Biography

John W. Tippeconnic III, is currently a Professor and Director of the American Indian Studies Program at Arizona State University. He is a member of the Comanche Tribe and is also part Cherokee. Prior to coming to ASU in July 2010, he held the Batschelet Chair of Educational Administration, Professor of Educational Leadership, and Director of the American Indian Leadership Program at The Pennsylvania State University. Also, he was the co-director of the Center for the Study of Leadership in Indian education, and co-directed a program to prepare school principals. He is the former Director of the Office of Indian Education Programs for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in Washington, D.C. He also was the Director of the Office of Indian Education (OIE) located in the U.S. Department of Education. Both the BIA and OIE positions were national in scope and included overseeing programs from early childhood education to graduate studies in higher education. He served as a Professor of Educational Leadership and Director of the Center for Indian Education at Arizona State University. He also was a middle school teacher in New Mexico and Arizona and a vice president of Navajo Community College (now Diné College). Dr. Tippeconnic’s interests include studies in educational policy, Indian control of education, educational leadership, Indigenous leadership, and higher education issues. He has numerous publications including co-editing the book, Next Steps: Research and Practice to Advance Indian Education, which included sections on curriculum issues,thoughts, and practice. He co-authored with Redwing Saunders deals with Policy Issues in the Education of American Indians and Alaska Native in Multicultural Education Policies in Canada and the United States. Currently he is a co-editor of a book on Indigenous Leadership that is being developed. His latest publication concerns, The Dropout/Graduation Crisis among American Indian and Alaska Native Students. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education and the Journal of American Indian Education (JAIE) and was the Co-Editor of a Special Issue of the JAIE concerning “Culturally Responsive Education for American Indian, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian students.” His service included two terms as president of the National Indian Education Association; Chair of the American Educational Research Association American Indian Education Special Interest Group. Tippeconnic has served as a consultant to numerous organizations, including the Native American Rights Fund, National Indian School Boards Association, National Science Foundation, W.K Kellogg Foundation, American Indian Higher Education Consortium and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He was also the co-PI for a Principals Academy for principals from schools with significant numbers of American Indian students. Currently, he is a member of the Governing Board for the Comanche Nation College.