The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching announced today the appointment of Jim Enote as a Senior Fellow. A Zuni tribal member who has spent more than 40 years working to protect and steward cultural and natural resources, he is CEO of the nonprofit Colorado Plateau Foundation that supports regional Native communities in protecting water and sacred places, ensuring food security, and preserving languages and ancestral knowledge.

“Jim is an extraordinary educator, conservationist, humanitarian, and cultural leader,” says Carnegie President Timothy Knowles. “He will bring wisdom to Carnegie’s efforts to improve educational attainment and help to imagine and instantiate postsecondary models that improve educational experiences for indigenous young people across the nation.”

“I am honored to accept the appointment as a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Foundation,” says Enote. “In this role, as a 600th generation Native American, lifelong farmer, and CEO, I intend to advance new expressions of learning and ‘other knowledges’ for the K–12 and postsecondary sectors.”

In his role as CEO of Colorado Plateau Foundation, Enote connects, engages, and leverages funding to support regional issues on the Colorado Plateau, which stretches over and beyond the Four Corners region of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. A scientist, artist, and writer, he also serves as the chair of the board of trustees for the Grand Canyon Trust, as a board member of the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and sits on the Governing Council of the Wilderness Society.

“If we are serious about the pursuit of educational, economic, and racial justice in the United States, it won’t happen without Native American voice, engagement, and perspective,” says Knowles. “We are extraordinarily lucky that Jim has agreed to join us on this journey.”

More about Jim Enote’s work

Video: Native Peoples of the Colorado Plateau

Video: Counter Mapping from Emergence Magazine