CORVALLIS — Western forestry practices have evolved over the past 120 years through observation, experimentation and management based on desired results. To further the understanding of natural systems, the Oregon State University College of Forestry is incorporating Indigenous knowledge into its curriculum and facilitating tribal enrollment.

To offer the best forestry education available through academia, experience and generational knowledge and to develop a diverse student body skilled to manage the nation’s forests, Cristina Eisenberg was named the College of Forestry’s first associate dean for inclusive excellence and director of tribal initiatives.

“My job is to lead the college in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion, to develop tribal initiatives with the nine tribes of Oregon, and to establish best practices to engage with tribal nations and work to improve student success,” Eisenberg said.

Eisenberg, an Oregon State University Ph.D. graduate with a background in restoration ecology, wildlife biology and traditional ecological knowledge, is from northern Mexico and of Raramuri and Western Apache heritage. She said to build the college’s new program, she is going to work closely with the leaders of Oregon’s tribes.

Eisenberg has the education, background and the personal understanding of tribal identity and acknowledges there are differences in culture among even the tribes of one state. She said the College of Forestry’s mission is to train professionals to create forests that are resilient to wildfire, insect infestations and disease while incorporating Indigenous ecological knowledge. That means a memorandum of understanding with tribes, consulting with elders and getting the communities involved.

“When I talk to Oregon’s tribal leadership I will ask, ‘What do you need? Let’s get to know each other,’” Eisenberg said. “I come into this position with humility. I know an 8-year-old kid from a reservation knows more than anyone else about what they need, so I will just listen.”

To get started, Eisenberg said she and her colleagues obtained $5 million from the Bureau of Land Management to work with Oregon’s tribes to help empower youth. Some of that money will go to research scholarships and employing tribal teens and young adults from 15 to 30 years of age. The three-year pilot project, she said, gives the college the freedom to figure out what works best for tribal nations.

As associate dean at the College of Forestry, Eisenberg’s reach goes beyond tribal initiatives — she is tasked with fostering a welcoming, safe, healthy, and nurturing environment for all students to ensure they have equal access to success.

“I have oversight over student services and my focus is specifically to help create more opportunities for underserved students — anyone outside the norm of the middle class, white, traditional age student,” Eisenberg said.

For instance, she said, some students need help navigating higher education, such as how to pick the right classes and develop a career path. For some Indigenous students raised in tribal tradition, navigating today’s world can be complicated.

“Tribal nation cultures are not linear,” Eisenberg said.

Often Indigenous students entering the College of Forestry struggle to fit in. Eisenberg said they don’t always feel heard and the dropout rate is high.

Her understanding of Indigenous cultures hails not only from her own life, but in her previous position with Earthwatch, an organization that funds scientific research. Eisenberg said she oversaw 50 projects in Indigenous communities across six continents. Because of her personal and professional perspective, she said she has done a lot of policy work, testified in front of Congress and Department of Interior leadership, and advised the White House Council on Science and Technology as well as the Committee on Environmental Quality.

In her adopted home state of Montana, Eisenberg said she worked with Plains Tribes out of the Fort Belknap Reservation on traditional ecological knowledge and was asked by the U.S. Forest Service to provide guidance in the form of a science consultation.

“They wanted to know what the nexus is between traditions of native people and how they fit with government agencies and natural resource management,” Eisenberg said. “There is quite a lot of synchronicity.”

Today’s federal government’s vision is to include Indigenous knowledge in natural resources not only with funding, but with recent appointments like Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo Tribe and Director of the National Park Service Chuck Sams of Oregon’s Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The time is ripe for Eisenberg’s new position to flourish.

“The way I see it, I was in the right place at the right time doing the right work,” Eisenberg said. “The work I do matters to me — this is just my life’s work. OSU has followed my work since I graduated and is celebrating that I am a person of color. The whole system is changing.”