Kim Christen

Biography

Dr. Kim Christen, Professor in and former chair of Washington State University’s Department of Digital Technology and Culture, began as WSU’s vice president for research in 2025. Prior to her appointment as VPR, she served as the associate vice president for research advancement, where, among other duties, she led WSU’s systemwide strategic research planning, oversaw legislative advocacy programming to elevate research priorities, and supported internal funding opportunities to advance high impact research programs.

Dr. Christen is an international leader in information sciences. Her research emphasizes developing culturally responsive software systems for ethical data exchange, and equitable and sustainable models for cultural heritage and traditional knowledge management. She has worked closely with Native American nations across Washington and nationally as well as with Indigenous communities globally to build software systems, digital tools, platforms, and mobile applications as catalysts for social change. She founded Mukurtu CMS, an open-source software platform designed with Indigenous communities to meet their unique information, curatorial, and data sovereignty needs. She is also the founder of the Sustainable Heritage Network, an online platform dedicated to advancing ethical information management practices, and is the co-founder of Local Contexts, a global initiative to provide digital tools and legal frameworks for the management of intellectual property with and by Indigenous communities.

Dr. Christen founded the Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation at WSU and has published extensively in top journals. Her research has been funded by federal agencies including NSF, NEH, and IMLS, as well as private funders including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). She has lead partnerships with the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Library of Congress to advance digital repatriation of heritage materials to Native American nations. She was inducted into the Washington State Academy of Sciences in 2024. Dr. Christen holds an interdisciplinary Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Cruz and began her career at Washington State University in 2005.