[mp_row]
[mp_span col=”12″]
[mp_text]
Each year since 2010, the American Express NGen Leadership Award has recognized one distinguished leader 40 or younger who has improved lives in diverse communities and inspired us with bold visions for a better tomorrow. Last week, we featured our 2010-2013 awardees, and this week, we share a look at the four leaders who have most recently received this prestigious award. Now through Friday, May 25, we are accepting nominations for a prolific changemaker to add to this list as the 2018 awardee.
[/mp_text]
[/mp_span]
[/mp_row]
[mp_row]
[mp_span col=”12″]
[mp_row_inner]
[mp_span_inner col=”12″]
[mp_code margin=”25,none,none,none”]
2014 | Sarah Kastelic
We’ve been fortunate to retain close ties to Sarah Kastelic since recognizing her with the NGen Leadership Award in 2014. In 2015, she officially took the helm of an IS member org, the now 31-year-old National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA). She began transitioning into the leadership role in 2011 by serving as chief of staff and deputy director under the auspices of the organization’s founder Terry Cross. Subsequently, in 2016, Kastelic joined our board, and is currently serving out a three-year term. Kastelic entered an organization borne out of a bold vision for a stark community need. Before the organization had a national focus, it was a small, Northwest U.S.-focused operation launched by the Northwest Indian Child Welfare Institute in 1983 to address the dearth of American Indian/Alaska Native workers in child welfare programs. It became its own organization in 1987 and has been known as NICWA since 1994. Kastelic is Alutiiq, and an enrolled member of the Native Village of Ouzinkie in Southern Alaska. Before taking the reins at NICWA, Kastelic completed a masters and doctorate in social work, and founded the Policy Research Center while leading the welfare reform program at the National Congress of American Indians.
[/mp_code]
[/mp_span_inner]
[/mp_row_inner]
[mp_row_inner]
[mp_span_inner col=”8″]
[mp_video src=”https://player.vimeo.com/video/112761031″]
[/mp_span_inner]
[mp_span_inner col=”4″]
[mp_text]
More on Sarah:
- Who Am I to Question My Ancestors?
September 2015 | IS Blog - Sarah Kastelic Named New Executive Director Of National Indian Child Welfare Association
January 2015 | Native News Online
[/mp_text]
[/mp_span_inner]
[/mp_row_inner]
[/mp_span]
[/mp_row]
[mp_row]
[mp_span col=”12″ classes=” motopress-space”]
[mp_space margin=”25,25,none,none”]
[/mp_span]
[/mp_row]
[mp_row]
[mp_span col=”12″]
[mp_row_inner]
[mp_span_inner col=”12″]
[mp_text margin=”25,none,none,none”]
2015 | Julieta Garibay
Last month, our 2015 NGen Award recipient, Julieta Garibay, took the oath to become a U.S. citizen. Following the milestone, Garibay wrote candidly about living most of the 26 years she had been in the United States as an undocumented immigrant in the American-Statesmen—a newspaper in her hometown of Austin, Texas. In the piece, it’s evident that dream has always been a ripe word for Garibay. While studying for her dream career as a nurse, Garibay’s years of living in fear of being found out as undocumented came to a point in 2005. That’s when she and her sister began organizing the first immigrant youth-led organization in Texas to demand the DREAM Act. Garibay went on to found United We Dream, the first and largest national immigrant youth-led network. We had the honor of recognizing Garibay’s amazing courage to act and organize in 2015, then to hear her moving address in receiving the award in a city also known for its large and vibrant immigrant contingent—Miami.
