Meet our staff!
Darold Harmon Joseph (he/him/his)
Director of the Institute for Native-serving Educators (INE)
Darold H. Joseph, PhD, is from the Village of Moenkopi of the Hopi Tribe matrilineally representing the Paa’Iswunga (Water-Coyote Clan) and patrillineally, the Nuvawungwa (Snow Clan) from the Village of Shongopavi. Dr. Joseph was raised on Hopi, graduated from Tuba City High School, then went on to pursue and complete his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Northern Arizona University. In 2019 he achieved a PhD in Special Education at the University of Arizona and has worked for NAU since 2013. In addition to his role as the Director for the Institute for Native-serving Educators, he is an Assistant Professor of Special Education in the Educational Specialties Department at the College of Education. His research is focused on the intersection of disability with sociocultural differences that inform educational inequities for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth. His work aims to advance opportunities for Indigenous youth with and without disabilities to persist in education, health and wellness, and cultural well-being. With his wife, they share five children and two beautiful grandchildren and remain committed to serving and giving back to Indigenous communities.
Director
Denyse Candace Herder (she/her/hers)
Community Program Coordinator of the Institute for Native-serving Educators
Denyse is from Leupp, Arizona and is of the Diné and Paiute tribes. As the Community Program Coordinator, Sr. for the NAU Institute for Native-serving Educators, Denyse’s role is to provide a wide-range of support for INE programs which aim to strengthen schooling in tribal communities through culturally responsive professional development. Formerly, Denyse held positions with Indigenous-serving programs in the NAU in the College of Education and the Native American Cultural Center. Denyse holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Indigenous Studies from NAU and she is currently pursuing a Counseling-Student Affairs master’s degree. She is a mother of three and currently resides in Winslow with her family.
Community Program Coordinator
Zoe Elizabeth Lawrence (she/her/hers)
Summer Staff of the Institute for Native-serving Educators
Zoe Lawrence is from Sheboygan, Wisconsin located on the banks of Lake Michigan (the Malibu of the Midwest). She has moved from Wisconsin to the Southwest in search of adventure through hiking and new opportunities. Her research interests include environmental and social justice issues, specifically environmental health equity. Zoe concentrated on addressing concerns regarding local incarceration and re-entry that are mimicked in many communities across the country while earning her undergraduate degree in Sociology and Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. She brings experience working in non-profit and governmental organizations with diverse, often vulnerable populations, including the previously houseless. Zoe recently graduated from the Applied Sociology master’s program at NAU working on a research project “Environmental Exposures from Legacy Mining as a Social Determinant of Health Linked to Kidney Cancer” with the NAU Chemistry department under Dr. Jani Ingram. Her contribution to the project takes inspiration and embraces Indigenous worldviews through her survey writing and storytelling throughout her thesis. Along with her passion for health equity worldwide, Zoe loves to read romance and fantasy novels as well as bake any and all desserts to curb her sweet tooth.
Staff