Octavia Bartmess

Octavia Bartmess is a second year MSW student and an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of New Mexico. Before coming to the Brown School, she worked for over a decade as a Software Engineer at Honeywell Inc. and worked on legacy helicopter programs. Later, she joined the Models & Simulation team in the SMARTlab at Honeywell’s Advanced Technology Research and Development department.

Currently, Octavia’s MSW concentration is in American Indian/Alaska Native studies and her specialization is in System Dynamics.  She is a research assistant for the RESPIRAR project in the Social System Design Lab and a practicum student at Seven Fires, a nonprofit that utilizes an Indigenous curriculum for community wealth building.

She hopes to become a licensed clinical social worker and to work with Indigenous peoples in tackling contemporary issues as a System Dynamics problem solver and community development leader.