Meet Cana:
Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq (she/they) is an Iñupiaq scholar and tribal member of the Noorvik Native Community in NW Alaska. Her parents are Gladys I’yiiqpak Pungowiyi (Wells, Noorvik) and the late Caleb Lumen Pungowiyi (Savoonga).
Cana’s research combines her academic background in the humanities and environmental sciences to develop culturally appropriate and capacity-driven science communication that supports environmental justice work. She works with Arctic Indigenous organizations to advocate for equitable Arctic research practices, including Indigenous leadership in research. She is an author on the National Climate Assessment 5 (NCA5), Alaska Chapter, and is a leader for the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee’s (IARPC) Participatory Research and Indigenous Leadership in Research (PILR) collaborative team. Cana also serves on several boards and advisory councils, including the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS), Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH), Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, and Communication Design Quarterly.
