New Native American Student Affairs leaders offer employees an 'open door'

By Kyle Mittan, University Communications
Sept. 15, 2026
Kierstyn Tsosie and Steven Martin standing in the NASA student lounge

Steven Martin was named Native American Student Affairs director in June, returning to the role after leading the center from 2013 to 2018. Kierstyn Tsosie was recently named NASA's assistant director. "Our center is an open door," Martin said. "We have an open invitation to any faculty or staff who want to come in and check us out any day of the week, stop by and talk about how we can collaborate, how we can partner."

Carlos Moreno/University Marketing and Communications

Native American Student Affairs welcomed new leadership over the summer with a focus on strengthening support for Native students and opening the center's doors to faculty and staff interested in being part of that work.

The center, known on campus as NASA, is based on the second floor of the Robert L. Nugent Building and has served Native American students at the University of Arizona since 1989. 

The university named Steven Martin NASA director in June, marking a return to a familiar role. He previously held the NASA director role from 2013 to 2018, then left to become director of Tribal Nations Student Affairs at the University of Idaho. He said he remained engaged with the U of A from afar and wanted to return to a place where he enjoyed working previously.

Now back at the helm, Martin said he intends NASA to be a "home away from home" for the university's roughly 1,800 Native students who represent nearly 200 tribes.

"We always call ourselves a trading post for our Native students that come in here and receive academic, cultural and social services, professional development, leadership resources and referrals," said Martin, who is Muscogee and Choctaw. "There's a lot of student services that offer the same type of programming, the same type of help. But I think ours is more specific to our tribal students."

The NASA space includes the Wassaja Lounge, where students can gather to study and print course materials or just hang out, a "recharge room" where students can relax, and its own campus pantry and kitchen.

A campuswide sense of belonging

A space like NASA is important for reinforcing the idea that Native students "belong at the university, not to the university," said Kierstyn Tsosie, NASA's new assistant director. Tsosie, who is Diné, is also a Ph.D. candidate studying higher education in the College of Education.

"The U of A is a flagship institution for Arizona, and we have students coming from communities that are five, six, even 10 hours away from here," said Tsosie, adding that many of those students feel immense culture shock when they arrive on campus. NASA's aim, she added, is to "ensure that our students are coming, staying and graduating."

Beyond the physical space, NASA also intends to keep and grow partnerships with other student support units across campus. Many already dedicate time and drop-in hours at the NASA space, including:

NASA leaders hope to expand these partnerships to include the Thrive Center, which focuses on supporting students' needs inside and outside the classroom to support success after graduation, and the Strategic Alternative Learning Techniques Center, or SALT Center, which supports students with mild to moderate learning differences.

NASA also hosts events throughout the year, including a sunrise ceremony with a blessing near the start of each fall semester, and an annual spring convocation ceremony for Native students. Martin and Tsosie hope to regularly mark other key events, including Indigenous Peoples' Day, which is on Oct. 12 this year, and Native American Heritage Month in November.

As Martin and Tsosie build out NASA's team and programming, they encourage faculty and staff to reach out with ideas for partnership. Getting those discussions started, Martin said, is often as easy as sending an email – or simply dropping by the space in the Nugent building.

"Our center is an open door," Martin said. "We have an open invitation to any faculty or staff who want to come in and check us out any day of the week, stop by and talk about how we can collaborate, how we can partner."

With that in mind, NASA will hold an open house Wednesday, Sept. 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., for the campus community to learn more about the space and Native student experiences at the U of A.

"My philosophy is you don't know what you don't know, and that's fair," Tsosie said. "I invite folks to come in with their eagerness to learn and to ask those questions in a safe space."