Lydia L. Jennings is a Native American soil microbiologist and environmental scientist. Her research interests are

soil health Soil health is a state of a soil meeting its range of ecosystem functions as appropriate to its environment. In more colloquial terms, the health of soil arises from favorable interactions of all soil components (living and non-living) that belong ...

environmental remediation Environmental remediation is the cleanup of hazardous substances dealing with the removal, treatment and containment of pollution or contaminants from Natural environment, environmental media such as soil, groundwater, sediment. Remediation may be ...

, indigenous science, mining policy, and environmental data ownership by tribal nations. She works with organizations initiatives that support Indigenous geoscientists and the integration of geoscience with Indigenous knowledge. Her work is featured in the 2020 documentary ''Run to Be Visible,'' produced by

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

Early life and education

Jennings grew up in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , literal translation, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city, capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Santa Fe County. With over 89,000 residents, Santa Fe is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fourt ...

and is a member of two indigenous tribes - the

Huichol The Huichol () or Wixárika () are an Indigenous people of Mexico living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, with considerable communities in the United States, in the states of Califo ...

(Wixáritari) and

Pascua Yaqui The Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona is a federally recognized tribe of Yaqui Native Americans in the state of Arizona. Descended from the Yaqui people whose original homelands include the Yaqui River valley in western Sonora, Mexico and southe ...

(Yoeme). Jennings received an associate of science in biology from

Cabrillo College Cabrillo College is a public community college in Aptos, California. It is named after the conquistador Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo and opened in 1959. Cabrillo College has an enrollment of about 9,700 students per term. Facilities Classes are of ...

, and a

bachelors of science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in environmental science, technology and policy, with a minor in chemistry, from

California State University, Monterey Bay California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB or Cal State Monterey Bay) is a public university located in Monterey County, California, United States. The main campus is situated on the site of the former military base Fort Ord, spanning the ...

. Jennings completed her Ph.D. from the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

in 2020, focusing on the identification and characterization of microbial indicators as tools to evaluate mine waste reclamation, with her minor research in American Indian Policy focusing on the laws around mining on federal lands to which tribes have ancestral claims.

Research career

Jennings main areas of research focus on fate, transport, and biogeochemistry of environmental pollutants, bioremediation, and

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has gene ...

for underrepresented groups. After completion of her undergraduate degree and before attending graduate school, Jennings worked for a couple of years studying water pollution at a field station in

Big Sur Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of the U.S. state of California, between Carmel Highlands and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Range, Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from th ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It was at this time Jennings began thinking about using her science skills to serve the places she was from, especially for topics such as environmental issues caused by mining. Her current work focuses on identifying soil health biogeochemical indicators of soil reclamation, in order to make modern mining reclamation more effective and cost efficient, while also tracking how policy has placed many mines on/or bordering tribal nations and extraction on public lands. Jennings has been part of the Indigenous Food Knowledges Network (IFKN) and in June 2019 went to

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

to visit the Chickaloon Village to learn about food and land systems. Jennings credits her involvement with the

American Indian Science and Engineering Society The American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit professional association with the goal of substantially increasing American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, First Nation and other ...

(AISES) in graduate school for helping develop her research skills and to envision ways to honor Indigenous data sources and contributions, connecting the geosciences with cultural identity. In addition to her international conference presentations on topics such as ''Biogeophysical Soil Constituents Associated with Revegetation Success of Reclaimed Mine Tailings in Southern Arizona'', Jennings has presented on Indigenous data governance and Indigenous-led collaborations across biomes. Jennings utilized her time as an

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...

Voices of Science advocate "to increase visibility of Indigenous scientists, and how we are not just the “subject” of scientific inquiry, but rather, are continuing our traditions of scientific practices held within cultural and environmental knowledge." When her May 2020 graduate education was canceled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Jennings decided to run 50 miles in honor of the Indigenous scientists and knowledge keepers who came before her. Her run was recorded and produced as a 19-minute documentary titled ''Run to Be Visible'' and released on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel as part of their "Run to" series. Jennings is often accompanied by her fieldwork assistant, a blue heeler named Salchicha whom she adopted in 2019.

Awards and honors

Jennings is the recipient of multiple institutional and national honors, including: * 2015 - National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow * 2018 - American Indian Science & Engineering Society's Rising Leader Award * 2019 - American Geophysical Union Voices for Science Fellow * 2019 - Native Nations Institute Indigenous Data Sovereignty Fellow * 2019 - Southwest Climate Adaptation Natural Resources Workforce Fellow

References

External links

Lydia Jennings, PhD
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jennings, Lydia 21st-century Native American scientists People from Santa Fe, New Mexico California State University, Monterey Bay alumni Cabrillo College alumni Living people Soil scientists Year of birth missing (living people) Native American women scientists Biologists from New Mexico 21st-century Native American women Women soil scientists