The American Indian Studies faculty is comprised of three full-time faculty, Associate Professor, Dr. Kimberly Robertson, Associate Professor, Dr. Theresa Gregor and Full-Time Lecturer and NAGPRA Coordinator, Cindi Alvitre. The part-time faculty are comprised of faculty that generally have a sustained history of participation within the urban American Indian community of Southern California, the coastal indigenous communities of Southern California and in the subject areas of the courses that they teach. Many of the American Indian Studies faculty work closely with the American Indian Student Council — the Native American Student Association, the CSULB NAGPRA Committee, the CSULB American Indian Science and Engineering Student Chapter and with the office of American Indian Student Services.

As of the Fall of 2021 the American Indian Studies Program is comprised of seventeen individuals.  One FERP (half-time) Program Director, one (half-time) Administrative Support Coordinator, one Associate Professor, one Assistant Professor, one full-time Lecturer, and thirteen part-time Lecturers teaching in our regular AIS Program and in the Long Beach Ethnic Studies Initiative where we teach college level AIS courses to high school students on local high school campuses.

With the new Ethnic Studies requirement in the CSU the American Indian Studies in the Fall of 2021 student demand for American Indian Studies courses at CSULB has increased greatly. This has created the need to hire additional tenure-track faculty and lecturer’s in AIS to meet the new demand for required Ethnic Studies courses and the eight hundred plus students that we now serve. 

As of Fall of 2021 many of the AIS faculty teaching our courses, self-identify as tribal members and/or descendants of the following nineteen American Indian nations: Tongva/Gabrielino, Acjachemen/Juaneno, Chumash, Iipai/Kumeyaay, Mutsun Ohlone, Hupa, Yurok, Karuk, Redwood Creek, Yaqui, Pascua Yaqui, Tohono O’odham, Navajo, Yakama, Muscogee Creek/ Mvskoke, Caddo, Delaware, Pawnee, and Onieda.

Welcome Dinner for New AIS Assistant Professor Dr. Theresa Gregor.

Welcome event for New AIS Professors

Dr. TJ Reed and Dr. Kimberly Robertson.