Tristan Reader

  • Present2019

    Assistant Professor of Practice

    University of Arizona – Department of American Indian Studies

  • Present2020

    Interim Chair

    American Indian Studies Graduate Interdisciplinary Program – University of Arizona

  • 20192016

    Assistant Professor of Practice

    University of Arizona – Department of American Indian Studies & McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship

  • 20151995

    Co-Founder/Co-Director

    Tohono O'odham Community Action (TOCA)

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  • PhD August 2018

    Center for Agroecology, Water & Resilience

    Coventry University (UK)

  • M.Div. 1994

    Harvard University

    Cambridge, MA

  • B.A. 1989

    Swarthmore College

    Swarthmore, PA

For over 25 years, I have worked on both the grassroots level and within the academy on a wide variety of issues, including….

  • Indigenous food sovereignty;
  • Native American wellness and public health;
  • Native American economic hybridity & social entrepreneurship;
  • Cultural revitalization theory and practice;
  • Indigenous and Participatory Action Research methodologies;
  • Global food movements and food sovereignty;
  • Sustainable and culturally-based community development;
  • Community empowerment and quantum leadership.

I am currently Professor of Practice in the University of Arizona’s  Department of American Indian Studies. I come to the UofA after 20 years of grassroots work within the Tohono O’odham community.  From 1996 through 2015, I was honored to work at Tohono O’odham Community Action (TOCA), a grassroots organization I helped found. TOCA’s community-based work has been recognized nationally and internationally as one of the most innovated and effective programs of its kind.