Lydia received her doctorate in soil science from the University of Arizona in 2021. Her research interests are in environmental remediation, soil health, Indigenous science, and mining policy. Lydia’s dissertation research focuses on the identification and characterization of microbial indicators as tools to improve mine waste reclamation, while her minor research focuses on the laws around mining on federal lands to which tribes have ancestral claims.
Lydia is both Pascua Yaqui (Yoeme) and Huichol (Wixáritari), and grew up in Santa Fe, NM. Lydia earned her Bachelors of Science from California State University, Monterey Bay in Environmental Science, Technology and Policy. Lydia is a 2014 University of Arizona NIEHS Superfund Program trainee, a 2015 recipient of National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program, and a 2019 American Geophysical Union “Voices for Science” Fellow.
