Discover—research—create at NAU 

Martin Ahumada and José Luis Cruz Rivera shake hands while sitting at a table, while people in the background clap.
Campus & Community

NAU, San Carlos Apache College ink partnership aimed at furthering educational opportunities for Indigenous students

The partnership, which is the second of its kind that NAU has signed, will will strengthen collaborative opportunities at all levels between the two institutions, including for academic programming, faculty collaboration, student success initiatives and transfer and graduate education pathways.
Selfie of Yifan Pi
Humans of NAU

Humans of NAU: Yifan Pi

Worldwide, men make up just 6% of the pre-kindergarten teaching workforce—and that percentage is even lower in China, NAU student Yifan Pi’s native country. An early childhood education major at Shanghai Normal University Tianhua College, Pi seized the opportunity to spend his junior year at NAU, where he took classes at the College of Education and gained hands-on experience teaching alongside Stephen Riek at Flagstaff Cooperative Preschool. The aspiring teacher shared details from his time working and learning Flagstaff and revealed why he loves working with young children.
Screenshot of USEFULL logo.
Campus & Community

For Earth Month, be USEFULL!

NAU has implemented a new program to reduce the waste of single-use containers on campus. The USEFULL program, currently being implemented at three campus dining locations, uses reusable stainless steel food containers that are digitally tracked via a phone app, allowing the university to save around 25,000 pounds of single-use plastics from entering the landfill. This USEFULL video explains the program.
MORE NEWS

Research & Academics

A helicopter flies over a forest with smoke rising from between the trees.

Flagstaff’s Team Snuffed competes for a shot at $11 million with its space-based wildfire detection project

A team of engineers, scientists and fire professionals from NAU and Flagstaff has been selected as a semi-finalist in the Space-based Detection and Intelligence Track of the XPRIZE Wildfire competition. Competing for a prize of $11 million, the team has proposed a solution for early detection and tracking of wildfires in the western United States and Canada that relies on a network of ninety satellites in low Earth orbit each fitted with a camera to allow for continuous monitoring of the target area. This data would aid fire managers in quickly determining whether to let a newly detected fire burn or to snuff it out.
Collage of male researcher working in an engineering lab; female researcher taking notes about plants; and male subject with a cap on his head to measure brain activity.

A record-breaking year of research 

NAU saw the largest annual increase in research expenditures in fiscal year 2023, leading to a record-breaking amount of research in a year that also saw NAU's projected achievement in R1 research status. Leaders say it's a testament to NAU's teacher-scholar model and the university's mission of recruiting professors who can help students excel in the classroom while thriving in the research field as well. Learn more about the significance of these numbers for NAU's research program and meet three of NAU's researchers who are on the front lines of planetary science, health equity and inclusion.
The Colorado River going through Marble Canyon with a blue sky.

Where is the Colorado River going?

Into agricultural fields, mostly. An NAU study looking at data from the first two decades of the 21st century showed that irrigated agriculture accounts for 52% of overall use. Significant reductions in use are necessary in the coming years to ensure the iconic river remains viable.

Campus & Community

Graduates in their gear at commencement

NAU to recognize four Arizona leaders with honorary doctorate degrees during commencement ceremonies

Paul Luna, president and CEO of Helios Education Foundation, Pam Kehaly, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Christy Farley, an NAU alumna who recently retired as senior vice president of engagement and public affairs, and Efrain Casillas, coordinator of music programs at Tolleson Elementary School District and 2024 Arizona Teacher of the Year, will be recognized with honorary doctorates from Northern Arizona University and provide the keynote address during four commencement ceremonies taking place May 10-11.
Screenshot of USEFULL logo.

For Earth Month, be USEFULL!

NAU has implemented a new program to reduce the waste of single-use containers on campus. The USEFULL program, currently being implemented at three campus dining locations, uses reusable stainless steel food containers that are digitally tracked via a phone app, allowing the university to save around 25,000 pounds of single-use plastics from entering the landfill. This USEFULL video explains the program.
Martin Ahumada and José Luis Cruz Rivera shake hands while sitting at a table, while people in the background clap.

NAU, San Carlos Apache College ink partnership aimed at furthering educational opportunities for Indigenous students

The partnership, which is the second of its kind that NAU has signed, will will strengthen collaborative opportunities at all levels between the two institutions, including for academic programming, faculty collaboration, student success initiatives and transfer and graduate education pathways.

Lumberjack Features

Selfie of Yifan Pi

Humans of NAU: Yifan Pi

Worldwide, men make up just 6% of the pre-kindergarten teaching workforce—and that percentage is even lower in China, NAU student Yifan Pi’s native country. An early childhood education major at Shanghai Normal University Tianhua College, Pi seized the opportunity to spend his junior year at NAU, where he took classes at the College of Education and gained hands-on experience teaching alongside Stephen Riek at Flagstaff Cooperative Preschool. The aspiring teacher shared details from his time working and learning Flagstaff and revealed why he loves working with young children.
Headshot of Brooke Davis

Humans of NAU: Brooke Graymountain Davis

Master of Public Health (MPH) student Brooke Graymountain Davis grew up on the Navajo Nation, where access to piped drinking water was scarce until just a few years ago. Her childhood experiences motivated her to confront health disparities in Native American communities in the Southwest and beyond. We caught up with Davis to hear why she chose NAU, what she’s doing in Washington, D.C., this summer as a Udall Congressional Intern and what she hopes to accomplish in her career.
Picture of Cassie Bonah holding flowers, dressed in traditional Ghanaian attire and facing to the side

Humans of NAU: Cassie Bonah

Honors College senior Cassie Bonah aspires to be a doctor—but not all of her on-campus extracurriculars are directly related to her career goals. The daughter of Ghanaian immigrants, Bonah came to NAU in the midst of the pandemic, when it was tough to forge ties with others who looked like her. As the world opened up again, the biomedical sciences major resolved to bring Black students and employees together by organizing a fashion show that celebrated Black cultures and traditions from around the world.

FEATURED SPOTLIGHT

Featured Spotlight: Mary Hanabury

Director of Research Administration Mary Hanabury recently presented at two national research ethics conferences in Washington, D.C. At the Social Behavioral Educational Research Conference, Hanabury addressed the new and complex ethical challenges the research oversight world faces in an era of advancing technology and changing expectations surrounding personal information. At the Research & Medicine Annual Ethical Conference, she shared how human research protection programs can play a role in managing research activities that fall into a gray area between human subjects research and non-human subjects research.