E. Ingrid Goodyear, M.Ed. Educational Leadership '11, will receive the 2024-25 Alumni Humanitarian award at the Alumni of Distinction Celebration on March 18, 2025, at the Fine Arts Building Recital Hall on UAA’s Anchorage campus.

Indigenous people in the United States face disproportionately high rates of violence and disappearances. According to a 2021 report from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, more than 4,200 cases of missing or murdered Indigenous persons (MMIP) remain unsolved. Addressing this crisis is the mission of educational leadership alumna E. Ingrid Goodyear, the MMIP regional coordinator for the Great Plains and Alaska at the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Alaska.

One of only five regional MMIP coordinators in the country, Goodyear’s work extends beyond Alaska to include South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming. In this position, she works to improve response efforts, build community-based solutions and coordinate with law enforcement, social services and tribal organizations. When she first stepped into the role in 2020, it lacked clear structure. To better define it, Goodyear worked with colleagues to hold listening sessions with the aforementioned groups. From those conversations, she developed a framework for improving communication, expediting search efforts and connecting families with resources. Her efforts led to the development of Alaska’s tribal community response plans, which serve as models for other states.

“The conversations were really tough at first, but developing those relationships and working with people and figuring out how we can make a difference has been the most amazing part of this job,” said Goodyear.

Similarly, in Fairbanks, Goodyear collaborated with the Fairbanks Native Association and Tanana Chiefs Conference to develop an MMIP response plan that closely integrates law enforcement and social services to enact more immediate protocols for when someone goes missing. In other rural communities, she has worked to introduce MMIP-related training, human trafficking awareness programs and other resources tailored to areas with limited or no local law enforcement. These efforts are working toward the goal of ensuring every region, no matter how remote, has tools to respond effectively when someone goes missing.

Before entering her current role, Goodyear spent over two decades in education. A lifelong Alaskan, she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from UAF before transitioning into teaching. She later pursued her master’s degree at UAA while working as a school principal in her hometown of Sand Point, Alaska. Goodyear’s shift from political science to educational leadership mirrors not only her career journey, but also her family’s legacy in education and advocacy — her mother and father were involved in local school boards, her grandfather served on the parole board while also being active in the Alaska Native Brotherhood, and her grandmother and aunts were active in the Alaska Native Sisterhood.

“Often we hear about MMIP that happened recently, but we also hear about MMIP that happened 60 years ago,” said Goodyear. “One of the things my grandfather and I would talk about is how it's the same story. It's still impacting the community as if it was yesterday. And it's really important that we prevent that from happening, that we prevent MMIP, that we respond and support our people in reaching for safety and for safer communities.”

This intersection between education and advocacy is not just a coincidence — it is a fundamental connection. Goodyear credits her time at UAA with shaping her approach to advocacy. She often refers to a course on the philosophy of change as one of the most influential experiences of her career, as understanding how change happens is essential for addressing systemic issues like MMIP. By applying her experience in education, she has been able to facilitate difficult conversations, build trust between agencies and empower communities to take action.

“The support I got from UAA was tremendous, and I learned so much from my professors and discussions with classmates,” said Goodyear. “A lot of this job is about putting yourself in the perspective of somebody else, and when you see things from a different point of view, sometimes you get a whole different picture.”