Faculty Profile

Assistant Professor
Indigenous Studies
leekl@buffalo.edu

• PhD, Urban Planning and Politics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2023
  
• MA, Social Sciences, University of Chicago, 2017

• Research Lead, Research and Evaluation, Oregon Pacific Islander Coalition
  
• Policy Advocate, Public Policy, Nourish California
• Consultant, POWER in Workforce Development, Research and Evaluation, UCLA Labor Center

My background is in community organizing and policy advocacy; none of my immediate family members are in academia, and a lot of my work has involved applied research, policy and advocacy work with community organizations outside the academy. Graduate school was a challenging experience for me—there's so much that is often left uncertain, unspoken or just plain unclear. The mentors I appreciated the most were those who were willing to talk through different career paths (within and beyond academia), provide constructive feedback for application statements, share their own uncertainties and struggles, and were extremely transparent and generous in helping me to develop different strategies of navigating graduate school (from staying focused on the reasons why you're in graduate school, to thinking strategically about coursework, publications, and/or professional development). To me, that's what mentorship means: being willing to share your own experiences, and being committed to helping others navigate their own questions and challenges, and understanding that everyone deserves to feel confident about who they are, what they want to do, and how they hope to achieve that.