Check out this interview with William Wilkinson from the Center for Native American Youth.
William H. Wilkinson is Diné, Cherokee, and a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. He has earned his A.A. in Communication Studies and his B.S. in Business Administration from Haskell Indian Nations University (Haskell) and is pursuing his M.S. in Public Policy & Management as a Tribal Affairs Fellow at the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University.
Will has served in student government leadership and received national recognition for his demonstrated leadership and campus service by NASPA's (Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education) Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Community with the Dr. Arthur Taylor Student Commitment to Service Award. In his final year at Haskell, Will was named Haskell's Student of the Year.
In the summer of 2019, Will was accepted into the summer class of congressional interns within the Native American Political Leadership Program at The George Washington University and interned for U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. In the summer of 2022, Will was admitted into the summer class of political interns within the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation and was placed in the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior. In both placements, Will worked on various policy issues, projects, and consultations and now serves as a Graduate Fellow for the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute.
