Eileen Luna-Firebaugh (Choctaw/Cherokee; MPA, 1996, Harvard University/JD, 1978, Peoples College of Law) joined the AIS faculty in fall 1996. She is an Associate Professor whose most recent publications focus on the growth and development of tribal police, evaluation of human service delivery programs on Indian lands, community policing and disciplining the police. She is the author of a forthcoming book from University of Arizona Press entitled Policing Indian America: the Juncture of Sovereignty and Justice. She teaches several courses in the law and policy concentration that are required in the M.A./J.D. degree and options in the Ph.D. and M.A. programs. She is a member of the faculty of the National Tribal Trial College; funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. In this capacity she is a trainer of tribal judges, police and prosecutors.

Professor Luna-Firebaugh is a Justice of the Colorado River Indian Tribal Appellate Court. Her outreach activities include work with the Alianza Indigina Sin Fronteras, an organization that seeks to resolve cross-border issues for the Indian Nations of the U.S./Mexico Border region. Prof. Luna-Firebaugh is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Center for Responsible Gambling.  She is a member of the Advisory Boards for the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, the Harvard Medical School Division on Diversions Project on Pathological Gambling, and the Southwest Center on Law and Policy. Prof. Luna-Firebaugh is also a consultant to cities throughout the United States that are seeking to reorganize their police complaint systems.

Prof. Luna-Firebaugh has worked in partnership with the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, and tribal-level project coordinators, to evaluate the CIRCLE initiative (Comprehensive Indian Resources for Community and Law Enforcement). This U. S. Office of Justice Programs initiative provided three demonstration tribes (the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Pueblo of Zuni) with the opportunity and resources needed to realign law enforcement and justice programs with tribal values and priorities. CIRCLE funded youth, victim services, law enforcement, domestic violence, tribal courts and corrections programs. Equally (and perhaps more) importantly, it encouraged Indian nations to develop a linked, comprehensive strategy for using these funds.

Professor Luna-Firebaugh was the principal investigator on a major, multi-year, grant on reducing violence against women from the National Institute of Justice, which included over 130 tribal government programs. She was also the principal investigator for a National Institute of Health study of Australian Aboriginal family violence programs, conducted throughout Eastern and Southern Australia. She has received grants for research from American Philosophical Society, Phillips Fund for Native American Research, the University of Arizona, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Law Enforcement Services. She serves on the Board of the University Human Subjects Protection Program, and is a member of the AIS Curriculum Committee, and the Colloquium Committee.

AIS 415/515 American Indians & Urban Experience

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