Robin Zape-tah-hol-ah Minthorn
Professor and Department Chair Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
University of Oklahoma
Professional Bio
Robin Zape-tah-hol-ah Minthorn, Ph.D., an enrolled citizen of the Kiowa tribe of Oklahoma and a descendant of the Umatilla, Nez Perce, Apache, and Assiniboine Nations. She is a full professor at the University of Oklahoma in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department, joining the faculty in August 2023.
Her research interests include Indigenous leadership, Native American college students, and Historically Native American Fraternities and Sororities. Robin has served as a Board of Director for the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), as a NASPA Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community Chair, Chair for the American Educational Research Association Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Special Interest Group and is the past President and Board of Director of the National Indian Youth Council, Inc.
She recently served as a Board Member At-Large (2021-2023) for the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) and has been elected as President Elect (2025-2027) and is the first Native American to serve in this role in the association’s history.She has been awarded the Bobby Wright Award for Early Career Contributions to Research in Indigenous Education through the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Special Interest Group for the American Educational Research Association in 2018 and recently received the Exemplary Contributions to Practice-Engaged Research Award from the American Educational Research Association in 2022.
Dr. Minthorn is also the co-editor of Indigenous Leadership in Higher Education published by Routledge Educational Leadership Research Series, Reclaiming Indigenous Research in Higher Education and Indigenous Motherhood in the Academy both published by Rutgers University Press and Unsettling Settler Colonial Education: The Transformational Indigenous Praxis Model published by Teachers College Press.
Her research interests include Indigenous leadership, Native American college students, and Historically Native American Fraternities and Sororities. Robin has served as a Board of Director for the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), as a NASPA Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community Chair, Chair for the American Educational Research Association Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Special Interest Group and is the past President and Board of Director of the National Indian Youth Council, Inc.
She recently served as a Board Member At-Large (2021-2023) for the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) and has been elected as President Elect (2025-2027) and is the first Native American to serve in this role in the association’s history.She has been awarded the Bobby Wright Award for Early Career Contributions to Research in Indigenous Education through the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Special Interest Group for the American Educational Research Association in 2018 and recently received the Exemplary Contributions to Practice-Engaged Research Award from the American Educational Research Association in 2022.
Dr. Minthorn is also the co-editor of Indigenous Leadership in Higher Education published by Routledge Educational Leadership Research Series, Reclaiming Indigenous Research in Higher Education and Indigenous Motherhood in the Academy both published by Rutgers University Press and Unsettling Settler Colonial Education: The Transformational Indigenous Praxis Model published by Teachers College Press.
Institution/Organization
University of Oklahoma
General Member