DAVID BEAULIEU, Ph.D.
Dr. Beaulieu has been the the Electa Quinney Professor of American Indian Education in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Education and a Professor in the Department of Educational Policy and Community Studies. The position, the School of Education's first endowed professorship, is funded through a $1 million gift from the Milwaukee Indian Community School. I formerly served as Director of the Office of Indian Education, U.S. Department of Education from 1997 to 2001. The office is responsible to implement the Indian Education Act of 1972 as amended. With a budget of approximately 115.5 million dollars, the program serves 500,000 Indian learners in 1300 local education agencies including Schools operated by Tribal Governments and the Bureau of Indian Affairs within the United States. The program also provides grants to institutions of higher education to train American Indians to be teachers and administrators for schools with predominant American Indian/Alaska Native student populations. The program in cooperation with the Office of Educational Improvement and Research is also responsible to develop and implement a research agenda related to the education of American Indians and Alaska Natives. As Director, Dr. Beaulieu was responsible to manage the Office and its grant programs, coordinate policy development and identify research topics and priorities affecting American Indians and Alaska Natives within the Department of Education.
Governor Arne H. Carlson appointed Dr. Beaulieu the Commissioner of the Department of Human Rights for the State of Minnesota in July 1991. Following the Governor's election to a second term, Dr. Beaulieu was re-appointed as Commissioner, January 5, 1995. As Commissioner, Dr. Beaulieu was responsible to enforce the Minnesota Human Rights Act, to manage the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and to provide statewide leadership in human rights. The Department of Human Rights is a cabinet level state department that has approximately seventy, (70) employees.
Dr. Beaulieu is an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Reservation and the first American Indian to be appointed as a Commissioner in State Government. Dr. Beaulieu has a Ph.D. in Education Administration from the University of Minnesota and is a former Post Doctorate Fellow of the Darcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian, Newberry Library in Chicago. His research at the Center for the History of the American Indian focused on the History of American Indian Education and the social political history of the Ojibwe (Chippewa) people in Minnesota.
Dr. Beaulieu has held faculty positions at Moorhead State University, the University of Illinois, Chicago and the University of Minnesota, where he was an Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of American Indian Studies. Dr. Beaulieu was also Vice President of Sintè Gleska College, Rosebud, South Dakota, which is the first Tribally Chartered Indian controlled college to achieve accreditation at the Bachelor and Master Degree granting level. His work while Vice President focused on institutional and academic development with the goal of accomplishing Accreditation. Dr. Beaulieu is a member and former founding Chairman of the Board of Trustees of NAES College, an Indian controlled college based in Chicago, with campuses at the Fort Peck and Menomonee Reservations, and the Chicago and Twin Cities Indian Communities.
Dr. Beaulieu was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Education to the Indian Nations at Risk Task Force. The Task Force was created to advise and make recommendations to the Secretary of Education and the Nation on the condition of the education of American Indians in the United States. In 1993, Dr. Beaulieu was elected to a three-year term and appointed to a fourth year term as a member of the National Governing Board of Common Cause, a national lobbying organization that seeks to make government more responsive to the needs of all people. Dr. Beaulieu is a former member of the National Governing Board for the University of Minnesota Alumni Association. Dr. Beaulieu has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the St. Paul Foundation, The Minnesota Foundation and The St. Paul Public Education Fund. Additionally, Dr. Beaulieu is a member of the Board of Directors and President Elect National Indian Education Association, and Member of the Board and Secretary of the National Trust for Excellence in Native American Education established by the United States Congress.
