Apolonio (polo) Pablo Hernandez
Apolonio Pablo Hernandez is a doctoral candidate in the Teaching and Learning Program in the University of Washington’s College of Education whose studies are informed by indigenous perspectives and climate science. Polo hopes to improve how educators center tribal knowledge and their relationships with families and students.
Polo was born in Moses Lake. His family history is shaped by the colonization of Northern Mexico and the Southwest United States. His paternal grandparents were part of the Bracero Program in the early 1940s, while his maternal ancestors were vaqueros in Texas from the early 1800s. Both sides of his family moved freely between what we now call Mexico and the United States. This family history drives his passion to support and further the work of equitable and just futures.
Polo has spent the past ten years as an educator in several roles. He began as project director in a small rural school district on tribal reservation land, managing a small federal grant from the Department of Education. He attributes the success of the grant to successful partnership with the tribe and tribal community members. He participated in the professional learning communities that centered the tribes’ educational desires while focusing on student belonging. In his short time with the tribe and school, polo served as the Promise Zone Educational Coordinator, Tribal Head Start Education Manager, and as Secretary for the Columbia Plateau Indigenous Education Alliance (CPIEA), working with Eastern Washington’s area Tribes.
More recently, polo worked as the Tribal Earling Learning Fund Specialist out of the Office of Tribal Relations in the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. He was a senior researcher on a multi-state National Science Foundation educational research project and continues to work closely with local educators, universities, environmental agencies and non-profits on placed-based environmental learning experiences for students and their families.
A combat veteran who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF 08-09) in the Washington Army National Guard, polo has taken subsequent leadership roles in both his undergraduate and graduate schools’ student government. He was a member of the City of Spokane’s Climate Action Plan Committee and coordinator for the Environmental Justice and Equity Workgroup Subcommittee. In his free time, he enjoys climbing, hiking, working in his garden, and being in nature.
- Appointed by Governor Bob Ferguson from August 19, 2025 to June 30, 2026
- Awaiting Senate confirmation