Carmen Foghorn was Director of the American Indian Graduate Program (AIGP). For over 40 years (1971-2017) Carmen Foghorn played a critical role in mentoring Native students at Berkeley while infusing her program with traditional Native values to nurture the well-being of students.
Carmen Foghorn was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico growing up Isleta Pueblo and Navajo. She attended the University of New Mexico, and worked her way through college by advising high school students at the local drop-in center across the street from Albuquerque High School. For (24) years, Carmen advised the Native American graduate students within the American Indian Graduate Program at UC Berkeley, and witnessed over 1,000 American Indian and Alaska Native graduates since the program’s inception in 1971. As an advisor at UC Berkeley, Carmen served the Native community by valuing and advising Native people through her holistic philosophy which incorporates carrying traditions of health, the well-being and spiritual practices that coexist with Native American’s while far away from their traditional Native homelands.
Patrick Naranjo, her Native colleague and successor, points out Carmen’s leadership as a Pueblo matriarch to reinforce a sense of belonging and success within western spaces that exist outside of our home reservation communities. Carmen's leadership at Berkeley has fostered a sense of community that helps Native students succeed at institutions of higher learning and represents the generational shift for Native American communities to indigenize the college student experience. Carmen’s leadership outside of the Pueblo patriarchy has been an inspiration to him as a Native individual and tribal member from Santa Clara Pueblo.
Read more:
UC Berkeley Graduate Division Magazine: Local Hero: Carmen Foghorn looks for the best in people and often finds it
The Graduate (pg 15): Carmen Foghorn’s Door Is Open