Laura Harjo
Research Fellow (GIS)
lharjo@advancementproject.org
Laura Harjo is a Research Fellow for the Advancement Project’s Washington D.C. office, and provides research and spatial analysis for their Redistricting, Ending Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track, and Inclusive Development projects. With a background in critical race theory, policy, planning, and community participatory methods, her professional and personal interests lie in the engagement, empowerment, and emancipation of marginalized rural and urban communities of color. In her roles as Cherokee Nation’s GIS Administrator, Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s Ambassador to the United Nations and as an Indigenous Rights activist, she has worked directly with U.S. based and international Indigenous communities around issues of sovereignty and self determination. Recently, she has held Research Associate positions with Los Angeles Mayor’s Office, and the University of Southern California’s (USC) Civic and Community Engagement Unit, where she researched Los Angeles based social justice issues and worked with urban communities. Harjo earned a Ph.D. in Geography/American Studies and Ethnicity at USC, her doctoral research considers how to enact community emancipation across time and space and focuses on developing a seven generation planning blueprint for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She is also active with the Southern California Native Feminist Reading Group and works with other scholars to imagine new forms of sovereignty and liberation.
Filed under Staff, Voter Protection, Schoolhouse to Jailhouse, Redistricting
