Featured Psychologist: Marigold Linton, PhD

Marigold Linton, PhD, is Cahuilla-Cupeno of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians. On the Morongo Indian Reservation in Southern California, Linton overcame many obstacles making her the first in her tribe to leave the reservation to attend college. She received her Bachelors of Arts from the University of California, Riverside, in experimental psychology. It was also at the University of California where Marigold Linton became the first American Indian to earn a PhD in psychology. Linton started her career as a teacher at San Diego State University, where she reached the rank of full professor. In an effort to expand her scope, she left San Diego and became an administrator at Arizona State University.

During her tenure at Arizona State, she became the director of the American Indian Programs, serving Arizona tribes through the Rural Systemic Initiative. She then moved to the University of Kansas to serve as the director of the American Indian Outreach. She developed a consortium between the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University to support biomedical research opportunities for American Indian students and faculty. Linton has obtained more than $13 million in support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support programs that enable many American Indians to earn advanced degrees in the sciences.

She is founding member of both the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) and the National Indian Education Association (NIEA). As a scholar in the area of long term memory, Linton has published and authored numerous works, which include a bestselling statistics book with P. Gallo, "The Practical Statistician", Brooks/Cole Publishing, Monterey, Calif. Her service to the training of students in the sciences has been recognized nationally, which has led her to hold a number of national appointments including the Committee on Equality of Opportunity in Science and Engineering (CEOSE), a congressionally mandated National Science Foundation committee that reports biannually to congress (2006-2009); NIH National Institutes of General Medical Science, National Advisory Research Resources Council (1982-1986); Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Board of Directors (1977-1985); National Research Council, Committee on Assessment for NIH Minority Research/Training Programs, III (2001-2004) and the National Academy of Sciences, Fellowship Office Advisory Committee (2009-2011).

Linton's career has established her as a tireless advocate for American Indians in the advancement of degrees in the sciences.

References

SACNAS (n.d.) Marigold Linton. Retrieved from http://sacnas.org/about/who-we-are/board/linton-marigold

Westberg, J. (n.d.) Marigold Linton: Conquering fear and preparing the way for others. Retrieved from http://aianhealthcareers.org/page6/page96/page72/page72.html