Media
Read Dr. Lydia Jenning’s plans to bring soil health to Indigenous Peoples through her future soil lab here!
The 5 winners of the 2023 Women in Science Incentive Prize, including Dr. Lydia Jennings
Understanding mining’s lasting effects on Indigenous communities
Learning the widespread impact of mining tribal lands requires Indigenous-led collaboration and sharing of information, says lecturer.
Read more here from the Environmental Factor, NIEHS Newsletter
In this episode, we sit down with Lydia Jennings, a soil scientist, science communicator and runner, to discuss how her scientific interests in soil and her Indigenous ancestry influence her running practice. Lydia shares insights on the interconnections between the land, our bodies, and our communities, and how running has become a way for her to connect with her roots while advocating for sustainable agriculture practices. Join us for a fascinating conversation on the intersection of science, culture, and movement.
Soil! Dirt! Earth. Dr. Lydia Jennings, aka Native Soil Nerd, breaks down the stuff under our feet and explains everything from mining to why soil can be different colors. Also: medicine from microbes, giving back to the land after extractive processes, collecting samples in urban rivers, elders’ ecological knowledge, planting hot Cheetos, potting soil mysteries, lung fungus, the smell of rain and why gardening makes you happy. Oh and running hundreds of miles for your science.
AISES Winds of Change Magazine: Scientist Feature: Dr. Lydia Jennings (Released October, 2022)
There are a lot of things for us to learn from nature. The more we learn and recognize the real problems around us, the more we care about them. This is thinking beyond ourselves and being the seeds for change for future generations. In this episode, Bri speaks with Dr. Lydia Jennings, an environmental scientist, and soil microbiologist, about her journey into what she's doing now, some of her experiences with nature as a trail runner, and the Will Run For Soil movement. She also shares about the community of native and Indigenous people and how Run to Be Visible was made.
Episode 6 at a glance:
Dr. Lydia Jennings’ meandering pathway to her science career.
Thinking bigger beyond oneself and into the future generations.
How learning more and more about nature makes us care more.
Being on the land is being with the land.
The Will Run For Soil movement, the teachings from the journey, and future goals of the movement.
Dr. Jennings running on behalf of Wings of America.
Tribes wanting to have their land back.
About Run to Be Visible and honoring the people that came along Dr. Jennings’ journey to where she is now.
Keeping nature wild is paying respect to it, caring for it as a relative, and doing your best to protect it.
Honored to have been one of the 9 women and 22 Indigenous runners who ran the 2022 Boston Marathon! I ran on behalf of Wings of America, fundraising for their Pursuit Program, which brings Indigenous high school juniors from the Southwest to the Boston area to visit colleges and run the Boston 5k. Check out the article written about us women runners from Women’s Running Magazine.
I also dedicated each of my 26 miles to educate about the #LandBack movement and provide examples of tribal nations putting it into action. If you want to learn more about my examples, check out this twitter thread !! (https://lnkd.in/g-Aeeg9q)
Meet a Scientist interview with OutSCider Classroom
University of Arizona's only Indigenous postdoc gives voice to Native American environmental science
Dr. Jennings discusses her work in Indigenous data sovereignty and her Indigenous Research and Ethics course at the University of Arizona.
Photo by Tomás Karmelo Amaya
UArizona Postdoc's 50-Mile Run for Indigenous Scientists Featured in Patagonia Film.
Lydia Jennings couldn't celebrate her new Ph.D. in 2020 because of the pandemic, so a few months later, she dedicated a 50-mile run to 50 Indigenous scientists. A new film, produced by Patagonia, tells the story.
By Kyle Mittan, University of Arizona Communications.
Short video clip for The Trail Ahead podcast, hosted by Faith Briggs and Addie Thompson. Give the full episode a listen here!
(Film Project-filming will be in Sept 2021)
”Will Run for Soil” tells the story of soil through the lens of the people who study it. The documentary follows Karen Vaughan (a pedologist) Yamina Pressler (a soil ecologist), and Lydia Jennings (a soil microbiologist), as they explore soils while running through the sweeping wilderness of the desert southwest. Far from professional ultrarunners, Karen, Yamina, and Lydia challenge themselves to run their longest distance ever in an effort to expand our collective notion of why we should care about soils. In the process, they confront ideas about what a scientist looks like, what it means to be a soil scientist, and what the human body is capable of accomplishing for the love of soil.
How far are they willing to go to protect Earth’s most precious natural resource?
Salish Kootenai College’s Indigenous Scholars Podcast
Lydia and the IRC Team discuss the challenges that Indigenous scholars face navigating Western education and how we can put our education to use in our Tribal communities that is purposeful and makes sense in our worldview. The IRC team asks the question: What is the pathway to knowledge that facilitates and promotes diverse and unique Indigenous contributions?
