Casie Wise, senior program director for National Indian Education Association, speaks with Ramona Schindelheim, WorkingNation editor-in-chief, on the Work in Progress podcast
Casie Wise, senior program director for National Indian Education Association, speaks with Ramona Schindelheim, WorkingNation editor-in-chief, on the Work in Progress podcast

Empowering Native American students through culture-based education

A conversation with Casie Wise, senior program director, National Indian Education Association
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In this episode of Work in Progress, I’m joined by Casie Wise, senior program manager for the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), a nonprofit advocating and advancing comprehensive, culture-based educational opportunities for American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians.

Native Americans have the highest unemployment rate of any racial or ethnic minority group in the U.S.,
and lower graduation rates and achievement gaps compared to their white peers. There are many
reasons for this, including long-term and systemic disparities.

The NIEA was founded in 1969 to advocate for Native education at the federal, state, and tribal levels, particularly working to ensure appropriate funding and tribal consultation, develop culturally-relevant education programs, and support the sovereignty of tribes to control their own education systems.

95% of Native students are attending public schools. While some are on reservation land, the majority of students are not attending school in a tribal community. Whether public or tribally-controlled, the school is a critical base in the community.

Despite progress, Native Americans continue to face disparities in educational outcomes and economic mobility compared to their peers.

Casie Wise explains that the NIEA works to address these gaps through policy advocacy, community partnerships, and programs that reconnect students to their cultural heritage and languages. Successful initiatives highlighted include career pathway programs, language immersion, and school-community collaborations.

Overall, the NIEA’s work is critical to empowering Native students, preserving cultural identity, and building sustainable economies in more than 574 federally recognized tribes.

You can listen to the entire podcast here or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find our podcasts on the Work in Progress YouTube channel.

Episode 364: Casie Wise, senior program director, National Indian Education Association
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4
Transcript: Download the transcript for this episode here
Work in Progress Podcast: Catch up on previous episodes here

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.