Robin Minthorn

Robin Zape-tah-hol-ah Minthorn, Ph.D., an enrolled citizen of the Kiowa tribe of Oklahoma and a descendant of the Umatilla, Nez Perce, Apache, and Assiniboine Nations.  She received her bachelor’s and two master’s degrees from the University of Oklahoma and her doctoral degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from Oklahoma State University. She is a full professor at the University of Oklahoma in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department, joining the faculty in August 2023.

She recently served as an associate professor at the University of Washington Tacoma in the School of Education and the Director of Educational Leadership Doctoral Program and Director of Indigenous Education Initiatives. Previously, she was an associate professor at the University of New Mexico, a coordinator of Native American Affairs at Oklahoma State University, an adjunct faculty at Pawnee Nation College, preceding that, academic advisor at Comanche Nation College, Oklahoma’s 1^st tribal college.

Her research interests include Indigenous leadership, Native American college students, and Historically Native American Fraternities and Sororities.  Robin has served as a Board of Director for the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), as a NASPA Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community Chair, Chair for the American Educational Research Association Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Special Interest Group and is the past President and recent Board of Director of the National Indian Youth Council, Inc. 

She is currently serving as a Board Member At-Large for the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) and is the first Native American to serve in this role in the association’s history. She has been awarded the Bobby Wright Award for Early Career Contributions to Research in Indigenous Education through the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Special Interest Group for the American Educational Research Association in 2018 and recently received the Exemplary Contributions to Practice-Engaged Research Award from the American Educational Research Association in 2022.

Dr. Minthorn is also the co-editor of Indigenous Leadership in Higher Education published by Routledge Educational Leadership Research Series, Reclaiming Indigenous Research in Higher Education and Indigenous Motherhood in the Academy both published by Rutgers University Press and Unsettling Settler Colonial Education: The Transformational Indigenous Praxis Model published by Teachers College Press. She was in the 1^st class of the 40 under 40 for the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development in 2009 and was an Americans for Indian Opportunity Ambassador in their 10^th class from 2008-2010.