indigenous Language Revitalization. They collaborate with the Xaitsnoo (Southeastern Pomo) language community in creating curriculum, teaching language classes, and developing the language's first community-centered dictionary, with a focus on Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Anna's work seeks to support Indigenous language sovereignty by increasing community access to and autonomy over language materials held at UC archives. Anna is interested in connections between Universal Design for...

Kendrick Manymules

Geography, UC Berkeley

Kendrick Manymules (Diné) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography. He is from Fort Defiance, AZ. Kendrick's research explores the history and contemporary configuration of questions around land, development, and sovereignty. He utilizes archival methods in order to understand how contemporary understandings of land are reworked through capitalist development that invariably have profound consequences for the practice of Diné sovereignty. Kendrick holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of City Planning degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Cristina Mendez

Cristina S. Méndez (she/ella) is a Chicana educator, scholar, and poet. She is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley School of Education and a member of the interdisciplinary designated emphasis program in Indigenous Language Revitalization. Her research focuses on the lived experiences and sense-making of Maya Mam women lideresas who organize for the vitality of their language and culture and for the wellbeing of their communities across the United States, México, and Guatemala. Through her research and other collaborations, Cristina is committed to centering...

Jesús Nazario

Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley

Jesús Nazario (he/they) is a PhD candidate in the Ethnic Studies Department with a Designated Emphasis in Indigenous Language Revitalization at the University of California, Berkeley. Broadly, they interrogate Indigenous cultural change and permanence in North America, with particular focus on traditional ecological knowledge and Indigenous notions of citizenship. Their interdisciplinary dissertation analyzes changes in Nahua identity and cultural practices, specifically regarding Indigenous maize farming practices, that have occurred over the last 30 years as a result of...

Jimena Perez

Geography, UC Berkeley

Jimena Perez is a community-engaged scholar, NSF GRFP Fellow, and Geography Ph.D. student at UC Berkeley. Her dissertation explores the L.A. River—known to the Tongva as paayme paxaayt—as a site of memory, resistance, and repair. Raised in Southeast Los Angeles, she witnessed the River’s confinement in concrete, mirroring the struggles of nearby working-class communities. Rather than centering loss, her ethnographic research highlights the visions and practices of residents across L.A. County who challenge dominant planning narratives and reimagine infrastructure. Jimena’s...

Everardo Reyes

Ethnomusicology, UC Berkeley

Everardo “Ever” Reyes (Rarámuri descent and Chicanx) is a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the intersections between music, social movements, and Indigenous self-determination. His dissertation focuses on the contemporary sonic and political influences of the 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz Island by the Indians of All Tribes on Indigenous social movements. Ever also works on Rarámuri and Nahuatl language revitalization through music technology and songwriting with the Indigenous Poetics Lab at the Arts Research...

Marlena Robbins

Public Health, UC Berkeley

Marlena Robbins is a Doctor of Public Health candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the Program Coordinator for the Collective Continuance: Indigenous Knowledge Fellowship, where her research utilizes implementation science, Indigenous methodologies, and public health prevention theory to develop a fellowship for early-career UC Berkeley PhD students interested in studying at the intersection of Indigenous knowledge systems and psychedelic science. The fellowship connects students with Indigenous-led organizations and advisors to help them craft their...

Henry Sales

School of Education, UC Berkeley

Henry Leonel Sales Hernández is an Indigenous Maya Mam educator, researcher, and doctoral student in the School of Education at UC Berkeley. Born and raised in San Juan Atitán, Guatemala, and currently living in Oakland, California, his work is rooted in language justice, cultural affirmation, and educational equity. His research and work focuses on the revitalization of the Mam language through early childhood education, storytelling, and community-based practices. Drawing on ethnographic methods, Henry studies how Mam toddlers, youth, and their families in Oakland engage with books and...

Deibi Sibrian

Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley

Deibi Sibrian is a Ph.D. Candidate in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley with a Designated Emphasis in Development Engineering. A first-generation Indigenous Salvadoran scholar of Maya Ch’ortí lineage, Deibi studies the socio-environmental consequences of digital transformation. Deibi’s dissertation, Digital Transformations, Physical Costs, examines how digital infrastructure—including AI, data centers, Bitcoin, and cryptocurrency mining—reshapes land, energy systems, public health, and more-than-human ecologies. Grounded...