Meet the staff
Angelina Elizabeth Castagno (she/her/hers)
Director of the Institute for Native-serving Educators (INE) and the Diné Institute for Navajo Nation Educators (DINÉ)
Angelina E. Castagno, PhD, is a Professor of Educational Leadership and Foundations, and the Director of the Institute for Native-serving Educators at Northern Arizona University. She lives in Flagstaff with her husband, two children, and dog. She loves to be outside, spending time with her family, running, biking, camping, and hiking. Her teaching, research, and consulting focus on equity and diversity in U.S. schools, and particularly issues of Whiteness and Indigenous education. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of American Indian Education and has authored or edited four books and numerous articles in peer reviewed national and international journals. Her most recent book is The price of nice: How good intentions maintain educational inequity, published by the University of Minnesota Press.
Director
Denyse Candace Herder (she/her/hers)
Community Program Coordinator of the Institute for Native-serving Educators (INE) and the Diné Institute for Navajo Nation Educators (DINÉ)
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 (INE), 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
Crystal Macias (she/her/hers)
Graduate Assistant
Crystal is currently working at NAU as a graduate assistant and part of the EdS School Psychology program. She has lived in Arizona all her life and calls Northern Arizona home. Crystal has been an elementary/middle school teacher for 8 years prior to starting her master’s program. Of those 6 years, Crystal was a certified Montessori AMS teacher for 4th-6th grade with the last two years working at STAR Charter School teaching culturally responsive Math and Science from preschool through 8th grade. Crystal passion is learning, teaching, and connecting with youth.