Angela Walden, Ph.D

Dr. Angela Walden serves as the Special Advisor on Native Students within the Office of Student Success and Belonging and the Native American Support Program. Dr. Walden is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Her work focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in higher education, including increasing representation and retention of Native American students, staff, and faculty. Her research examines community-based and systems-oriented mental health interventions and supports, with an emphasis on access and implementation. Dr. Walden earned her Ph.D. in Clinical and Community Psychology from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and completed her internship and postdoctoral training at UIC. She has held faculty appointments at UIC in the departments of Psychiatry, Medicine, and Psychology. She also served as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Diversity Initiatives in UIC’s Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Engagement, where she launched the Native American/Indigenous Inclusion and Belonging educational initiative and was the inaugural Director of the Bridge to Faculty Program. Prior to returning to UIC, Dr. Walden served as a Scientific Program Director for the Native Collective Research Effort to Enhance Wellness (N CREW), an innovative, multi-institute initiative at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Walden’s work has been recognized by several awards, most recently the 2022 Cherokee Phoenix Seven Feathers Award for her contributions to education. She believes in the transformational power of relationships and the importance of recognizing and building upon strengths.

Read something Dr. Walden has contributed to:

• Native Americans and UIC Task Force Report
• Adversity and Resiliency for Chicago’s First: The State of Racial Justice for American Indian Chicagoans
• American Indian Research Perspectives on Qualitative Inquiry About and Within American Indian Communities