Anpao Duta Flying Earth
Executive Director, NACA Inspired Schools Network
Overview:
The first Network school, NACA, opened in Albuquerque in 2006 following a comprehensive community design process. NACA’s success led to a groundswell of demand in tribal and other communities to adapt the model. The NACA Inspired Schools Network (NISN) is supporting the reimagining of a decolonized, community-driven education system that is responsive to the strengths, needs, and perspectives of Indigenous communities. NISN’s mission is to transform Indigenous Education by engaging communities, building networked schools of academic excellence and cultural relevance, and serving students from early learning to adulthood so that they are academically prepared for college, secure in their identity, healthy, and holistically prepared as lifelong learners and leaders.
Bio:
Anpao Duta Flying Earth (Lakota, Dakota, Ojibwe, Akimel O’odham) is the former Executive Director of the Native American Community Academy (NACA), a charter school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the current Executive Director of the NACA Inspired Schools Network (NISN), a network that assists communities in implementing structures of Indigenous education. Duta assisted in the creation of the charter school in 2006 and the network in 2014.
In his capacity as Executive Director at NACA & NISN, Duta has been instrumental in representing NACA as a premiere example of Indigenous education nationwide that combines academic preparation for higher learning, grounding in culture & identity, and holistic wellness together for community transformation through young people. He has been named as a Pahara Next Gen fellow, a Pahara-Aspen fellow, an Albuquerque 40-under-40 recipient, and a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network fellow. Duta grew up on Standing Rock Reservation in South and North Dakota. Duta is the youngest of three siblings and a third-generation college graduate. He graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in Government and earned a Master’s in Business Administration as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the University of New Mexico.