Dr. Pam Begay’s work focuses on Native American issues and her research interests include cultural identity, social work practice and issues surrounding Native women. 

Since joining the Brown School in 2022, she serves as Director of the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies, Associate Professor of Practice, Chair of the American Indian/Alaska Native Concentration, teaches in the mental health concentration, and maintains a clinical private practice focusing on treating trauma while infusing psychodynamic theory.

Dr. Begay is the senior editor for the Journal of Indigenous Research and an Editorial Board Member of the Clinical Social Work Journal. And has been appointed to the Council on Social Work Education’s-Commission on Diversity & Social and Economic Justice. She was also newly appointed the North American Commissioner for the International Federation of Social Workers.

Dr. Begay is enrolled in the Diné Nation of Shiprock, New Mexico. She received her PhD in clinical social work from Smith College-School for Social Work, her MSW from Washington University in St. Louis, and her BA from the University of New Mexico.

But most importantly, she is a wife to her husband of 22 years and mother to Athena and Miles.