Albuquerque, New Mexico
Jodi Burshia (Laguna Pueblo, Diné, Hunkpapa Lakota, Assiniboine and Sioux) grew up on the Tohono O’otham reservation in southern Arizona.
She attended the University of Arizona in Tucson where she earned a BA and MA.Ed before moving to Albuquerque to be closer to her home community of the Laguna Pueblo and to pursue doctoral studies. She loves working in the classroom and has been a classroom educator since 2000. She has a daughter that is the light of her life and keeps her on her toes! Jodi is a doctoral student in the Department of Educational Leadership (ED Lead) at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and a member of the Native American Leadership in Education (NALE) cohort. In addition to doctoral studies, Jodi serves as an Adjunct English and Reading Instructor at the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) where she works with Indigenous students to build and strengthen their reading, writing, and comprehension skills. She seeks comprehensive and multidisciplinary approaches to educational, linguistic, and social justice disparities, especially in Indigenous communities. In this role, she seeks to empower Indigenous students to envision and attain academic success as a step to pursuing their dreams and passions. As an educator and an educational activist, she has been able to collaborate with colleagues to bring awareness about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) issue to the SIPI campus.
