About Daniel Beene

Daniel is the 2022 recipient of the Science for Health of Indigenous Populations (SHIP) award, which was established by Drs. Robert Duncan and Annette Sobel to address the significant health disparities that impact New Mexico’s Indigenous populations. He is also a trainee with the METALS (Metals Exposure and Toxicity Assessment on Tribal Lands) Superfund Research Program at the University of New Mexico, and a data manager at the UNM Community Environmental Health Program. Daniel’s research explores how geospatial and geographic methods can enrich understandings of environmental and social health disparities on Tribal lands in the western United States. GIS and geographic theories can help bridge a crucial gap in interdisciplinary research projects. Geography is uniquely poised to offer critical and practical analytical support, wrangle spatial data and relate them to other datasets, and ground community-based science within the communities it aims to serve. In the context of the Navajo Nation, where most of Daniel’s work is centered, a key concern is relating potential exposure to environmental contaminants with cultural identity and the social ramifications of resource extraction. These complicated questions can only be addressed through interdisciplinary collaboration and by forging strong relationships with local communities.