Heather Ponchetti Daly is a tribal member of the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel and an Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Environmental and Indigenous Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Daly teaches courses in environmental law, federal Indian policy, Indigenous approaches to climate change and Native American Studies and history, she is also creating a class on Food Sovereignty and Justice. Currently, she has just been appointed to the UC NAGPRA Implementation and Oversight Committee for the California Native American Heritage Commission representing UCLA.
Daly’s received her Ph.D. in History from UCLA. Her doctoral dissertation "American Indian Freedom Controversy:" Political and Social Activism by Southern California Mission Indians, 1934-1958” covers the twentieth-century political activism by Southern California Mission Indians who opposed termination. Dr. Daly is involved in the UCI History Project, which provides an institutional framework to history teachers (K-12) to include Native American voices in the California. She worked with Climate Champions, a project to get more teaching, learning and action on climate change in local schools.
