Michelle Hale

Michelle Hale is Laguna, Chippewa, Odawa and a citizen of the Navajo Nation from Oak Springs, Arizona. She is assistant professor of American Indian Studies; senior sustainability scholar with the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability; and honors faculty for Barrett, the Honors College. Hale teaches Federal Indian Policy, Tribal Community Planning and Reservation Economic Development, and engages in teaching, research and publication partnerships with faculty from the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and the Del E. Webb School of Construction. 

Professor Hale's scholarship examines issues of tribal governance, public policy, state-tribal relations, community development and planning. She is currently working on articles that explore state-tribal partnerships and co-management of natural resources in the Southwest and the role of Navajo women in grassroots activism and education for enhanced community development. An upcoming book for the University of Arizona press, Doing for Themselves: Navajo Community Development Through Localized Decision-Making and Planning, advocates for comprehensive planning practices and planning education that are tailored to the culture, history and needs of the Navajo people. A 2018 article, "The Navajo Local Governance Act (LGA): A Help or Hindrance to Grassroots Self-Government?" in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal explores capacity building, education and training needed to actualize localized community building on Navajo land.  Her chapter, "Empowered Sovereignty for Navajo Chapters Through Engagement in a Community Planning Process," in Navajo Sovereignty: Understandings and Vision of the Dine People reflects Hale's interdisciplinary approach and consideration of ways that community-based planning can Indigenize development process and policy to achieve culturally appropriate outcomes.

Hale coordinates internships and mentors students working on honors projects, thesis and dissertation research. A member of several national associations in American Indian and Indigenous studies, she also serves on the ASU University Senate and the College Senate for Liberal Arts and Sciences.