Dear Student Affairs Colleagues,

November is Native American Heritage Month and an opportunity to honor the Native American people who first called Davis and Yolo County home nearly 2,000 years ago. For centuries, well before UC Davis and the city took shape, this land was home to the Patwin [PUTT-win] people, who are made up of three federally recognized tribes: 

• Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation [YO-chuh DEE-HEE; WIN- tune]
• Cachil DeHe Band of Wintun Indians of the Colusa Indian Community [CATCH-ill DEE-HEE; WIN- tune]
• Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation [KLET-SELL DEE-HEE; WIN- tune]

In 2022, the Grand Challenges initiative was launched and identified four focus areas, one of which is Reimagining the Land-grant University. As a land-grant university, UC Davis faces the challenge of fully reckoning with and growing from our history to ensure we advance equity, creating opportunity for Native American students and fulfilling the promise to have a profound positive public impact on our world through teaching, research and service. As this focus area has a deep connection to our work in Student Affairs, I will be providing these periodic updates throughout the year. 

Divisional Leadership Announcement

I am happy to share that Michelle Villegas-Frazier (pictured left) is serving as the inaugural Senior Strategic Advisor for Native American/Alaska Native and First Nation Affairs, and Nora Zade (pictured right) is assisting with tribal affairs development as Program Coordinator. Nora works with the analytical and non-empirical research to support tribal affairs development and supports campuswide Native American projects. 

The Strategic Advisor and Program Coordinator roles:



• Act as the point-of-contact for Native American organizations, communities and individuals by providing campus visits and tours, as well as coordinating Tribal Nations connections to our campuses academic and auxiliary departments. Currently, they are working with Tribal nations to connect them to campus entities such as the School of Medicine, Transportation Services and our Brewery departments.
• Facilitate and guide relationships between university and Native American communities/Tribal Nations. They are working with various faculty to build relationships to include Native Nations in their research and grants which include the delta waterways, land usage with UC Davis Reserve system and prescribed burns.
• Assist in the development of policies and procedures that help center Native American presence and perspective on campus. They have co-developed the land acknowledgment tool kit, which included the campus policy on land acknowledgments as well as led discussions on homeland history, and relationship and engagement with tribes.
• Provide conceptual and cultural leadership on Native American affairs to campus leaders and departments, as well as advising on internal and external strategy as it relates to Native American communities. They are co-leading the Grand Challenges pillar “Reimagining A Land Grant University” on how UC Davis shows responsibility, recognition and reciprocity as a Land Grant University. 

Michelle will also remain as the Director of Native American Academic Student Success Center and continue to lead all of our Student Affairs related work for Native communities.

Land Acknowledgement Marketing Toolkit and Video

In collaboration with Michelle in this new role, additional staff from the Native American Academic Student Success Center and Grand Challenges Initiative, Student Affairs Marketing and Communications and the Strategic Communications teams have developed a new land acknowledgement marketing toolkit. Campus units have requested to use the land acknowledgment for meetings and events, display in their spaces and post on their communication channels. The toolkit was created to provide a cohesive design campuswide and includes tools such as LCDs, social media graphics and flyer and presentation templates. In addition to the toolkit, university leadership has also recorded a new video reading of the campus land acknowledgement. 

Using the toolkit



The land acknowledgement statement has been approved by both the campus and the three federally recognized Patwin tribes. When using the toolkit assets, you are not permitted to alter any text or imagery. Faculty may integrate the acknowledgment text into their syllabi or use the provided PDF file to attach to their course materials. Please note that the statement may be updated over time. We will notify campus units of any changes and provide updated versions of the toolkit as necessary. The land acknowledgement webpage provides additional information about the statement as well as an FAQ. 

UC Davis Grand Challenges

Looking at the big picture to ensure UC Davis’ research is integrated with previously untapped resources and is making the greatest positive impact on global problems are the driving forces behind Grand Challenges. 

The role of Reimaging the Land-grant University Grand Challenge is to serve to connect efforts across the campus, help amplify and bring forward solution-based approaches and further develop our university’s relationship with Native Nations, as well as seek large-scale funding opportunities for collaboration. Visit the Grand Challenges website to learn more about this initiative.