Meet our Team

Azella Humetewa, MBA-Ed. (Santo Domingo/Acoma Pueblos) is the Director of School Supports at the NACA Inspired Schools Network. Her current role provides opportunities to support school leaders in the area of capacity building and leadership coaching.
A graduate of the University of New Mexico, Azella earned an MBA in Education Leadership, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education. As a level two licensed teacher, she taught social studies for several years, building and teaching culturally relevant curriculum to students at the middle school level. As a Licensed Administrator, Azella continuously worked to create opportunities for social emotional learning, inclusion of Indigenous perspective in the curriculum, and academic success for students at the Native American Community Academy.

A milestone and honor of her career has been as a Curriculum Writer and Development Team Member of the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center’s Indigenous Wisdom Project. Through this visionary work, Azella continues to augment and create opportunities for others to learn about the contributions of New Mexico’s Pueblo people through a positive lens. Her diverse and various roles continue to fuel her passion to motivate and celebrate the next generation of life-long learners and school leaders.

Christine Sims, PhD, is from Acoma Pueblo and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies in the College of Education & Human Sciences at the University of New Mexico (UNM). She is also Director of the American Indian Language Policy Research & Teacher Training Center that she established in 2008. She completed her doctoral work at the University of California at Berkeley, focusing on issues of heritage language maintenance and revitalization among American Indian tribes. The Center engages in public advocacy for Indigenous language maintenance and revitalization initiatives and provides year-round training support for Native language instructors serving in community and school-based language initiatives. The Native American Language Teachers’ Institute (NALTI), a weeklong summer training program sponsored by the Center is held at the UNM campus for Native speakers from various tribes throughout the southwest as well as from other regions of the United States. The Center’s outreach to tribes also includes training support for language initiatives in early childhood education, an increasingly critical area of concern for many tribes.

Glenabah Martinez, PhD (Taos/Diné), was born and raised in Taos Pueblo. She is an Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico and Director of the Institute for American Indian Education. Dr. Martinez’s research focuses on Indigeneity, youth, and education with an emphasis on Indigenous youth, critical pedagogy, and the politics of social studies curriculum. She captures these research areas in her 2010 book, Native Pride: The politics of curriculum and instruction in an urban, public high school. Prior to earning her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, she taught high school social studies for 14 years. She works with the schools and districts throughout New Mexico on social justice participatory action projects directly related to the histories of Indigenous Peoples in NM. She is co-editor of Indigenous Wisdom: Centuries of Pueblo Impact in New Mexico. She has taught Native American Studies to Indigenous youth incarcerated at the Youth Diagnostic Development Center in Albuquerque.

Natalie Martinez, Ph.D. (K’awaika-meh, Laguna Pueblo) is a professional educator. She was a principal and teacher at her Pueblo Nation; she taught middle schoolers and high schoolers in New Mexico. Dr. Martinez’s collaborations on Indigenous-centered curriculum projects include: Indigenous Wisdom; Indigenous New Mexico; the curriculum guides: An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People; Indigenous Ingenuity; and Wings of an Eagle: The Gold Medal Dreams of Billy Mills. Her chapters appear in Luminous Literacies and The Yazzie Case: Interrogating the Yazzie/Martinez Lawsuit. She has written and interviewed for the International Journal for Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Additionally, her teacher professional development work with the OER Project is available online. Dr. Martinez completed a Visiting Lecturer appointment at the University of New Mexico in 2022 and is currently full-time faculty at Central NM Community College in the School of Education, teaching pre-service educators.