Geoffrey Blackwell (Chickasaw, Choctaw, Omaha, and Muscogee Creek)

Mr. Blackwell is the executive supervisor of AMERIND’s Legal, Finance, IT, HR, Corporate Communications, and Critical Infrastructure teams.  He is a recognized expert in tribal corporate development and economic diversification, and communications infrastructure deployment. Mr. Blackwell is very active in Federal-Tribal policy advocacy.  He has testified before Congress on seven occasions, and in 2020 before the US Commission on Civil Rights on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on regions of Indian Country that lack robust broadband.  Mr. Blackwell is the former founding Chief of the Office of Native Affairs and Policy at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC-ONAP), where he spent two separate terms of duty.  During his first term, he became the first enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe to ever work at the FCC.  He now serves in an inter-Tribal government leader capacity as the Co-Chair of the Economic, Finance, & Community Development Committee and the Co-Chair of the Telecom and Technology Subcommittee of the National Congress of American Indians.  Mr. Blackwell is also the Vice President of the Board of Tribal Advisors for the American Indian Policy Institute at Arizona State University, and the immediate past Chairman of the Board of Native Public Media.  He has served on the Boards of the National Small Business Association, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, and the Acoma Business Enterprises of Pueblo of Acoma.  He has also  represented U.S. Tribal Nations internationally at UN, IGF, ITU, ICANN, and Internet Society conventions.  Between his terms of federal service, he worked as a Corporate Director at Chickasaw Nation Industries, Inc.  Mr. Blackwell is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia School of Law.  Raised in Oklahoma and New Mexico, he comes from a family dedicated to tribal and federal service.  He is Chickasaw, Choctaw, Omaha, and Muscogee Creek.