Desert trails and microbial life excite this soil scientist
Pathways to STEM Success, Science News for Students.
March 31st, 2020. Written by Carolyn Wilke
Science News for Students is a free, award-winning online publication dedicated to providing age-appropriate science news to learners, parents and educators. The publication, as well as Science News magazine, are published by the Society for Science & the Public, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to public engagement in scientific research and education.
Amplified Voices: How identity shapes our scientific experience
Diverse work environments benefit scientific progress and the well-being of individual researchers - yet the geosciences are still lagging behind. Together with her contributors, Michelle Guitard reports on the current situation in the US, and suggests some ways in which underrepresented voices can be amplified.
Geoscientist, 2020.
Compiled by Michelle Guitard; contributing authors include: Claire Bailey, Lydia Jennings, Rocío Caballero-Gill, Gabriela Serrato Marks, and Benjamin Keisling.
Citation: Guitard, M., Amplified voices: How identity shapes our scientific experience. Geoscientist 30 (1), 10-15, 2020
https://doi.org/doi: 10.1144/geosci2020-065, Download the pdf here
Center Puts Research to Work to Reduce Impacts of Copper Mining
By Kristina Makansi, Research, Innovation and Impact. January 14, 2020, UA@WORK.
Working to restore the land after a mine closes and researching ways to reduce environmental impacts on new mine sites is complex, both legally and, in the Southwest, culturally. Here, the ore is often found and mined on tribal lands. For Lydia Jennings, a University of Arizona doctoral student working with CESM and a member of the Pascua Yaqui and Huichol tribes, seeking ways to minimize the environmental impact of mining is about much more than gathering data.
"It is critical that Indigenous people have a voice at the table," Jennings said, "That's why CESM's mission is important to me. By understanding the science as well as the legal and cultural implications of mining, revegetation, reclamation and restoration, I can amplify Indigenous voices."
Third Pod From the Sun:
Mining is more than just harvesting natural resources – it’s about who owns those right and what the land that those mines are on mean to the people who live there.
Lydia Jennings of the Pascua Yaqui and Huichol Nations grew up seeing friends and family fighting to advocate and protect their communities from being mined. Later in life she became an avid trail runner who loves to do anything outdoors, a path that led her to study environmental science. These days, she works to identify soil health biogeochemical indicators of soil reclamation, in order to make modern mining reclamation more effective and cost efficient, while also learning how policy has placed many mines on/or bordering tribal nations and extraction on public lands.
This episode was produced by Shane M Hanlon and mixed by Kayla Surrey.
Trail Running Women Podcast, Episode 56: The soil we run on
Lydia is a PhD Candidate in Soil Science and Environmental Microbiology at the University of Arizona, with a minor in American Indian Policy and emphasis on science communication. Lydia has been running about half her life, and often incorporates soil knowledge into her social media posts to increase awareness about soil science, and Indigenous knowledge about the lands on which we recreate on. She's both a brainiac and talented ultra runner.
Indigenous Food Knowledges Network shows connections between the Southwest and the Arctic
What does the Arctic and the Southwest have in common in terms of food and land issues? A lot more than you might think. Here I reflect on the connectivity of Indigenous communities food challenges as a result of my work with the Indigenous Food Knowledges Network.
REI CO-Op:
5 trail runners working to protect landscapes. Written by Clare Gallagher
American Geophysics Union 2019 “Voices for Science” Fellow
Media/communications track
Now more than ever, communicating the value and impact of Earth and space science to policy and other decision makers, journalists, and public audiences is critically important.
AGU’s Voices for Science supports and fosters a network of exceptional science-communication and science-policy advocates based in the U.S. to amplify the voice of science and build valuable dialogues and relationships with communities, journalists, and stakeholders.
KXCI Thesis Thursday:
Lydia Jennings
Lydia Jennings is a PhD student in the Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science, with a Minor in American Indian Policy. Lydia is part of the Pascua Yaqui and Huichol Nations, and grew up in Santa Fe, NM. Lydia earned her Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science, Technology and Policy at California State University, Monterey Bay, where she developed a monitoring project in collaboration with the Monterey National Marine Sanctuary Network to collect and analyze surface street sediment for heavy metal pollution in watershed areas within the Monterey Peninsula. Lydia now works with Dr. Raina Maier’s Environmental Microbiology Group to identify biogeochemical indicators of soil reclamation, in order to make modern mining reclamation more effective and cost efficient
#WCWinSTEM:
Lydia Jennings, B.S.
Lydia Jennings is a Yaqui & Huichol soil scientist and trail runner. She studies how to use plants and bacteria to clean the land from active mining sites, as well as understanding land management practices on tribal and federal lands.