Indigenous Visionaries
2017 – Ongoing
About The Program
The 2023 to current Indigenous Visionaries: Women’s Leadership Program at the American Indian College Fund supports the empowerment and success of Native women faculty and staff at TCUs through a ten-month fellowship opportunity. Participating fellows receive place-based and experiential professional and personal development through guided trainings and cultural learning from College Fund staff and a broad network of Native women leaders. This program seeks to address and dismantle systemic barriers facing Native women by providing the tools, opportunities, and a network to support and strengthen the growth of our fellows, in turn strengthening families, TCUs, and tribal nation communities. This space will elevate and increase the visibility of Native women by offering strategic opportunities that illuminate a path towards personal, educational, and professional advancement.
2023-2024 Indigenous Visionaries Fellows
Indigenous Visionaries
2021-2023
The previous Indigenous Visionaries program builds upon the American Indian College Fund’s ongoing work of developing Native women leaders through education, mentoring, networking, and storytelling.
Indigenous Visionaries connects students at tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) with faculty in their area of study.
Within their academic disciplines, Indigenous Visionaries fellows engage in research and programming that builds on and expands their studies, mentored by tribal college faculty members with expertise in their field. Through this mentoring relationship, fellows participate in a community project, learn how to address tribal and local issues, understand what it takes to create change in a community, and experience possibilities for a potential career in their field of choice.
The College Fund’s goal is to develop Native women leaders who have a foundation in Indigenous knowledge, culture, and history, who are confident in their identities and stories, and who will bring visionary leadership to Native communities in the future.
Past Indigenous Visionaries Cohorts
Related Blogs
Sharing of a Culture – A Collaborative Joining of Resources
LouAnne Hoskinson (Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe) Tribal College and University: Salish Kootenai College Major: Early Childhood Development American Indian College Fund Indigenous Visionary Fellows partnered with Salish Kootenai College (SKC) Early Learning...
Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College Earth Week: It’s a Small World
Emily Lockling (Fond du Lac and Leech Lake) Tribal College and University: Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Major: Environmental Science Counting your chickens before they hatch, or in my case, buying your first set of luggage before a pandemic hit with...
From Surviving to Thriving: Sisseton Wahpeton College Fellows
LaVerne Whitebear (Fort Peck Assiniboine Sioux) Tribal College and University: Sisseton Wahpeton College Degree Major: Behavioral Science I am a 46-year old wife and mother of seven children, some grown and some not, and a first-generation college student. I have...
The Voices of Indigenous Visionaries: Highlights of the 2019-2020 Grant Year
The Indigenous Visionaries program has worked with three Tribal Colleges and Universities for three years (2017 – 2020), supporting the development of Native women leaders in the three programming areas of Early Childhood Education, Environmental Stewardship, and...
