Traci L. Morris, PhD
Dr. Traci Morris is the Executive Director of the American Indian Policy Institute (AIPI) and a Research Professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. She is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma.
Dr. Morris is nationally recognized as a leading scholar in Tribal Digital Sovereignty, with her research focusing on data governance and artificial intelligence (AI) in Indian Country as critical components of tribal self-determination. She is a leading expert on tribal broadband access, digital equity, and telecommunications policy, and has provided expert testimony on these issues before the Federal Communications Commission and on Capitol Hill.
Institutional Leadership
Under her leadership, AIPI has significantly expanded its impact and capacity across Indian Country. She successfully led the institute’s relocation to ASU Law and co-founded the new Center for Tribal Digital Sovereignty in partnership with the National Congress of American Indians. Her tenure has also advanced tribally driven policy analysis with a new legislative dashboard and expanded programming, including the Indigenous Leadership Academy.
Research and Expertise
Her research portfolio explores AI, internet use, digital inclusion, and broadband development on tribal lands. She is the co-author of the landmark Tribal Technology Assessment: The State of Internet Service on Tribal Lands (2019) and the editor of Native American Voices: A Reader, a text widely adopted in college curricula.
Background
Before joining ASU, Dr. Morris founded Homahota Consulting, a Native woman-owned firm serving tribal nations and Indigenous organizations nationwide. She is affiliated with several ASU centers, including American Indian Studies, the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, the Center on Technology, Data and Society, and is a Sustainability Scholar. Dr. Morris holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona and a B.A. from Colorado State University.
Dr. Morris is an affiliated faculty member at ASU's School for the Future of Innovation in Society and American Indian Studies. She is affiliated with ASU’s Center on Technology, Data, and Society. Additionally, she serves as a Sustainability Scholar in the ASU School of Sustainability. Formerly, she served two-year appointments (2014-2016 and 2010-2012) to the Federal Communications Commission's Consumer Advisory Committee and was a member of the Advisory Board for the Department of Labor's Native American Employment and Training Council.
Before her ASU appointment, Dr. Morris founded Homahota Consulting LLC, a national Native American woman-owned professional services firm. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Arizona’s American Indian Studies program and a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Colorado State University.