David Beaulieu

Dr. David Beaulieu is an Emeritus Professor of education policy studies at Arizona State University where he served as the Director of the Center for Indian Education and a Professor of Education Policy Studies. He was also the Editor of the Journal of American Indian Education focused on research and policy issues related to the education of American Indians and Alaska Natives  It has been continuously published since 1961.Dr. David Beaulieu is currently serving as the Electa Quinney endowed professor and Director of the American Indian education Istitute at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.  Dr. Beaulieu was the 2005 President of the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) serving on the board of NIEA from 2003-2006 where he worked on developing the legislative strategy to respond to the No Child Left Behind Act and to initiate and develop a National Native Children’s Agenda. He formerly served as Director of the Office of Indian Education, U.S. Department of Education from 1997 to 2001. As Director, he was responsible to manage federal Indian education programs, coordinate policy development and identify research topics and priorities affecting American Indians and Alaska Natives within the Department of Education. In his role as director he worked to develop and implement President Clinton’s Executive Order on American and Alaska Native Education. He was appointed 1991 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. He was Director of Indian Education for the State of Minnesota in 1984 until July 1991. Governor Arne H. Carlson appointed him as Commissioner of the Department of Human Rights for the State of Minnesota in 1991 serving in both of the Governor’s two terms. He was Vice President of Sintè Gleska College, Rosebud, South Dakota, which was the first Tribally Chartered Indian controlled college to achieve accreditation at the Bachelor and Master Degree granting level. He 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 returned from Arizona State University to UWM and to the Electa Quinney Endowed Professorship of American Indian Education and as a Professor in the Department of Educational Policy and Community Studies. In the interim he has worked on the development of a Strategic Plan and Vision for American Indian Programs at the UWM which includes the establishment of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education which he will lead. He earned his 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.