General Short Bio: Updated 01/11/2024
"Brook Thompson is a Yurok and Karuk Native American from Northern California. Brook fights for water and Native American rights through public speaking, academic research, and frontline activism. Brook has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Portland State University, an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Stanford, and is now a Ph.D. student at UC Santa Cruz where she studies how Indigenous Knowledge can be better implemented to into California water policy. Thompson’s goal is to bring together water rights and Native American knowledge through engineering, public policy, and social action."
General Long Bio: Updated 01/11/2024
"Brook Thompson is a Yurok and Karuk Native from Northern California. Growing up she lived and fished on the same land that her ancestors have been on since time immemorial. Brook fights for water and Native American rights through public speaking, academic research, and frontline activism. She has been an intern for the City of Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in D.C., the California State Water Resource Control Board Office of Information Management, Save California Salmon, and currently works as a Restoration Engineer for the Yurok Tribe’s fisheries Design and Construction Program. In 2017, Brook, a Gates Millennium scholar, was awarded as the American Indian Graduate Center’s Undergraduate 2017 Student of the Year; in 2020, she won Unity’s 25 Under 25 award; in 2022, she was accepted into the Water Solution Network, and is a 2023 Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow. Brook is a graduate of Portland State University's honors college with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering with a minor in political science and a master’s in environmental engineering at Stanford University with a focus in water resources and hydrology, and is now attending the University of California Santa Cruz for a Ph.D. in environmental studies with a designated emphasis in coastal science and policy where her research is in the social and natural science field on how Indigenous Knowledge can be better implemented to into California water policy, the differences on spring and fall Chinook salmon nutrients and DNA in the Klamath River, and is working on how non-tribal organizations can work more cooperatively with tribes for restoration projects. Thompson’s goal is to bring together water rights and Native American knowledge through engineering, public policy, and social action."
Art Bio: Updated 07/05/2023
"Brook Thompson (27) is a Yurok and Karuk Ph.D. student at the University of California Santa Cruz studying how to integrate Indigenous Knowledge into California water policy, nutritional differences in Spring versus Fall Klamath Chinook Salmon, and how non-tribal groups can better work with tribes on restoration projects. Brook is the granddaughter of Aawok Archie Thompson, a Yurok language speaker and lifetime fisherman. Brook grew up in Klamath and currently works part-time as a Restoration Engineer for the Yurok Tribe. The combination of art with science is important to Miss Thompson because she believes Yurok artwork and crafts are full of scientific understanding and that art and science are not two separate skills, but instead two sides of one coin that benefit from one another.” You can follow her on social media at BrookMThompson.com on Instagram at brook_m_thompson or TikTok @brookmthompson.”