A 'kaleidoscope of viewpoints' on science research
As Rachel Nichols' interests in science research evolved, she's found a home with the Humphrey School of Public Affairs' flexible MS–STEP graduate program.
Ever since she was young, Rachel Nichols wanted to be a science researcher. She credits that aspiration not to an early childhood STEM program, but from watching documentaries with her dad and poring over National Geographic magazines.
She’s well on her way to reaching her goal. Nichols is a second-year student in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs’ Master of Science in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy (MS–STEP) program, with an eye toward a career in water policy that furthers environmental justice for Indigenous peoples in Minnesota and beyond.
Nichols earned her bachelor’s degree in ecology, evolution, and behavior—with a focus on evolution—from the University of Minnesota’s College of Biological Sciences.
“Evolution” is also an apt word to describe what she says are the three phases of her life to date.
“The first phase was traditional and very religious; that was the person I was raised as,” says the native St. Paulite. “Then, when I went to college I discovered my love for evolution and science research. It really was the first time I was in a non-religious institution, so it was just opening my eyes to a lot of different ways of thinking and other knowledge systems.”
‘A kaleidoscope of viewpoints’
She fell in love with the field of evolution and dove into it head-first, doing research for renowned University of Minnesota Biological Sciences Professor Marlene Zuk.
As an undergraduate, she also discovered the Native American Medicine Garden on the Twin Cities campus in St. Paul, shepherded at the time by Francis Bettelyoun, which opened her eyes to an alternative, Indigenous way of knowing—her third phase.
“When I met [Bettelyoun], I thought, ‘Well, we need to use multiple ways of knowing. It’s not just all religion, it’s not just all science, but there’s also Indigenous knowledge,” she says. “It’s important to use science research when necessary, but also to maintain a kaleidoscope of viewpoints to get the full picture of what’s happening.”
She’s continued to put that philosophy into practice. After earning her bachelor's degree, Nichols moved to Grand Marais, Minnesota, and did research in natural resource management for the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. She found that working with the tribe meshed well with her views of living sustainably and having a personal relationship with the land.
Understanding how tribal governments and state policies interact
Following the challenges of COVID, she moved back to the Twin Cities and landed an internship at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, where she started learning about water policy and various types of pollution.
Nichols also worked as a page for the DFL Caucus of the Minnesota State Senate in 2023. Although a career in politics wasn’t what she wanted, Nichols said the experience solidified her decision to apply to the Humphrey School.
“I knew I wanted to stay in Minnesota, and I knew I wanted to be in the best place with the most name recognition,” she says. “Everyone who is working in Minnesota politics and making the decisions that impact people’s lives, or are the thinkers of Minnesota, they are coming through Humphrey or working here.”
Nichols is focusing on how tribal governments interact with state laws and policies—given tribes’ status as sovereign nations—and the intricacies therein.
“I wanted to study tribal relations and tribal strategies for interacting with water policy because it’s understudied,” she says. “There’s not a lot of literature that elucidates strategies, or the history of tribal work within the U.S. political system to advance their values and their ways of knowing water policy.”
Her current research is on the Clean Water Act, and she’s working with the Grand Portage and Fond Du Lac Bands of Lake Superior Chippewa, the Red Lake Nation, and Bemidji State University. Nichols is helping to implement a grant from the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, which has two parts.
The first provides funding for the tribes to collect water samples of their aquatic ecosystems and test for chemicals of emerging concern like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pharmaceuticals, and nitrogen. The second part involves historical policy analysis and documenting data from the review processes mandated by the Clean Water Act.
Nichols’s research interests are a perfect fit for the flexibility of the MS–STEP program. She’s been able to write about a dozen papers on topics related to tribal sovereignty and water policy, and she’ll be able to use all that information for her capstone professional paper.
A bonus of the MS–STEP program is the closeness and the camaraderie she feels with her cohort.
“Most of the students here are environmental justice-oriented researchers,” she says. “And it’s just been really comforting to have this community that shares those values in times of uncertainty and turbulence as far as environmental justice goes.”