Meet Dr. Kimberly Yazzie.
Dr. Yazzie joins the Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Forests & Conservation Sciences. Kim conducts research across a number of areas: freshwater ecology, climate solutions and Indigenous land and water governance.
Kim earned her Ph.D. in Aquatic and Fishery Sciences from the University of Washington. Prior to joining UBC, Kim was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University at the Woods Institute for the Environment where she worked on climate mitigation and energy transformation in Tribal communities in the U.S. At UBC, she will lead research on ecosystem resilience in freshwater systems and Indigenous land stewardship.
Kim is Diné from the Navajo Nation and grew up in Arizona, Southwestern United States. She enjoys hiking, paddleboarding, experiencing art, meditation and going on long urban walks. Dr. Yazzie also finds joy in baking and painting in watercolour.
What inspired you to pursue your area of research?
Early on, I developed a keen awareness of the urgent risks that climate change poses to humanity and biodiversity, most notably the access to and availability of freshwater resources in the Southwest. As a child, I spent time locating seeps and springs on the tabletop mesa I grew up on and spent a fair amount of time cooling off in the San Juan River in Utah, a tributary to the Colorado River.
Water issues have always been dear to me from water rights, access to water, to water quality. One of my earliest memories of capturing environmental issues on paper was drawing a diagram of an acid rain pathway in grade school. I drew elements of industrial pollution, cars, rain, and plants. I still have this drawing. Since grade school, my career trajectory has intersected with research that informs decision-making for water and energy security.
What do you hope to achieve through your work at UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship?
I plan to employ a water-energy-food-climate nexus approach to understand the present and future impacts of different levels of water and land stewardship and governance, on biodiversity and climate resilience. My research has grown to be interdisciplinary, and I am thrilled to form new collaborations and partnerships to explore scalable projects.
What motivated you to join the Faculty?
There were countless attractions that drew me to UBC, I will share three. One, to be a part of the first-of-its-kind Bachelor of Indigenous Land Stewardship Program in Forestry. Two, the various levels of support at UBC for innovative research at the local and global scales in management, conservation, and policy. Three, the unmatched and immediate access to British Columbia’s stunning natural environment that provides exceptional opportunities for research and teaching.
What are you most looking forward to as a faculty member of UBC Forestry & Environmental Stewardship?
I look forward to supporting the BILS program and growing new collaborations with colleagues in Forestry and with researchers across campus and internationally.