Dorothea (Dori) Summers


Dori Summers
  • Graduate student, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
  • Graduate Teaching Assistant, Baer Ecology Lab

Contact Info

Smissman Laboratory, West Campus

Biography

Dori came to our research center through the KU-Haskell 500 Nations Bridge Collaboration (Bridge program), a National Institutes of Health (NIH) supported program, which provided funding for her work from 2019 to 2022. She was a student research assistant in the Bever/Schultz Lab during 2021 and 2022, when she investigated prairie legumes. She then moved to the Baer Ecology Lab with support through the KU Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP). Dori is a member of the Navajo Nation.

Education

B.S. in Environmental Science, Haskell Indian Nations University, 2022

Awards & Honors

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2024–2027)

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Indigenous Graduate Partnership awardee (2023–present)