Clarita Lefthand Begay

I'm a Navajo Ph.D. student at the University of Washington in Seattle. I conduct Environmental Health Microbiology research and I'm also beginning to elaborate on my interests in Environmental Justice.

In the lab, I'm working on a method that aims to detect the presents of viable bacteria in water systems. More specifically, I'm targeting pre-rRNA genes of Aeromonas hydrophila using RT-PCR to determine the presence of pathogenic bacteria in drinking or marine water. This type of research is interesting to me because of it's direct applicability to real-world problems.

My goal as a Ph.D. student is to find ways to link my lab work with Environmental Issues that Tribal Nations are experiencing today. I will undoubtedly be thinking very seriously about this for the next 6 months and will soon be able to elaborate on this more.

My overall professional goals are to enter academia after I earn my Ph.d., and in the long term, I will think about ways to contribute to improving science education amoung indigenous communities. There are already many people working to improve indigenous education including many native students here at the UW. This type of work is so intensely needed and I wish everyone huge progress in this area!

My nephew Luca and I