Elisha V. Charley, a Nihok'aa Diyin Dine'e Holy Surface People, from Dennehotso, AZ, and White
Mesa, AZ (northern region of the Navajo Nation). Her kinship is
Bit’ahnii Diyin Dine’e  folded arms people
Deeshchii’nii yá’chíín  start of the red streak people
Tabaaha dabí’cheii  water edge people clan
Táchii’nii dabí’nálí  red running into the water people
Charley is a Clinical Assistant Professor in a joint appointment with the Landscape Architecture,
Urban Design & Environmental Design program and the Indigenous Placekeeping and Design
program in the Design School at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, Arizona. She is also
pursuing a doctoral program in Urban Planning at the School of Geographic Science and Urban
Planning at ASU. Her research focuses on Native Nations’ housing marginality and spatial
mapping within Indigenous planning frameworks. Charley’s interest in cooperative design,
community-building practices, and housing data justice developed from sustained community
engagement around housing and capacity-building in the Navajo Nation, Native-led non-profits,
and tribal college pedagogy, alongside her lived experience. Her scholarship seeks to reimagine
tribal land use to support housing development and strengthen the housing infrastructure
economy. Grounded in Indigenous epistemologies, her work centers place-based knowledge
systems and community agency, integrating local context and lived conditions into housing
practice and policy.