Talk with Adria Brown - From Charter to Action: Dartmouth's Indigenous Initiatives (1970-2026)

Building on decades of faculty and staff advocacy, student activism, and alumni and community support, Dartmouth recommitted to its 1769 founding charter to “educate Native youths” in 1970. In the ensuing fifty-five years, Indigenous initiatives at Dartmouth have grown into an expansive holistic effort to implement the charter throughout academic, co-curricular, and extracurricular programs. Current Director of the Native American Program Adria Brown will share lessons learned on community-building, organizing, and institutional change. 

Adria Brown (Chickasaw, she/her) is the Director of the Native American Program at Dartmouth. In this role, she provides strategic leadership for the social, cultural, and personal development of Indigenous students, creating educational environments that honor Indigenous perspectives and knowledges. She co-chairs institutional committees including the Restorative Practice Steering Committee, the External Crisis Student Response Committee, and the LLC Subcommittee of the Residential Communities working group. Her work as program director, social worker, and museum educator is rooted in restorative practice, abolitionist social work, and compassion. Prior to joining the NAP, she held positions at the Saint Louis Art Museum, Chickasaw Cultural Center, We Stories, and Harvard Business School. An enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation from the Keel Family in Tishomingo, Adria earned her BA in Native American Studies and Art History from Dartmouth College and her MSW with a concentration in American Indian/Alaska Native Communities from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.