Pamela L. Begay

Pamela L. Begay serves as Associate Professor of Practice at Washington University in St. Louis' Brown School, where she directs the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies and chairs the American Indian/Alaska Native concentration. Her institutional roles extend to editorial leadership as senior editor of the Journal of Indigenous Research and board member of the Clinical Social Work Journal, alongside appointments on the Council on Social Work Education’s Commission on Diversity & Social and Economic Justice and as North American Commissioner for the International Federation of Social Workers.

Her academic foundation includes a PhD in Clinical Social Work from Smith College School of Social Work, an MSW from Washington University in St. Louis (as a Buder Scholar), and a BA in American Indian/Native American Studies from the University of New Mexico. Enrolled in the Diné Nation of Shiprock, New Mexico, she brings lived experience from straddling reservation life and urban California.

Dr. Begay’s research centers on Native American cultural identity, clinical social work practice, and trauma treatment through psychodynamic frameworks. She confronts the critical shortage of Indigenous clinicians—highlighting that only 1% of social work graduates are American Indian—and develops pathways for students to achieve clinical licensure. Her work bridges clinical practice with systemic advocacy, ensuring Native communities receive culturally grounded mental health services.

As Director of the Buder Center, she oversees a nationally respected scholarship program training social work professionals for tribal and urban settings. She actively mentors students through licensure processes while maintaining her private telehealth clinical practice in New Mexico. Her leadership prioritizes making Indigenous populations visible in clinical contexts, transforming 'invisibility' from personal experience into professional mission.