Dr. Hawk is a co-facilitator of the Certificate in Tribal Relations Program. She is a Senior Fellow for the Center for Public Service in the Hatfield School of Government at PSU and brings a wealth of interdisciplinary experience and research to serve tribes. A descendant of the Haudenosaunee people, she has represented tribal governments of the Pacific Northwest as an air quality specialist and served on regional, national, and international work groups, managed and coordinated multi-stakeholder projects, written numerous testimonies to bring Traditional Ecological and Cultural Knowledge before governing bodies, and testified on behalf of indigenous people before the United Nations. She has also served in Massachusetts as tribal community liaison in higher education. Her research and work include vexing social and environmental justice issues on Earth and in outer space. Raised in the Portland area, she recently retired from her East Coast career, wherein she earned Director Emerita status at Framingham State University in Massachusetts, to return to her beloved northwest “most home place.” Her life’s work has centered on deepening cultural understandings between people and societies for the purpose of strengthening representation in governance so that communities thrive in health and well- being for the benefit of all.
Dr. Hawk holds a doctorate in law and policy from Northeastern University, a master's in public administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and a bachelor of arts from Portland State University in communications, with an emphasis on intercultural communication. She has also completed master-level coursework in environmental policies and management, Tribal Nations in the 21st Century, and environmental conflict resolution facilitation.