{"id":32464,"date":"2023-10-02T10:54:55","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T14:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=32464"},"modified":"2023-10-02T11:01:40","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T15:01:40","slug":"national-congress-of-american-indians-hires-geoffrey-blackwell-for-key-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2023\/10\/02\/national-congress-of-american-indians-hires-geoffrey-blackwell-for-key-role\/","title":{"rendered":"National Congress of American Indians hires Geoffrey Blackwell for key role"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Geoffrey<\/a>
Geoffrey Blackwell. Photo: New America<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
National Congress of American Indians hires Geoffrey Blackwell for key post<\/div>\r\n
Monday, October 2, 2023<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe National Congress of American Indians<\/a>, the nation’s largest inter-tribal advocacy organization, has a new general counsel and a new chief of staff.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nGeoffrey Blackwell<\/a>, who is Chickasaw, Choctaw, Omaha, and Muscogee Creek, will serve both positions, NCAI announced<\/a> last Thursday. He comes to the organization following eight years as chief strategy officer and general counsel for AMERIND<\/a>, the tribally-owned insurance provider, and as the founding chief of the Office of Native Affairs and Policy<\/a> at the Federal Communications Commission<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cWe are thrilled to welcome Geoffrey Blackwell to NCAI,\u201d said NCAI Executive Director Larry Wright, Jr., a citizen and former chairman of the Ponca Tribe in Nebraska.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n \u201cHis extensive expertise in federal Indian law and policy, coupled with his deep-rooted commitment to serving Tribal Nations, make him an invaluable addition to our leadership team,” Wright continued. “With him at the helm of our legal efforts and as chief of staff, we are confident in our ongoing advocacy for Tribal Nations.\u201d\r\n

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NCAI is proud to announce Geoffrey Blackwell as general counsel and chief of staff. With a deep background in federal Indian law and a longstanding commitment to advocating for Tribal Nations, Blackwell brings extensive expertise to #IndianCountry. \ud83d\uddde\ufe0f https:\/\/t.co\/ngAdOaDEUb<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

\n\t\t\"X\t\tX (formerly Twitter)\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nBlackwell, who received his juris doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law, is only the second Native person to serve as general counsel at NCAI, which was founded in 1944. The first was Derrick Beetso, a citizen of the Navajo Nation<\/a> who was ousted under unusual circumstances<\/a> in 2021 by a former executive who later lost his job<\/a> in 2022 and is now suing the organization<\/a> in the District of Columbia, where NCAI is based.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAs for the chief of staff, the position was previously held by Jamie Gomez, a citizen of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes<\/a> of Alaska. She had worked for NCAI for more than 20 years<\/a> prior to her departure in 2021<\/a>.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nNCAI is preparing for its 80th annual convention<\/a>, which takes place November 12-17 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The event will see the election of new leadership for the organization<\/a>, including the position of president.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Congress of American Indians, the nation\u2019s largest inter-tribal advocacy organization, has a new general counsel and a new chief of staff.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32470,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,14],"tags":[1730,427,428,1593,56,121,328,4188,4189,1601,1375,138,564,7,652,562],"class_list":["post-32464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-politics","tag-amerind","tag-chickasaw","tag-choctaw","tag-derrick-beetso","tag-elections","tag-employment","tag-fcc","tag-geoffrey-blackwell","tag-jamie-gomez","tag-larry-wright","tag-louisiana","tag-meetings","tag-muscogee","tag-ncai","tag-omaha","tag-ponca","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-8rC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/02\/GeoffreyBlackwell.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}