Faculty
Our program has three directors, from three different departments at UNM.
Dr. Vincent Werito
Ph.D., College of Education and Human Sciences
Dr. Vincent Werito (Diné) is originally from Na’neelzhiin (Torreon, New Mexico), a rural Navajo community southwest of Cuba, New Mexico. Dr. Vincent Werito is currently an Associate Professor in the College of Education at the University of New Mexico in the Department of Language, Literacy, and Socio-cultural Studies. His concentration areas are in American Indian (Indigenous) Education and Bilingual Education. His primary research interests are in the following educational areas: teacher education; Indigenous pedagogy; Dine (Navajo) Education; Navajo Language language/cultural revitalization; Indigenous Nation building and cultural sustainability.
vwerito@unm.edu, (505) 277-1832
Dr. Melvatha R. Chee
Ph.D., Department of Linguistics
Melvatha R. Chee (Diné) is Tsé Nahabiłnii, Kin Łichíi’nii, Hooghan Łání and Áshįįhí, a Diné woman from Lake Valley, New Mexico. She has over 15 years of experience working with her heritage language in a professional capacity. This includes interpretation, translation, transcription, teaching and research. Dr. Chee’s work includes teaching the Diné language at the University of New Mexico, serving as an official interpreter for the U.S. Department of Justice, and translating voting ballots for the State of New Mexico. Her research work analyzes child language data collected from first language speakers of Navajo. She primarily examines how children learn to use the morphologically complex Navajo verb. Additionally, she is working to build a Navajo language corpus consisting of stories, narratives, and conversations. Her research interests include first language acquisition, morphophonology, polysynthesis, semantics, morphology, the application of cognitive linguistics to Navajo, and the intersection between language, culture and linguistics, and indigenous language sustainability. Dr. Chee, a United States Marine Corps Veteran, is a fluent speaker of Navajo and became literate at a very young age. As a linguistically trained individual, she offers a unique insight into research on Navajo. Melvatha has firsthand experience in linguistic fieldwork with indigenous communities. She has collected, processed and analyzed Navajo language data, and collaborated on several successful grant-writing projects. Melvatha works hard to maintain a connection to her culture to enrich her Navajo language skills, knowledge and wellbeing. Melvatha, an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of New Mexico, is currently serving as Director of the Navajo Language Program.
mchee@unm.edu, (505) 277-5363
Dr. Tiffany Lee
Ph.D., Department of Native American Studies
Tiffany S. Lee (Diné/Lakota) is Dibé Łizhiní (Blacksheep) and born for Naałaní (Oglala Lakota). She is from Crystal, New Mexico, located on the Navajo Nation, on her mother’s side, and Pine Ridge, South Dakota on her father’s side. Dr. Lee is a Professor and Chair of Native American Studies at the University of New Mexico. She earned her doctorate in Sociology of Education from Stanford University. Her research examines Native youth perspectives with regard to language reclamation and identity. She also investigates socio-culturally centered educational approaches. In 2016, she was awarded a grant from the Spencer Foundation to examine the impact of Indigenous language immersion schools on Native American student achievement. Some of her publications include: “Critical language awareness among Native youth in New Mexico” in Indigenous youth and multilingualism: Language identity, ideology, and practice in dynamic cultural worlds, and “You should learn who you are through your culture: Transformative educational possibilities” for Native American youth” in New Mexico in Cultural transformations: Youth and pedagogies of possibility. She is the former President of the Navajo Studies Conference, Inc and a former high school social studies and language arts teacher at schools on the Navajo Nation and at Santa Fe Indian School. She is also a member of the New Mexico Indian Education Advisory Council for the NM Office of Indian Education.
tslee@unm.edu, (505) 277-3927
