Forest S. Haven, Ph.D.

Forest is Ts’msyen, La̱xsgiik (eagle clan), and a first-generation Ph.D. from the Metlakatla Indian Community in Southeast Alaska. Her Sm'algyax name is Goi'pa Sha Hana'ack which means Bright Cloud Woman. In 2011 she received her A.A. in General Education from UAS in Ketchikan and in 2013 received her B.A. in Social Science with honors from the UAS in Juneau. Forest has been personally involved with traditional food practices since her childhood in Metlakatla and was encouraged to channel those interests into scholarly pursuits during her time at UAS. As an undergraduate, she was awarded an Alaska EPSCoR fellowship to conduct research on traditional foods in rural Alaska. The challenges facing Indigenous people involved with traditional foods across rural and urban communities eventually led to the development of her recent dissertation research. As a graduate student, she was awarded several major fellowships in support of this research including the Ford Foundation Fellowship, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and the UCI Oceans Initiative Graduate Fellowship. Forest also could not have done this work without the support and caring mentorship of so many Native people throughout Southeast Alaska who generously shared their time, expertise, and traditional foods with her. Forest’s nephew has recently taken to calling her “Dr. Aunty,” a moniker she prefers over other official titles, and one she will draw on to guide her future research, learning, and pedagogy. Forest has presented at numerous conferences around the U.S. and currently teaches Alaska Native Studies and Anthropology for the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau.