Highlights this month include: July legislative summary, a review of the House Subcommittee on Communications & Technology's Promoting Broadband Infrastructure Hearing, and the launch of registration for the Fall 2015 Cohort of the Tribal Financial Manager Certificate Program.
The National Congress of American Indian’s (NCAI) 2015 Mid Year Conference was held July 28th through July 30th in St. Paul, Minnesota. The event began, as always, with posting of colors and reports from the NCAI Executive Director, the NCAI Elected President, State and local leaders, and federal leaders. There was an interesting presentation on opportunities for digital governance by Megan Smith, the United States Chief Technology Officer and Special Advisor to President Obama. This was followed a policy overview from Kevin Washburn (Chickasaw), Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior.
October was a very busy month in Indian Country with the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Annual Conference capping off everything. The American Indian Policy Institute (AIPI) participated in this and other events. We hosted our own event, the ever-popular Tribal Financial Managers Certificate (TFMC) Executive Training, which we host twice a year with our partners at the Native American Finance Officers Association (NAFOA). We also played an integral part in the Arizona State University’s (ASU) Indigenous Sustainability Conference, the Affiliated Tribes of the Northwest’s (ATNI) Taking Smoke Signals Digital Conference, and NCAI.
In a very exciting note, Arizona State University’s Spring Graduation included 365 Native American students that completed their degree programs; 17 of those students receiving doctorates! Additionally, we are honored to acknowledge the first cohort from the Pueblo Doctoral Cohort program who graduated 10 Ph.D. students, through a partnership with The Leadership Institute at the Santa Fe Indian School and ASU’s School of Social Transformation. We are proud of all our students’ accomplishments!
As the spring semester ends here at Arizona State University for students and faculty, our office works year round and we are currently gearing up for the training that we host with the Native American Finance Officers Association, the Tribal Financial Manager Certificate Program.