ASU program elevates future Indigenous leaders

By Jude McGee

The American Indian Policy Institute (AIPI), a program of Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, is a non-teaching research institution started in 2006 by Dr. Peterson Zah, a former special advisor to ASU Presidents Lattie F. Coor and Michael Crow. The Institute’s mission is to “support Tribal sovereignty through examination, exploration, and elevation.” Within AIPI is the Indigenous Leadership Academy (ILA), which develops community leaders with a curriculum that focuses on shaping the future of Tribal governance, Indigenous education, and Native health leadership.

Launched in January 2022, the ILA serves two cohorts per year, consisting of 22 to 24 students. Students are recommended to have an Associate's or Bachelor's degree, as well as relevant experience in Tribal governance, energy, or environmental work.  Over the past three years, nearly 200 indigenous leaders from more than 90 tribes and 31 states have participated in the ILA’s 10-week training program, which consists of 10 modules. ILA has a 92% completion rate and a 51% acceptance rate. 

“Each module, they work on specific leadership topics,” said Dr. Traci Morris, executive director of the AIPI. “They do small group work and large group work. There are guest speakers. This all culminates in their final community project.” 

At the core of AIPI is the concept of digital sovereignty. According to Dr. Morris, this principle drives the organization, aiming to provide tribal nations with digital tools to govern themselves. “We have the legal structures to be able to create our own codes, resolutions, and governance over our digital realm,” she said. This concerns data and how sovereign tribes can create their own data rules. A key value for ILA, sovereignty for Tribal Nations, is at the core of leadership education. 

When leadership is developed through ILA, it can have a significant impact within the program. Now the assistant director of ILA, Brooke Curleyhair participated in an ILA cohort in 2024. 

“While I was in the academy, I envisioned a topical version of it, but for educators,” she said. “I thought, what an incredible opportunity it would be to create an academy just like this, but focus on education.”

She then developed a curriculum, structured like the ILA and designed for educators, which is now known as the Indigenous Educational Leadership Academy (IELA). 

Curleyhair said on a day-to-day basis, she has to balance the drive to build leaders and guide professional development, while also acknowledging cultural expertise. “My role sits at the intersection of program design and community partnerships, and nurturing tribal community relations and overall organizational strategy,” she said. 

Originally from Kayenta, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation, Curleyhair moved to Phoenix after high school to attend ASU. After earning her undergraduate degree in Secondary Education, she stayed at ASU to pursue her Master’s degree in Educational Policy. She is currently a second-year Doctoral Candidate.

“My heart and passion are in education.” Curleyhair said, “I try to give back to tribal communities. And I think that's really at the core of a lot of the work that I've done.” 

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For more information, visit https://aipi.asu.edu/ila