WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today announced that the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Director Keith Moore has selected Chris Redman as president of Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU), the 127-year old, BIE Education administered post secondary institution for American Indian and Alaska Natives from the nation’s 565 federally recognized tribes. Redman, an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma, was an education specialist with the BIE who had served as Haskell’s acting president in times of need. His appointment will become effective on July 3, 2011.
“I am pleased to announce Chris Redman’s appointment as the new president of Haskell,” Echo Hawk said. “Redman’s proven leadership will make a great addition to our team as we work to improve the delivery of quality education to Haskell students and help prepare them to further their goals, dreams and the prosperity of Indian Country.”
“Chris Redman is a dedicated public servant whose commitment to Haskell and to American Indian higher education is unquestioned,” Moore said. “I am pleased that he has joined our management team, bringing his talent, dedication and leadership.”
Prior to his appointment, Redman served as acting president from September to December 2009 and from May 2010 until March 2011.
Redman began his federal career in 2005 with the predecessor to the BIE, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP) in Washington, D.C., where he worked in the Division of Budget and Planning administering grants to tribal colleges and universities (TCUs). He continued there until April 2007, when he became a Human Resources Specialist with the OIEP in Anadarko, Okla.
In September 2008, Redman was promoted to the position of Education Program Specialist for Post Secondary Education with the OIEP in Oklahoma City, where he performed oversight and support duties for the TCUs. He first began working with Haskell in late 2008.
Between 1998 and 2005, Redman worked for his tribe, holding various positions including as manager of a vocational rehabilitation and chemical dependency program, as a special assistant to the lieutenant governor of the Chickasaw Nation, as director of the Carter Seminary, a BIA funded boarding school, and as administrator of the tribe’s education division.
“I want to express my appreciation to Assistant Secretary Echo Hawk and BIE Director Moore for this tremendous opportunity and for their confidence in me,” Redman said. “I am looking forward to working with them and with the students, faculty and staff to address issues that are important for Haskell’s long-term success.”
Redman holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa (1993), and a master’s degree in human relations from the University of Oklahoma (1998).
Redman lives with his wife and family in Ardmore, Okla.
The Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs oversees the Bureau of Indian Education which operates the federal school system for American Indian and Alaska Native children from the federally recognized tribes. The BIE implements federal education laws, such as the No Child Left Behind Act, in and provides funding to 183 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools and peripheral dormitories located on 64 reservations in 23 states and serving approximately 42,000 students (School Year 2009-2010). The BIE also serves post secondary students through higher education scholarships and support funding to 26 tribal colleges and universities and two tribal technical colleges. It also directly operates two post secondary institutions: Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan., and the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque.
Haskell Indian Nations University has served the educational needs of American Indian and Alaska Native students for well over a century. Opened on September 1, 1884 as the United States Industrial Training School, with a focus on agricultural education in grades one through five, the school was known as Haskell Institute throughout Indian Country until 1970 when it was transformed into a two-year higher education institution and renamed Haskell Indian Junior College. In 1993, the Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs approved changing the school’s name to its current form.
Haskell has grown from its original 22 students in 1884 to an average enrollment today of over 1,000 students each semester from federally recognized tribes across the U.S. It offers baccalaureate programs in elementary teacher education, American Indian studies, business administration and environmental science, and integrates American Indian/Alaska Native culture into all of its curricula. Students may transfer to another baccalaureate degree-granting institution or go directly into the workforce. For more information, visit www.haskell.edu.