[/mp_text]
[/mp_span_inner]
[/mp_row_inner]
[mp_row_inner]
[mp_span_inner col=”8″]
[mp_video src=”https://player.vimeo.com/video/144682995″]
[/mp_span_inner]
[mp_span_inner col=”4″]
[mp_text]
More on Julieta:
- Commentary: From Dreamer to U.S. citizen, my 26-year journey
May 2018 | Austin American-Statesman - Texas Is Seen As Crucial For The Dream Act To Pass In Congress In December
December 2017 | Houston Public Media
[/mp_text]
[/mp_span_inner]
[/mp_row_inner]
[/mp_span]
[/mp_row]
[mp_row]
[mp_span col=”12″ classes=” motopress-space”]
[mp_space margin=”25,25,none,none”]
[/mp_span]
[/mp_row]
[mp_row]
[mp_span col=”12″]
[mp_text margin=”25,none,none,none”]
2016 | Diana Nambatya Nsubuga
There’s much to admire about our 2016 NGen Award recipient Diana Nambatya Nsubuga. But something perennially characteristic of the way Global Health Corps’s Uganda country manager goes about making a difference is her practicality. In 2016, we touted Nambatya Nsubuga’s impressive track record for reducing maternal deaths and improving perinatal health through her successful leadership in recruiting, training, and supporting leaders to implement family planning programs and reproductive health services. But mothers and babies also have to eat, and Nambatya Nsubuga also happens to know a thing or two about farming. In March of this year, Diana gave BBC Newsday’s Alan Kasujja a tour of a half-acre garden behind a family house. So efficient is Nambatya Nsubuga cultivation and use of space, that the half acre turns an annual profit equal to $30,000. For comparison, the average annual salary in Uganda is equivalent to less than $18,000. Nambatya Nsubuga’s one-two punch of addressing sustainable food security and family planning continues to improve overall health outcomes in her community.
[/mp_text]
[/mp_span]
[/mp_row]
[mp_row]
[mp_span col=”8″]
[mp_video src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/XZZFqjfFfYk”]
[/mp_span]
[mp_span col=”4″]
[mp_text]
More on Diana:
- ‘Our biggest challenge was the cow dung’
March 2018 | BBC World Service Newsday - Leadership Crossing Geographic, Cultural, and Sector Boundaries
September 2016 | IS Blog
[/mp_text]
[/mp_span]
[/mp_row]
[mp_row]
[mp_span col=”12″ classes=” motopress-space”]
[mp_space margin=”25,25,none,none”]
[/mp_span]
[/mp_row]
[mp_row]
[mp_span col=”12″]
[mp_row_inner]
[mp_span_inner col=”12″]
[mp_text margin=”25,none,none,none”]
2017 | Sarah Eagle Heart
We’ve had the privilege of engaging with Sarah Eagle Heart as both an NGen Award recipient, and a leader of a valued member organization, Native Americans in Philanthropy. Sarah has led the important affinity group since fall of 2015. In that time, she has elevated its position in the sector, and enabled it to expand from its Minneapolis base to a second office in Los Angeles. Notable among Native Americans in Philanthropy’s programs during Eagle Heart’s tenure is Generation Indigenous, which is designed to cultivate the next generation of Native leaders. The range of Eagle Heart’s accomplishments are remarkable, and span roles in corporate, faith, and nonprofit sectors. She has been a strong voice and advocate on behalf of vulnerable communities. One of our favorite stories about Sarah involves one of her early activist gestures as a teen growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation. That story and a look at some of the wisdom Eagle Heart lives by were captured in a fun, but powerful conversation she had with Amy S. Choi and Rebecca Lehrer for the Mash-Up Americans podcast in April 2017.
[/mp_text]
[/mp_span_inner]
[/mp_row_inner]
[mp_row_inner]
[mp_span_inner col=”8″]
[mp_image id=”11143″ size=”full” link_type=”custom_url” link=”#” target=”false” caption=”false” align=”left”]
[/mp_span_inner]
[mp_span_inner col=”4″]
[mp_text]
More on Sarah:
- Sarah Eagle Heart Awarded NGen Leadership Award
August 2017 | Indian Country Today - Sarah Eagle Heart to Receive 2017 American Express NGen Leadership Award
July 2017 | IS Blog - Are We All Immigrants? Nope.
April 2017 | Mash-Up Americans Podcast
[/mp_text]
[/mp_span_inner]
[/mp_row_inner]
[/mp_span]
[/mp_row]
