Last month, Oregon State University College of Forestry announced it had hired alumna Cristina Eisenberg as director of tribal initiatives. The new position aims to partner with tribes in Oregon and the region on restoration projects and recruiting Native American students. A forest ecologist by training, Eisenberg is also working with tribes in western Oregon on a new, three-year pilot project funded by the Bureau of Land Management to make forests more resilient to climate change by using Indigenous practices and environmental beliefs known as Traditional Ecological Knowledge.

Eisenberg is also the forestry college’s first associate dean of inclusive excellence, a role informed by her own experiences as a Latinx and Native American first-generation college student, to provide support and new opportunities for underrepresented students. Cristina Eisenberg joins us to discuss returning to Oregon State University to lead these new efforts within the College of Forestry.