Executive Director
Lower Brule Research Institute
FOCUS
I work to give kids living in and around Lower Brule, South Dakota, the opportunity to ask and answer the questions that are important to them and their community. I believe that through this process they will find and build the opportunities needed to create a healthier and more just world for all.
STRATEGIC INITIATIVE: Lower Brule Community Educator Initiative for Preparing Native American Adults as Teachers
The Lower Brule Community Educator initiative will be a collaboration between Lower Brule Research, Lower Brule Day School, Lower Brule Community College, the University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University, and the South Dakota Department of Education. My initiative will create and assess alternative K-12 teacher training experiences for Native American adults in Lower Brule that focus on experiential learning and early classroom experiences for teacher candidates. My initiative will utilize these alternative educational experiences to foster partnerships between program participants and state-sponsored educational institutions in order to examine and identify current policies and programs that unfairly limit Native American participation in the South Dakota K-12 teacher workforce. This coalition will then use its broad and diverse knowledge base to secure financial support to develop, evaluate, and advocate for changes to these policies and programs in future years.
MORE ABOUT DEVON
A teacher at heart, I love being able to lend a hand to help kids become the people they want to be.
Click here to watch Devon’s Legacy Project video.