Funding the Future: Angelique Albert on Native Forward's Mission to Educate Native Scholars

"As Native people, we're closer to our own communities, so we know how to problem-solve in our communities. We're closest to the problem; we're closest to the answers."

Laurel Donnellan sits down with Angelique Albert, CEO of Native Forward (formerly known through its 56-year history of supporting Native scholars), for a candid, moving conversation about generational trauma, educational access, and what it takes to lead an organization at the center of both.

Angelique traces her path from growing up on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwest Montana to leading the largest funder of Native scholars in the country. She shares the story of her grandfather, taken from his family at age five and forced into a Catholic boarding school — a history that shaped both her family and her life's work.

From there, the conversation moves into the scale of what Native Forward does today: over 22,000 scholars funded across 56 years, 2,200+ Ph.D.s, and more than 2,000 tribal lawyers now practicing across the country. But the conversation doesn't shy away from the hard numbers either. Native college attendance has dropped 45% since 2013, and this year Native Forward received 12,000 applications but could only fund 2,000 — a gap Angelique attributes largely to recent federal funding cuts affecting Native students, even though tribal citizens aren't technically classified as DEI beneficiaries.

She also discusses a recent unrestricted gift from MacKenzie Scott and how Native Forward is using it to build a scholarship endowment to serve "the next seven generations." The episode closes with reflections on authenticity in leadership, the importance of loving your whole life story — including the hard parts — and a preview of a new career-development collaboration Laurel is exploring with Native Forward's scholar community.