Huddle Up for Kids Foundation Adds Jim Warne, Leading Native American Educator, Consultant and Social Justice Activist to its Board of Directors

As noted in earlier posts, at the Huddle Up for Kids Foundation, we have stayed busy despite the absence this summer of our truly world class, signature events due to COVID-19. However, under the leadership of Todd Kalis, our President & CEO, we have responded to the reduced activity by growing and retooling our Board of Directors, looking forward to expanded activities in 2021 and beyond. In addition to adding three amazing board members earlier this summer (Randall McDaniel, Merril Hoge, and most recently Steve Jordan), we have now added one of the most impactful Americans in terms of social justice, former college football standout and NFL player, Jimmy Warne.  

Born in Phoenix and a member of the Oglala Lakota (aka Sioux) Nation, Jim Warne graduated from and played football for Arizona State University, where he was All-PAC10 and the starting right tackle on the ASU Sun Devils 1987 Rose Bowl championship team. Jim was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals and played tackle for the Detroit Lions, and in 2004 was elected to the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame.  

Jim began his immediate post-football career as a graduate student as well as an actor and stuntman. Jim has a masters degree in vocational rehabilitation counseling from San Diego State University (SDSU), and for over 20 years created and administered continuing education programs at the SDSU Department of Administration, Rehabilitation, and Postsecondary Education (ARPE). Currently, Jim is the Community Engagement Director at the Center of Disabilities at the Sanford School of Medicine, University of South Dakota (USD). Recognizing that the rates of disabilities are disproportionately high for Native Americans, with treatment difficult to find, Jim formed the Oyate' Circle Native American sub-center at USD. The Oyate' Circle is a resource, education, outreach and training effort that serves Native Americans with disabilities in South Dakota. 

In addition, Jim is President of Warrior Society Development, LLC (WSD), providing a host of services to school and universities, non-profits, corporations, governments and Tribal Nations. Services include training, seminars and workshops related to Cultural Diversity, Managing an Effective Diverse Workforce, Leadership and Team Building Training and Development, Disabilities as an Asset in the Workforce, Vocational Rehab / Americans with Disabilities Act, Youth Athletic and Life Skills Camps, Ticket- to-Work Employment Networks, Acting and Public Speaking, and a variety of Tribal-related topics, including state/federal government partnerships, Tribal sovereignty policies and procedures, and Tribal Advocacy, Consultation, and External Evaluation. Further, under the WSD banner, Jim is a highly accomplished motivational speaker and executive life coach. 

When Jim was a young actor and stuntman, he was able to learn the behind-the-camera skills necessary to start WSD Productions in order to advance the visibility and interests of Native Americans. Jim wrote and produced "7th Generation," a multiple international award-winning documentary (available to watch on Amazon Prime and elsewhere), bringing to light parts of Native American history that are not taught in most schools as well as Jim's vision for Native Americans to preserve tribal cultural ways while still succeeding in 21st century mainstream America. Jim was co-producer of another multiple international award-winning film, Daniel Golding's "Decade of Dominance, the Warriors," telling the true story of how a Native American reservation high school with fewer than 120 students overcame incredible odds to win multiple state football championships in the 1970s! WSD is also in pre-production on two films, "Ignorance by Design," including a focus on how the US educational system keeps the general population uninformed about Native American history, and "Indian Camp," the story of a small settlement where Jim's mother grew up outside of Rapid City, SD, a city where Native Americans were clearly not welcome as indicated by the "No Indians Allowed" signs when Jim's mother was young. 

Jim resides in the San Diego area, where one of my dear friends, Pradeep Khosla, moved a number of years ago to become Chancellor of the University of California--San Diego (UCSD). I was going to ask Jim if he happened to know Pradeep, and offer to introduce them, and I then learned that Jim is on the Executive Committee of the Chancellor's Community Advisory Board at UCSD. So yes, Jim knows my good friend Pradeep!  

With the incredible array of things that Jim has going on, Jim manages to find time to be one of the leading Native American activists in the United States for social justice, resulting in his testifying at Congressional hearings, and his work from one end of the country to the other supporting Tribal Nations from the Seminoles in Florida to the Alaska Native community. We all owe Jim a debt of gratitude for his work to further the education, health and economic success of Native populations, and his concomitant goal of educating non-Natives about the unseen and forgotten treatment that Native Americans have experienced and continue to experience across the US. Welcome to the Huddle Up board, Jim!

#huddleupforkids, #ASUSunDevils, #UCSD, #PradeepKhosla, #OglalaLakota, #7thGeneration, #jimwarne, #toddkalis