AISES Professional Awards

Professional of the Year Award: David Daniel
General Manager for IBM’s IT Service Delivery in Japan, David Daniel holds a B.S. in International Law & Economics, an MBA in International Trade Finance, and a Diploma en Letras (Inter-American Law). Based in Tokyo, David leads an more than 9,000 employees who provide critical information technology infrastructure to some of the world’s largest institutions in the public and private sector. 

Of the Cherokee Nation, David is the highest-ranking Native American at IBM. In addition to being an AISES Sequoyah Fellow, David serves as Executive co-chair of the IBM Diversity Executive Task Force for Native Americans, and the Executive sponsor for IBM’s work with the Indigenous Language Institute (ILI), which uses technology to preserve the Cherokee and other Native American languages.

Over his 25-year career with IBM, David has amassed a wealth of experience in business management and in-depth understanding of IT Professional Services, Systems Integration, and Consulting and Outsourcing. He and his wife Susan have two children who are also AISES Sequoyah Fellows. Sequoyah Fellows are lifetime AISES members; the Fellowship is named after the legendary Cherokee scientist Sequoyah, who among his many accomplishments, completed an independent Cherokee syllabary in 1821, leading to unprecedented literacy rates among the Cherokee that surpassed that of early European settlers in North America.
 

Technical Excellence Award: Karen McDaniel
Karen McDaniel is a member of the Navajo tribe from Upper Fruitland, New Mexico. Currently a Senior Member of Technical Staff and a mechanical analyst in the Modeling & Simulation department at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque she works in developing analytical simulation models for high performance computing to support the United States’ nuclear weapons stockpile. 

Karen’s mechanical engineering education began at San Juan Community College in Northern New Mexico. After graduating with a general science degree, she attended the University of New Mexico to earn her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. With support from her family and with the help of AISES and other American Indian organizations on campus, Karen received her B.S.M.E. in 2001 and her M.S.M.E. in 2003.

Along with Karen’s position at Sandia National labs, she is currently the chairperson of Sandia’s American Indian Outreach Committee (AIOC) and the coordinator for the Dream Catcher Science Program (DCSP).
 

Most Promising Engineer/Scientist Award: Karletta Chief, Ph.D.
Dr. Karletta Chief is originally from Black Mesa, Arizona and grew up on the Navajo Nation. She is a first generation college graduate, having received her B.S. and M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University in 1998 and 2000. In 2000-01, she served as Miss Navajo Nation and represented her people as a leader, role model, and environmental advocate. 

As a National Science Foundation Doctoral Fellow, she received her Ph.D. in Hydrology and Water Resources in the School of Engineering at the University of Arizona (UA) in 2007, with a minor in Soil, Water, and Environmental Science. Dr. Chief is currently a Post Doctoral Fellow in the Division of Hydrologic Sciences at Desert Research Institute in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her current research interests include the spatial and temporal characterization of soil air permeability and hydraulic properties of arid soils to improve our understanding of the dynamic processes that control the movement of air, water, CO2, and contaminants in the soils.