Emily R. White Hat, J.D.

Vice President of Programs

Emily R. White Hat, J.D., Nape Waste Win (Good Hand Woman) is a Sicangu Lakota, Aske Gluwipi Tiospaye from St. Francis, South Dakota. Emily is the Vice President of Programs at the American Indian College Fund and supports implementation of place-based programming to strengthen educational opportunities for Native students at tribal colleges and universities.

Emily earned a Juris Doctorate degree and a natural resources law certificate from the University of New Mexico School of Law. She has a bachelor’s degree in forestry with a concentration in fire science and a minor in rangeland ecology from Colorado State University, along with an associate of arts degree in Lakota history and culture from Sinte Gleska University.

Her experience as a former firefighter, emergency medical technician, policy researcher, evaluator, and legal background have all been vital to her work in program development and implementation, strategic planning, national outreach, qualitative research, writing, curriculum implementation, and evaluation with tribal nations and colleges using a capacity-building approach.

In 2015, Emily was recognized by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development as one of the “Native American 40 Under 40” award recipients.

Emily enjoys quilting, beading, horseback riding, and hot yoga.

Denver, Colo., August 7, 2025—Emily White Hat, J.D. (Sicangu Lakota), Vice President of Programs at the American Indian College Fund, was one of 76 participants in the Leading Tribal Nations Program at Harvard Business School in June. The six-day program, held in collaboration with the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), is designed to equip tribal leaders with the knowledge and skills needed to advance their capacity for strategic governance through collaborative learning and problem-solving through the case-study model facilitated on the Harvard Business School campus. Read the full press release here.