Jessica Solyom

Dr. Jessica A. Solyom, Ph.D., believes education should help people become more fully themselves and set up their societies to thrive rather than require them to reduce or distance themselves from who they are and what makes them unique. This belief has become the foundation of her work as a scholar, educator, administrator, and community partner. Whether mentoring graduate students, collaborating with Tribal Nations, developing educational policy, leading community-engaged research, or building new educational opportunities, she is guided by a simple but enduring question: How can educational institutions become worthy of the students and communities they serve without making them feel like they have to leave the best parts of themselves at the door?

As a scholar of Indigenous education and education justice Solyom's whose work sits at the intersection of Indigenous and latino/a education rights, policy, leadership, educational sovereignty, community-engaged scholarship, curricular sovereignty, and culturally sustaining educational practice. Drawing upon her Puerto Rican heritage and traditions of coalition-building found within Critical Race Theory, LatCrit, Ethnic Studies, and Indigenous educational thought, she believes that meaningful educational change happens through collaborative relationships grounded in trust, reciprocity, humility, and shared responsibility. Her work has been shaped by the scholarship and mentorship of Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Cheryl Harris, Richard Delgado, Julie Su, Ronald Takaki, Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, Karen Dace, Lisa Flores, Mary Romero, Kristi Ryujin, and Vine Deloria Jr., as well as by decades of learning alongside Indigenous students, educators, Tribal Nations, Elders, and community leaders. Together, these relationships have reinforced her belief that educational justice is advanced not through individual expertise alone, but through cross-cultural collaboration rooted in respect for Indigenous sovereignty, community leadership, and locally generated solutions. 

As Associate Director of the Center for Indian Education and Associate Director of Academic Programs & Student Success in American Indian Studies, Dr. Solyom provides leadership for graduate education, community-engaged research, partnership development, grant initiatives, Indigenous education policy, and leadership development. Her work is grounded in the understanding that universities fulfill their public mission not simply by generating knowledge, but by working alongside communities to co-create opportunities, cultivate leadership, share education resources with them, and support efforts for communities to strengthen their own systems to reflect community priorities, goals, practices, and values. A defining characteristic of Dr. Solyom's work is her commitment to bringing educational opportunities to communities rather than expecting communities to come to the university. Throughout her career, she has helped develop community-based graduate cohorts, hybrid learning models, leadership academies, professional learning initiatives, virtual learning camps, and research partnerships that reduce geographic, institutional, and structural barriers to educational access. She believes the most enduring educational solutions are home-grown, developed in partnership with communities, informed by local knowledge, and sustained by the people they are intended to serve.

Her research and scholarship examines how educational institutions can strengthen Indigenous educational sovereignty, expand access to higher education, cultivate culturally informed leaders, and contribute to more just and equitable educational systems and research processes. Her research explores Indigenous educational leadership, community-engaged research and scholarship, educational policy, Indigenous language revitalization, culturally sustaining education, and the relationships among educational leadership, governance, capacity-building, and community well-being. Rather than viewing scholarship as an end in itself, she approaches research as a form of service that carries responsibilities to the communities who make that work possible. Guided by the Four R's of Indigenous education (Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, and Responsibility) she believes we seek knowledge not simply to possess it, but to return it to others in ways that strengthen communities and expand opportunity. 

Rather than seeing universities as sites of colonial harm and assimilation, she believes universities have a responsibility to partner with communities, to uphold sovereignty, to respect self-determination, and to create opportunities to heal from the harms they have caused. This philosophy is reflected in her administrative leadership as well as her scholarship. As principal investigator, co-principal investigator, and lead grant writer, Dr. Solyom has secured more than $2.5 million in external funding to support Indigenous language revitalization, culturally responsive STEM education, community-serving graduate education programs, leadership development, and community-engaged educational initiatives. Most recently, she served as lead writer for a $1,048,952 Bureau of Indian Education Native Language Immersion Grant supporting the development of a comprehensive Diné language immersion curriculum, resources, and training for teachers in a rural community in northern New Mexico. Across each initiative, her goal remains the same: translating scholarship into educational opportunities that support Indigenous self-determination, strengthen community capacity, create lasting institutional change, and that have the potential to sustain beyond the next three generations.

Mentorship is central to Dr. Solyom's understanding of scholarship. She believes one of the greatest responsibilities of a scholar is to prepare the next generation to carry the work forward. She mentors graduate students, researchers, educators, and administrators in culturally responsive research methodologies, Indigenous research ethics, university and Tribal research review processes, educational and organizational leadership, and community-engaged scholarship. Many of her former students now serve as educators, Tribal leaders, researchers, policymakers, and senior administrators whose work continues to strengthen Indigenous communities across the United States. She views this ripple effect as one of the most meaningful measures of scholarly impact.

Dr. Solyom approaches teaching as a form of leadership. Her classrooms are grounded in relational accountability, intellectual rigor, curiosity, and care. She challenges students to think critically while affirming the identities, experiences, languages, and communities they bring with them into educational spaces. She believes rigor and care are not opposing values; rather, transformative learning happens when students feel both intellectually challenged and deeply supported. Her students frequently describe her courses as spaces where they developed confidence as scholars, connected theory to community practice, and discovered new ways of understanding themselves as leaders. One student's reflection continues to guide her work: "Thank you for creating a place where I didn't have to leave the best parts of myself at the door." For Dr. Solyom, there is no greater affirmation of what education should aspire to become.

Across every aspect of her work, Dr. Solyom is guided by a commitment to educational justice, community partnership, and the belief that knowledge carries responsibility. Inspired by Vine Deloria Jr.'s observation that "the wheel of justice turns slowly, but it turns completely," she understands educational change as long-term work that requires patience, courage, humility, and collaboration. Through scholarship, leadership, mentorship, and partnership, she seeks to help build educational systems where students and communities are not asked to leave behind who they are, but are instead empowered to become more fully themselves and to use that knowledge in service of others.