Heather Tanana

Visiting Professor at UCI Law/Associate Faculty at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthProfile URL

Heather Tanana, JD, MPH (Diné) is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. She previously served as an Assistant Professor (Research) & Wallace Stegner Center Fellow at the S.J. Quinney College of Law. Heather is experienced in state, federal, and tribal courts and clerked at the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. She also founded the Indian Law Section of the Utah State Bar Association. In recognition of her work related to Tribal communities, the environment, and public health, Heather has received recognition and awards from the Natural Resources & Environmental Law Section of the Utah State bar, the Utah Minority Bar Association, and the Environment, Energy, and Resources Section of the American Bar Association. 

Heather is also Associate Faculty at the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health. She holds a Master of Public Health from the Bloomberg School of Public Health - Johns Hopkins University, where she was inducted into the Delta Omega Public Health Honorary Society.

Heather’s research interests primarily include exploring the overlay between environmental and health policy. She leads the Universal Access to Clean Water for Tribal Communities initiative, which seeks to close the water gap in Indian country. She sits on the boards of Western Resource Advocates and Planet Women. She also volunteers her time on other working groups to promote diversity in the legal field, including the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law - Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, Association of American Law Schools - Section on Indian Nations and Indigenous Peoples, and ABA Native American Resources Committee.